AN E-MAIL which led to opposition calls for the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd to resign was yesterday proven to be a fake.
Last Friday Godwin Grech, a senior public servant in the treasury department, gave evidence to a senate inquiry about the existence of an e-mail proving Mr Rudd sought a government bailout for a car dealer friend struggling under the global financial crisis.
But the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided Mr Grech’s Canberra home yesterday, found the disputed e-mail and revealed it to be a fraud after examining it. “Preliminary results of those forensic examinations indicate that the e-mail referred to at the centre of this investigation has been created by a person or persons other than the purported author of the e-mail,” the AFP said in a statement.
Mr Grech was subsequently questioned by the police.
The affair dominated rowdy proceedings in parliament yesterday, with Mr Rudd saying opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull’s fingerprints were “all over this fake e-mail and he knows it”.
Mr Rudd also turned the table on Mr Turnbull and called on him to resign in a censure motion. “What is relevant here today in this censure is the honesty of the leader of the opposition and his fitness to continue to hold office.”
The prime minister later repeated his call in an interview with Channel Nine. “This e-mail is a fraud, it is a fake, it is a fabrication. Therefore my own judgment is that Mr Turnbull’s got no option . . . but to do the honourable thing, apologise and resign. He does not have the character to occupy the highest office in the land,” said Mr Rudd.
Speaking on ABC television last night, Mr Turnbull responded that the e-mail is alleged to have been sent from the treasury department to Mr Grech’s home account. “Why would the leader of the opposition resign if an e-mail has been concocted in the treasury? Will Mr Rudd resign if an e-mail is concocted in my office?” he said.
“Mr Rudd has been making the allegation recklessly and without any basis that somehow or other the opposition had a hand in it. There’s no basis for that,” said Mr Turnbull.
Mr Rudd has asked Australia’s auditor general to widen his inquiry into the affair to include all representations regarding financial arrangements for car dealers.
