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Scott Morrison
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, during question time on Monday before he apologised to Kevin Rudd following a spat over hotel quarantine spots. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, during question time on Monday before he apologised to Kevin Rudd following a spat over hotel quarantine spots. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

PM apologises for erroneously stating Kevin Rudd had left and re-entered Australia during Covid

This article is more than 3 years old

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.

The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”

The prime minister responded to the question by saying he was unsure why the opposition “would want to bring personalities into this … given Mr Rudd has done the same thing”.

Rudd issued a statement shortly after Morrison’s comments saying the observation was not correct. The former prime minister demanded a retraction and an apology.

With Labor blasting Morrison over the intervention, Guardian Australia understands that on Monday evening the prime minister wrote to the clerk correcting the record and apologising for the error.

Morrison claimed in the parliament today that I have obtained exemptions to travel in and out of Australia, taking quarantine places from other Australians. That is an utter falsehood. I haven't left Queensland since March. Morrison has misled the parliament & he should apologise pic.twitter.com/O7x6l3Q3qq

— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) December 7, 2020

In his earlier statement, Rudd declared Morrison’s comments “an utter falsehood”.

“I have not left Australia since returning home from New York in March. I haven’t even left Queensland. The Morrison government’s own records will prove this.”

Rudd said he ran a New York-based thinktank, the Asia Society Policy Institute, and that work typically involved travelling around the world.

“Despite the difficulty of working remotely across multiple time zones, I have continued to manage my workload from home this year,” he said. “I am extremely conscious of how rare quarantine places are. Mr Morrison’s suggestion that I have claimed a rare quarantine place for myself, knowing that it would deprive a fellow Australian of the opportunity to be home for Christmas, is insulting.”

Rudd said Morrison has misled the parliament and should apologise.

With parliament sitting for the final week before the Christmas break, Labor has highlighted the plight of thousands of Australians unable to get home for the holidays.

Despite Morrison previously suggesting all 26,700 Australians stranded overseas who had registered by mid-September could be home by Christmas, the number of stranded Australians has grown to 36,875 and by 26 November just 14,000 of the original cohort had managed to return home.

Australia has struggled with the number of returning citizens and permanent residents since national cabinet capped arrivals to Australia in July in response to the second coronavirus wave in Victoria and suspension of hotel quarantine in Melbourne.

Over the weekend, Labor claimed Australians stranded overseas were being quietly reclassified in an attempt to avoid “bad headlines”. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has denied artificially depressing statistics regarding those who want to return, saying it did “not take anyone off its lists of registered Australians overseas unless they ask to be taken off or have successfully returned to Australia”.

During question time, Morrison on Monday characterised Labor’s pursuit of Australians stranded overseas as the “politics of negativity that has overtaken the opposition at a time when the country is dealing with one of the biggest crises we have seen”.

The prime minister said when it came to exemptions “those decisions have been done independently by the border force commissioner”.

Abbott has been allowed to leave Australia twice on an “auto exemption” granted for people on government business.

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