Mrs DRAPER —My question is addressed to the Treasurer. What is the Treasurer's response to allegations that he may have breached the Prime Minister's ministerial guidelines?

Mr COSTELLO —I will get the question asked if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition does not have the courage to come up here and ask it! On Saturday, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Diane Stott, with a picture of my wife underneath, which said:

. . . the Treasurer's entry in the parliamentary register, tabled on Wednesday, reveals that she holds shares in the Commonwealth Bank.

Mr Speaker, you would be aware that the parliamentary register, far from being tabled in this parliament on Wednesday of last week, was tabled on 25 June, some 3½ to four months ago. The Herald Sun —I didn't check the Sydney Morning Herald —published the next day, on 26 June, from that declaration and in the course of that it disclosed, as I had disclosed, that my wife owned shares in Woolworths and the Commonwealth Bank. It also disclosed that I owned a property in Blairgowrie and that I had been a guest of Hudson Conway at an Olympic dinner. I would like to table that article, Mr Speaker.

This was not the first disclosure of that shareholding. It was disclosed back in March 1994 after my wife purchased shares in the Commonwealth Bank and in Woolworths. She purchased $2,000 worth of shares in the Commonwealth Bank—I think it is 200 shares—and she purchased $2,000 worth of shares in Woolworths—I think at the time it was about 800 shares.

I want to make it entirely clear: throughout the course of our marriage and after looking after three children, my wife has held down part-time employment. Those share purchases were made out of the money that she has earned. They were her own purchases and she told me after the event.

The ministerial guidelines have certain requirements as to shareholding by ministers. They do not say that wives should be divested of property; indeed, how could I divest my wife of her property? My wife is entitled to hold down a job, which she has at great personal cost. She is entitled to earn income and she is entitled, under those guidelines, to buy shares. That is exactly what she has done and I will defend her right and the right of any married woman to do that, absolutely.

On Saturday, the member for Holt came out and, in order to appeal to the sisterhood and the feminist wing of the Labor Party, said that spouses are entitled to careers, to interests, to lives of their own, without being prisoners of their husbands' political ambition, and vice versa. That is what you said and everything you have done since has been to try to negate that principle. You have been sliding around without having the courage to come out and say it, trying to put the smears up. We had Bob McMullan saying in the Sydney Morning Herald today that it is improper for husbands to divest to their wives, and the guidelines say they should not do it. There was no question of divestment here. I never had property in those shares. I never divested them. I could not divest my wife of property she had legitimately owned. You have slid around and tried to put the smear and the slur out there without coming out and making your accusations clear.

Let me also make it entirely clear: no decision I have taken could have influenced my wife's shareholding—nor would I take any. The proposition that I would sit down and say, `Oh, 200 hundred shares for my wife, what can I do in relation to them?' is feeble. In fact, as the Prime Minister has said, I was the one who went into the cabinet and said to the cabinet that family members should stay out of a float. My wife stayed out of it and, as far as I know, all of the cabinet members did.

I will tell you who did have CBA shares, which he did not reveal at the weekend. Your children held CBA shares. Whilst you were out against my wife on the weekend, your children had CBA shares. You sat in a cabinet which decided to float those shares and it was under the Labor Party float that my wife bought them. Why didn't you come out to the press on the weekend and say, `I'd like to disclose my children have shares in the CBA and attack Mr Costello's wife for the same thing'? You sat in the cabinet whilst those shares were floated and your children partook. My wife partook too, under a Labor Party privatisation. I declared it in 1994 and it has sat on the public record ever since. It was disclosed again to this parliament. It was 200 shares. If you think my wife does not have the right to buy and make investments out of her own earnings, you are entirely wrong.

Government members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —Order! Members on my right!

Opposition member —He's a big sook.

Mr SPEAKER —There will be a few other people crying around here in a minute!