HOST: The Prime Minister joins us now and Mr Rudd you say that email has Malcolm Turnbull's fingerprints all over it. He says no-one in the Opposition has had anything to do with it. Are you calling Malcolm Turnbull a liar?
PM: Let me just say this, it's not every day that the Leader of the Opposition stands up and says about the Prime Minister of the day, myself, that the Prime Minister is corrupt. Let's just nail it for what it is. That's what he's said over the course of this weekend, and said that his evidence for this was an alleged email between my office and the Treasury, only to have it confirmed that the entire basis for his allegation - this email - is a fraud, it is a fake, it is a fabrication.
And therefore, my own judgment is that Mr Turnbull's got no option, having made this extraordinary claim: do the honourable thing - apologise, and resign.
HOST: So my question was, are you saying Mr Turnbull is a liar?
PM: What I'd say about Mr Turnbull is, this sort of negativity in Australian politics when all your viewers want us to be getting on with the business of fighting the recession, building jobs, helping families. That's what they want, rather than engaging in the politics of negative smear. That's what Malcolm Turnbull has done but what we have discovered today is on the basis of a forged document. That goes to a judgment of his character.
HOST: Briefly, to your Treasurer Wayne Swan and the claim that he misled Parliament, are you certain that nothing further will emerge that will embarrass him or the Government?
PM: I have absolute confidence in the Treasurer because he has been doing a fantastic job on the economy for the reasons that I've outlined before. We are one of the few advanced economies in the world not to have gone into a recession.
And secondly, on this financial arrangement with car dealerships across the country, it is because of the recession there we have brought this in, to help dealerships, and he's been helping many many many - the Motor Trades Association came out in the last 24 hours and said that all of these car dealers were dealt with in the same way.
Can I just say, this has to be seen for what it is: I would call upon the senior people of the Liberal Party, the experienced hands of the Liberal Party, Mr Costello, Brendan Nelson, Senator Minchin, to tap Mr Turnbull on the shoulder and say it is time to go. He does not have the character to occupy the highest office in the land.