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

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister establish a judicial inquiry into the OzCar matter, as I proposed in my second speech in the previous debate?

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

What we see here is a Leader of the Opposition who is simply swinging in the breeze, a Leader of the Opposition who came into this place and said publicly that I should resign and that the Treasurer should resign. He based his entire attack on the existence of an email which is a fake and a forgery. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that there is only one honourable course of action for him today. It is to stand up and tender his resignation as Leader of the Opposition.

There is a second course of action if that moment of decency escapes him, and that is to stand at the dispatch box and provide a formal assurance to the House that each and every one of his staff and the computer facilities and resources available to him and all members of the opposition will be made fully available to the police investigation and that he provide a parallel undertaking that no emails be deleted from the systems of the computers used by the opposition.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

What we have learned, regrettably, from those who laugh so loudly at this point is that the Liberal Party, on the matter of deceptive information, has form historically. This is the Liberal Party that gave us ‘children overboard’. It is the Liberal Party that was so active in the field in the Lindsay electorate on the eve of the last election, and most recently in South Australia.