STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PM: Good morning Karl.
STFANOVIC: We have a Ute-gate scandal, right?
PM: I think by the end of the week Karl, this will be called "Mr Turnbull's fake email scandal". Let me just go to it. Just to the core of it. The charge against myself and the Treasurer is this, that I as Prime Minister communicated through my staff to an officer in the Treasury that representation should be made on behalf of this car dealer in Queensland and that because of that, the Treasurer was caused to make special representations on that individual's behalf.
Mr Turnbull goes out there and says, "Here is the evidence. Here is the smoking gun." This email, which he alleges exists between my office and this public servant. And in fact, the Daily Telegraph last Saturday purported to run this email in its news pages. And I will just read to you the text of it, this is what they say. Here is the proposed, the purported text of this email:
"Hi, Godwin” - that is the public servant in the Treasury - “the PM has asked if the car dealer financing vehicle is available to assist a Queensland dealership, John Grant Motors who seems to be having trouble getting finance. If you can follow this, follow up on this asap that would be very useful. Happy to discuss. Andrew Charlton,” - a person in my office.
Here is the point Karl. This entire email is false, it is fake, it is a forgery. This has been run by Mr Turnbull on the basis of calling for my resignation and for the Treasurer's resignation and it has been run extensively by News Limited newspapers right across the country as the basis of the allegation against myself as well. The problem is it is false, it is fake, it is a forgery and it will be shown to be in the same light of Liberal Party deception as we have seen with children overboard.
Therefore, today Parliament resumes in Canberra, Mr Turnbull who has made these charges and called for my resignation must stand up in Parliament and produce this document, which he alleges exists. I know it doesn't exist because we have made a total search through the public service of all documents in this period of time. It simply does not exist. It is a fake, it is false, it is a forgery.
STEFANOVIC: Alright. He says that he's not going to produce that email and probably doesn't know whether it exists definitively or not but it is now part of a police inquiry. Can I ask you this, have you made-
PM: Karl that is the entire, that is the entire rock upon which his allegation is made. These are the questions that he's asked me in Parliament about my representations as Prime Minister through my Office, to the Department of the Treasury to get this work done for this individual Queensland car dealer.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah.
PM: That's the foundation upon which he makes his entire allegation. That rock has just crumbled into sand because the document is a fake, it is a forgery, it is false. Now there is no graver question for someone like the Leader of the Opposition to face than to put forward what role has he and his office had in communicating the contents of this fake and false document across the Government and across the media.
STEFANOVIC: So when Godwin Grech says that he recalled that John Grant Motors was originally referred to him by your office, was he mistaken? Was he confused?
PM: Well can I say Karl in the same testimony by that public servant, he says that his own recollection could be false and faulty. That's what he says.
STEFANOVIC: Are you saying instead that it was wrong? That he is mistaken?
PM: I can say that any person can make an honest mistake. What I know for a fact is that, that allegation having been made by the public servant, built on by Mr Turnbull and Mr Hockey, going out there calling for my resignation, what did we as the Government do? We asked the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, an independent agency of the public service and the Treasury to conduct an independent IT audit of all emails in the system, both from my office and as received by this person in the Treasury. And guess what the result of that was? In writing the advice of these two independent public service agencies which looks at whether emails have been deleted as well, it concluded absolutely that no such email existed.
STEFANOVIC: Okay so Godwin Grech was-
PM: Let me say it again. No such email existed. Therefore Mr Turnbull cannot have it both ways. He can't go out there and be saying and boasting to editors of News Limited newspapers for weeks now, he's got this smoking gun against the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and then turn around and say as he did on Saturday when the heat was turned up, "Oh, what email?" You cannot simply throw mud in this business and seek to completely besmirch a politician or a Prime Minister's or Treasurer's reputation and then say, "Oh by the way, this email doesn't exist." That is why he has one option; stand in the Parliament, produce this email or apologise and resign. There is no other way here.
STEFANOVIC: Let's get on to, you mention the Treasurer - let's get on to him. He has said that Mr Grant contacted his office and he referred the matter to his department and from there he said - quote, "I have no idea what the outcome was." You would be very much aware though that he was given very extensive briefings about all of this. He was given updates about the case and they were sent to his home fax. Is that usual?
PM: Well Karl, can I just say that Ministers of the Government all go to various parts of Australia for the weekend and they often are receiving large quantities of information to their home communication system.
STEFANOVIC: This is pretty specific, though.
PM: But Karl, this is the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia. He receives hundreds of pages of information, documents from his department and his office each day. I do as well. That's part of the reason we're in these jobs. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me at all that he would have in the midst of all of that, documents concerning this as well.
But the other point is this; Mr Turnbull again seems to seek to emphasise that this was a uniquely significant set of representations as far as this individual in Queensland was concerned. Mr Swan was making representations on behalf of at least a half a dozen members of parliament, half of them Government members. There are lots and lots and lots of pages of communications with and between the Treasury concerning other car dealers as well.
But let us go back to the core point. Why has this attack been made on Mr Swan? Because Mr Turnbull has alleged that I as Prime Minister had a particular relationship with this car dealer in Queensland and I caused the Treasurer to act in this way to make special representations. And what I am saying to you is the premise on which this is based, that I made those representations, is false, it is untrue and it is based on a forgery.
And News Limited newspapers, the Daily Telegraph last Saturday ran a mocked-up version of this email I referred to before, allegedly between me, my office and this public servant. The problem for the Daily Telegraph as well and the News Limited papers who have based so much of their reportage on this is the document in question is a false, fake and a forgery. We've seen this before with the Liberals, it is called children overboard.
STEFANOVIC: No matter what happens here in terms of the investigation, in terms of what the AFP uncovers, you have, will give Wayne Swan the Treasurer your full and unqualified support?
PM: Absolutely. He has done a first-class job as Treasurer of Australia in the worst global economic recession in three quarters of a century and secondly Australia is one of the few countries, advanced economies in the world to have so far have avoided a recession. That is because himself, myself and other economic ministers have been getting on with the main job of the day. Australians out there, your viewers today are concerned about jobs, their priorities, the future of the economy, their small businesses. That's what we spend the vast bulk of our time on.
What Mr Turnbull has done is instead engage in the very easy busy of throwing political mud in the hope that some of it would stick but at the end of the day you've got to be accountable for your actions and if he can't produce this smoking gun, this silver bullet, this supposed email which establishes the link between me asking the Treasury to act in a particular way, he has no alternative course of action but to stand in the Parliament, to apologise and to resign. His credibility has gone.
STEFANOIVIC: One final, one final question for you, Prime Minister. We are running a photo and it has been run in several outlets of you and Mr Grant. Have you ever made any representation on behalf of Mr Grant, either verbally or in writing?
PM: I have not made representations in relation to Mr Grant's request for access to this car dealership in writing, verbally. Let me just go back to one or two facts. One, Mr Grant has said he never made any such request of me. Two, I know for a fact that he didn't. Three, my staff have sworn on a stack of Bibles he made no representations to them. And four, if you don't believe them and you go to the core allegation of the alleged email between my staff and the Treasury, the email has to exist and two independent departments of state, the Prime Minister's Department and the Treasury Department have searched through their independent IT audit to establish whether this email exists and it does not exist. That is why this entire allegation, this entire mud throwing exercise, this exercise in political smear undertaken by Mr Turnbull against my reputation and that of the Treasurer, is based on a document which is false, fake and a forgery. And he must present it today in Parliament or resign.
STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister it will be an interesting day in Parliament. We appreciate your time today, thank you.