Mr LATHAM (Leader of the Opposition) (9:01 AM) —Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

The SPEAKER —Does the Leader of the Opposition claim to have been misrepresented?

Mr LATHAM —Yes, very much so, by the Prime Minister yesterday evening.

The SPEAKER —Please proceed.

Mr LATHAM —Mr Speaker, in question time yesterday the Prime Minister said that I had not received briefings from Foreign Affairs or Defence officials on Iraq. Yesterday afternoon, in a personal explanation, I said that this was not the case—that it was not true—and I asked the Prime Minister to withdraw and apologise. The Prime Minister then disputed my personal explanation with his own statement to the House at 7 o'clock yesterday evening. He said that my briefing on 5 January was with the deputy director of the Department of Defence; in fact, it was with the Deputy Secretary of Intelligence and Security at the Department of Defence, Mr Ron Bonighton. The Prime Minister initially said that he had seen the record of interview from this briefing, but then had to correct himself and say that he had not. He then told the House that he had been informed by an unnamed person that, from the record of the interview, there was no mention of Iraq.

The facts are these. I met with Mr Bonighton in my electorate office at Ingleburn on Monday, 5 January. The meeting was scheduled to go from 5 p.m. to 5.45 p.m., and my recollection is that it went longer than that. Mr Bonighton briefed me on several subjects—one was the situation in Iraq. We had lengthy discussions that dealt with a range of security and intelligence matters in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. I was well informed by this briefing, for which I thank Mr Bonighton.

On the question of the ASIS briefing, ASIS is an agency that is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. My briefing with ASIS on 11 February included substantial security matters relevant to Iraq. As the Prime Minister knows full well, ASIS has relevant responsibilities beyond those mentioned in the Prime Minister's statement at 7 p.m. yesterday. These are the facts—this is the truth—and I again ask the Prime Minister to apologise and withdraw.

The SPEAKER —Before I call the Clerk, I indicate to the House that, in the instance of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, I have—appropriately, from my point of view as the chair—allowed greater range than would normally be allowed for a personal explanation, and I would not want that level of range to become anticipated by backbenchers.