ID SWANS SAYS SAYS IT, IT MUST BE TRUE:) LOL PENNY WONG, maybe she want to be next PM.
Rivals make a meal out of fundraiser menu row by: Ben Packham From: The Australian June 13, 2013 1:39PM
WAYNE Swan has accused senior Coalition figures and a Brisbane restaurant owner of lying about a fundraiser menu containing derogatory comments about Julia Gillard. Liberal National Party candidate Mal Brough insists he never saw the menu, which Brisbane businessman Joe Richards said never left his kitchen.
Guest of honour at the dinner, Joe Hockey, is also adamant he never saw the menu, which advertised “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail - Small Breasts, Huge Thighs & A Big Red Box”.
Mr Richards said the menu, for a $1000-a-head fundraiser for Mr Brough, was an “in-house” joke with his son.
Mr Brough, who yesterday apologised while saying he could not recall seeing the menu, told reporters on the Sunshine Coast today it was now quite clear “that it was not there”.
“Rather than going off half-cocked and making statements which I may well have been incorrect on, I said as it was; I had not seen it, I condemned it,” he said.
A MENU that demeaned Julia Gillard was reportedly mocked up for the amusement of the venue's owner and never hit the tables of an LNP fundraiser. . .'Rhetoric not matched by action'
But the Treasurer today said the claims about the menu could not be believed, and accused those at the March 28 function of participating in a “vile act”.
“The stories that have been told by various participants frankly don't add up,” Mr Swan said.
“To my way of thinking it's almost inconceivable that this menu was not sighted by participants at the lunch.”
He said he would “absolutely not” withdraw his call for Mr Brough to be disendorsed.
Cabinet minister Penny Wong also said the timing of Mr Richards' explanation was “a little odd and convenient”.
“You wonder how it is that this explanation has now only come to light, after Mr Brough has put out an apology,” she said.
Tony Abbott said it was a “tacky” joke that should not have been made, but guests at the function did not see it.
“This was a bad taste menu that never made it out of the kitchen,” he said.
But David Carter, the chef who posted a photo of the menu on Twitter yesterday, said he believed Mr Hockey, the shadow treasurer, was in on the joke.
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the owner/manager showed it to him. I know that guy too well,” he tweeted last night.
Mr Richards claimed last night the offensive menu had not been distributed at the March 28 fundraiser.
“I would like to confirm what actually happened: there were never any menus distributed on the tables or in the restaurant,” he said in an email to Mr Brough.
“I created a mock menu myself as a light-hearted joke. However, as I said, I never produced them for public distribution.
“Unfortunately, a staff member saw the mock menu and, unbeknownst to myself, posted it on their Facebook page. It now appears that a third party, for political reasons, has distributed it.”
Ms Gillard yesterday labelled the menu as being part of a “pattern of behaviour” by Mr Abbott's Coalition and that there was a “great deal of convenience” in Mr Hockey denying he saw the menu.
