Mr TUCKEY (3:17 PM) —Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Mr SPEAKER —Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Mr TUCKEY —Yes.

Mr SPEAKER —Please proceed.

Mr TUCKEY —Last night the ABC TV news published a surgically selective quote from myself which, when taken in isolation, completely misrepresented my position on the proposed Melbourne to Darwin railway project. My opening remark to the doorstop interview selectively broadcast did question the general financial viability of major general freight-rail networks, but it was followed by words that said that as this project was being promoted and investigated by private enterprise with private enterprise money, it should therefore be supported by all Australians. Furthermore, I subsequently issued a written media release at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 24 June 1998, some nine hours before the TV screening which said in part:

A respectable Australian Company announces a feasibility study into a major private infrastructure project and instead of welcoming that Company's initiative the Australian media chooses to concentrate on political conspiracy theories, Wilson Tuckey, Federal Member for O'Connor said today.

The efforts of the ABC editors to selectively quote from my interview in this fashion and ignore my press release is just further evidence of the bias emanating from that organisation.