Fed: Abbott says he never sought to prosecute Hanson
Workplace Relations Minister TONY ABBOTT has denied he sought the criminal prosecutionof One Nation founders PAULINE HANSON or DAVID ETTRIDGE.
But he says he's sorry for some of his actions in the matter, saying he responded flippantlyto claims he contradicted himself over comments relating to his funding of legal challenges.
Mr ABBOTT denied on ABC's Four Corners program in August 1998 that he had bankrolledOne Nation dissident TERRY SHARPLES' court action, which succeeded in having the partyderegistered.
That led to HANSON and ETTRIDGE being sentenced to three years' jail last week forelectoral fraud.
But in an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald Mr ABBOTT was quoted as saying heand two other trustees set up the Australians for Honest Politics trust fund.
Mr ABBOTT last night said the answer he gave to Four Corners preceded the formationof the trust fund and strictly speaking no money had been offered.
When Mr ABBOTT was challenged about his comments to Four Corners in 2000, he repliedthat misleading the ABC wasn't quite the same as misleading the parliament.
Mr ABBOTT's apologised for those comments, saying it isn't acceptable to mislead thepublic and he should not have responded flippantly.
AAP RTV sm/smb/wz
KEYWORD: HANSON ABBOTT (CANBERRA)
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