Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, there’s definitely something fishy here. What have we seen over the last few days? We have seen this Prime Minister trying to worm his way out of this. He is in a difficult situation and he is trying to worm his way out of it. We have seen a range of defences put by the Prime Minister. First, he says, ‘I was acting in accordance with the advice of my department’—this mysterious advice that Senator Minchin says he would not mislead us about, but he refuses to table it, refuses to tell us who sought it, refuses to tell us what it says and refuses to tell us when it was provided. So we have no idea whether this is some old advice or some recent advice, but the government will hide behind it anyway. Second, I think Senator Minchin told us, I think, the day before yesterday in question time that this AEC disclosure issue was a bit silly. Well, the AEC is now investigating. And the third thing we have been told is that it is not a fundraiser. What did the Prime Minister say in the press conference? He was asked:

The nub of this is it is fundraising, isn’t it?

You will have to excuse the grammar, Mr Deputy President. The Prime Minister said:

Yes, but, well, it is that and, well, sometimes a gathering of the type that I have alluded to, you know, might in a remote way be associated with fundraising.

So every defence you put up is just drifting away. You say in here it is not a fundraiser. Even the Prime Minister on the public record in his press conference admits that it is a fundraiser. You have no excuse. (Time expired)