Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the statement of Slater and Gordon yesterday and to her recent statements about her departure from the firm. Isn't it the case that, after she and Mr Wilson learned the AWU was intending to lay charges against him, he told the Prime Minister and Bernard Murphy his misuse of union funds could be exposed, placing the firm in a client conflict of interest, forcing her and Murphy to leave the firm and the loss of the AWU as a client? Why hasn't she explained the actual circumstances in which she left the firm in her recent statements? (Time expired)

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are not only at the bottom of the barrel now; we are through the bottom of the barrel and we are tunnelling underneath. I refer the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to my statements about this matter on the public record. I refer the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting—

If she wants to stop yelling and carrying on—we know she is embarrassed; no amount of screaming is going to fix that. I refer the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to the statement of Slater and Gordon about the circumstances of my employment with the firm. These things have been on the public record for some time now. This is truly pathetic and embarrassing to watch—a humiliation for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. There was a series of acts of dishonesty outside the parliament yesterday, seeking to mislead the press gallery. And every smear, every untrue word is endorsed by the Leader of the Opposition, because that is who he is—a man without a plan for the nation's future; a man with only negativity and smear. And what he really fears is: he is a man whose political strategy has come to an end.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table a document from Slater and Gordon setting out the reasons for the conflict of interest between the AWU and Mr Wilson.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House?

Opposition members: 'No'!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What they said.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I am not going to allow the interjection, I would actually like the Leader of the House to state—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My statement would have put the interjection on the record: no.