Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. I refer to yesterday’s extraordinary refusal by the Prime Minister to stand up confidently in this House and confirm whether or not he or any of his staff were responsible for the false and damaging leak about his 10 October conversation with the US President. I ask further: did the Prime Minister or anyone from his office brief the Australian that the Prime Minister had told the President:

… that he had heard “through back channels” that the Chinese believed the economic collapse underscored the inherent failures of capitalism and the benefits of a planned economy.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The exponents of extreme capitalism opposite should reflect carefully on their remarks and intervention in this debate. I would have thought the member for Goldman Sachs would have thought twice before asking a question of that type. The question relates to the reported comment that appeared in a newspaper on 25 October. The explicit purpose of my call to the President of the United States was to discuss the role of the G20 in responding to the global financial crisis. Any suggestion that the President was not fully aware of the role of the G20 is not accurate. The White House, the United States ambassador and I have confirmed and made it clear that the reported comment was never made by the President of the United States and was therefore inaccurate. That has been my position since the beginning of this matter; that position has not changed. I would note also that the US ambassador in his remarks has made it clear that the matter is now concluded, and that is our view as well.