PRIME MINISTER:
I just want to say that the Cole report will be tabled this afternoon and everybody can make their own judgement, but let me make it very clear again, that this Government has been totally open and fully accountable. Mr Downer and Mr Vaile and I all appeared before the inquiry. We gave evidence on oath. We hid nothing. The claim by Labor that the terms of reference have been rorted is totally false. It's totally false because Mr Cole made it clear last February that if he discovered any wrongdoing by ministers he would ask for an extension of the terms of reference. He would ask for an extension of the terms of reference, he didn't. Now that demonstrates that this claim made for more than a year now by Mr Beazley and Mr Rudd, that we in some way have rorted the terms of reference and have covered up our own misconduct is a reckless and false and baseless allegation.
JOURNALIST:
What about Mr Rudd's statement that the letter earlier in the year from Commissioner Cole said he couldn't ask for a broadening of the terms of reference to that extent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I just direct you to his statement of the 3rd of February. Mr Rudd is being disingenuous, Mr Rudd is misleading the Australian public. I just...even in advance of what the report says, and I'll talk about that after it's been tabled, I ask you to have a look at the Commissioner's statement of the 3rd of February in which he said he would examine the conduct of the Commonwealth and its officers and that includes Ministers. And he said that if he came across any evidence of a breach of a law of the Commonwealth, a State or Territory by a minister, then he would seek an extension of the terms of reference. Now nothing could be plainer, that is the Queen's simple English. Now I know Mr Rudd is running a political campaign to lift his own profile but he's got to stick to the facts. We have been open, transparent and we've appeared before the inquiry, we gave evidence under oath, you can't be more transparent than that.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister do you hold any fears that there'll be a fallout for Australia's trading reputation from the report, overseas?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think I should comment on what is in the report until it has been tabled. The reason I'm talking about these allegations of Mr Rudd is that they've been made in advance of the tabling of the report and they are refuted by statements already made by the Commissioner. One more question then I'd better go.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard do you concede that Steve Bracks did campaign on industrial relations?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I say about Victoria is that it was decided overwhelmingly on state issues. Now of course they will claim after the event that it was otherwise, but if you actually go back and look at the campaign it was overwhelmingly on state issues and it was determined on state issues. And there's no doubt about that. State elections for a long time now have been determined on state issues. The public in Australia is quite smart, it can discriminate between a state and federal election. Look at the results in New South Wales and Queensland, in particular, over the past five years where the gap between the federal vote and the state vote for both parties has been enormous. What that tells us is that people know when it's a state election, they know when it's a federal election and I think it's rather insulting to the intelligence of the Victorian public, when they plainly voted on state issues, after the event to say 'oh no we know better than you do'. They know what they voted for and they voted to retain a government that they felt comfortable with and they just felt, at least last Saturday, that the Opposition wasn't ready.
Thank you.
[ends]