Keneally refuses to admit she was wrong about Dastyari quote

Kristina Keneally has refused to admit that she was wrong over a claim a quote linking her to Eddie Obeid was “pulped”.

Labor candidate for Bennelong Kristina Keneally. Picture: AAP.

Labor’s Bennelong candidate Kristina Keneally has refused to admit that she falsely claimed that a Sam Dastyari quote was “pulped” in the second edition of a book about jailed Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

In a fiery Sky News interview yesterday, Ms Keneally claimed the quote was “not in the second edition” of Kate McClymont and Linton Besser’s book He Who Must Be Obeid.

In the quote, Senator Dastyari says: “Kristina Keneally was so close to Eddie Obeid. Unequivocally, she wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for Eddie.”

Senator Dastyari later apologised for the comments on the floor of parliament, but at no stage denied he had made them.

As Ms McClymont pointed out in a tweet this morning, the exact quote features in the second edition of the book, which was printed after the first edition was pulped for legal reasons.

“Here is the relevant page of He Who Must Be Obeid if @KKeneally would like to check for herself,” Ms McClymont tweeted.

“What she said to @samanthamaiden about getting us to remove @samdastyari’s remarks about her relationship with Obeid is not accurate. Those remarks are there in black and white.”

This morning Ms Keneally said the quote was in an “entirely different context” in the second edition.

“The words of Sam Dastyari were reflected in that,” she said.

“I have said what I said. The Daily Telegraph and The Australian both reported on this in debate today. I have nothing more to add,” Ms Keneally said.

Challenged over whether she had legally threatened Senator Dastyari, Ms Keneally refused to be drawn.

“I’ve made clear what I’ve said,” she said.

“It is all in the transcript that The Australian helpfully printed today. You can read it. I have nothing more to add.”

Ms Keneally had a similar response when asked whether she could rule out taking Senator Dastyari’s Senate seat if she loses tomorrow.

“I have nothing more to add than what I said yesterday,” she said.

Sam Dastyari. Picture: AAP.

Ms Keneally defended herself against Health Minister Greg Hunt’s allegation that she had attacked “a cancer sufferer” in suggesting that the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption had “praised” her evidence to them, “in stark contrast to someone like Arthur Sinodinos.”

Senator Sinodinos is currently on leave from his job as Industry Minister while he battles cancer.

ICAC last year found it “difficult to accept” that Senator Sinodinos had no knowledge that a trust fund used to get around state laws banning political donations from developers had become a major donor to the NSW Liberal Party, but ultimately made no findings against him.

“I didn’t see the interview on Sky News with Minister Hunt but I read about it in The Australian and what I noticed in The Australian is that the minister didn’t defend Mr Sinodinos’s comments at ICAC,” Ms Keneally said.

“I have nothing more to say to what I said yesterday.”

Labor candidate for Bennelong Kristina Keneally and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek. Picture: AAP.

Keneally digs in on ‘China-phobia’

Asked to provide examples of the “China-phobia” she and Labor leader Bill Shorten have accused the government of in the context of debate about Senator Dastayri’s interactions with Chinese donors, Ms Keneally used the example of a forum on Chinese social media platform Wechat.

“What the local community is telling me, even on Wechat, when we had a live forum, is over citizenship changes,” she said.

“Consider this one example: Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull want to impose a university level English language test, but not if you come from America or Canada or Ireland or New Zealand. You don’t have to take the test. For you, conversational level English is fine.

“But if you come from China or Malaysia, or Singapore, or Korea, you do have to take that test. The local Chinese community already is frustrated and angry about that.

“Then they hear suggestions from the Prime Minister that somehow we should be suspicious of people who are from China, who are in this country, studying, working, perhaps even Chinese Australian who are running for office.

“So what I say is the local community here, community leaders are frustrated and angry by what they see as divisive language.”

Ms Keneally was asked whether her opponent John Alexander had broken any rules in failing to declare rental income for a $4.8 million property in the NSW Southern Highlands.

While Mr Alexander declared his the May acquisition of the property, he did not declare the rental income on the parliamentary register of member’s interests.

The property has been advertised for rent online at $1440 a day.

Ms Keneally said she would leave it to Mr Alexander to answer questions on the property.

“We know that Mr Alexander isn’t very good his with paperwork but it’s up to him to

explain that,” she said.

‘I complied entirely’

Liberal candidate for Bennelong John Alexander. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Mr Alexander said he had “complied entirely” in declaring the property.

“I complied entirely with the demands,” he told Sky News.

“We talked to the Clerk of the House in filling out the form to confirm that we did it 100 per cent correctly.

“As with shares, you have to declare that you have BHP shares. You don’t have to say how many you bought or whether you’ve been receiving a dividend. It’s exactly the same with a property.

“I have an interest in a property. You don’t have to declare the income.”

Mr Alexander said he was “not aware” that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had erred earlier this week in claiming that Ms Keneally had appointed Mr Obeid to her ministry.

“I assumed that was correct,” Mr Alexander said.

“I wasn’t aware of that.

“There is a difficulty that my opponent has in her association with two people who are now in jail who she was closely aligned with.

“For my part, I have been more concerned with the untruths that have been said regarding our investment in education, where we are clearly increasing our funding of education in Bennelong over the next year ten per cent, over the next ten years 51 per cent.

“The allegations that we have cut funding of TAFE, we do not fund TAFE, and there’s been any number of negative allegations from my opponent that simply are not true, and that’s why I say this is a contest of integrity.”

Mr Alexander said he was fighting for every vote in Bennelong.

“I guess we’re in uncharted territory. We’ve got a celebrity candidate who’s been parachuted in very strategically, and we’ve done our best to fight a fair and honest campaign,” he said.

‘Just a career move’ for Keneally

Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne. Picture: AAP.

Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne said that if voters in Bennelong like the Labor candidate Kristina Keneally, they don’t have to vote for her tomorrow, because she will fill Sam Dastyari’s vacancy in the Senate.

Ms Keneally repeatedly refused to rule out taking Senator Dastyari’s seat yesterday, should she lose tomorrow.

Mr Pyne said the poll would be “very tight”, backing the Liberal candidate John Alexander.

“It’s very much a contest between a good local member who’s creating local jobs, and a candidate who’s basically just making her next career move, and of course you can have Kristina Keneally, because she can go into the Senate, so if you like Kristina Keneally, you don’t have to vote for her tomorrow because she’s going into Sam Dastyari’s vacancy,” he told the Nine Network.

“She won’t even rule it out.”

Mr Pyne’s Labor counterpart Anthony Albanese joked that Mr Pyne’s view represented “confidence from a government that has run out of ideas”.

“Put it out of its misery,” he told the Nine Network.

“It’s an opposition in exile, sitting on the government benches. Make them comfortable and put them over there.”

Mr Pyne was keen to promote yesterday’s jobs figures, which were the best since before the global financial crisis, but got the number wrong.

“We created 371,000 jobs over the last 12 months, 80 per cent of them full time,” he said.

The real figure was in fact 383,000.

“John Alexander’s creating local jobs in Bennelong. All Kristina Keneally will do is her next career move,” Mr Pyne said

Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said the poll would be “very close”.

“I very, very much hope that the excellent candidate that Labor has, Kristina Keneally, is going to be joining me in the federal parliamentary Labor Party because I know that she will make a tremendous contribution to national politics,” Mr Dreyfus said.