Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,
I absolutely reject Mr Costello's allegation of a link between One Nation and the League of Rights or any other group.
I also reject completely allegations of the same type that have been made by John Howard, Tim Fischer, Robert Hill and others since the formation of Pauline Hanson's One Nation last year.
Our policy on the low interest loans of the Queensland Trust and the possible duplication and enlargement of this policy at a national level with carefully targeted projects has been formulated by our own people, using our own research from many places including the federal parliamentary library.
This policy is reflective in many ways of the original function of the Commonwealth Bank born in 1911 under the Fisher Labor Government.
The Commonwealth Bank was created to make national credit available to anyone with decent security to offer, help reduce public debt and provide real competition to private banks. Any profits were returned to the federal government.
Australian Labor Party policy in 1934 planned to have the Commonwealth Bank utilise the credit of the nation for the benefit of the people, in essence, even if only in a small way to start, this is our principle as well.
Prime Minister John Howard recently attended the funeral of the Australian visionary, B.A Santamaria - a man who also advocated utilising the power of sovereign governments to issue credit in competition with the private banks, for the benefit of the people just as we do.
In its time as a truly national bank, the Commonwealth Bank financed much of Australia's commerce and infrastructure including the entire war effort in World War I, and the East-West Railway.
When Mr Costello lies in an attempt to discredit us through association with the League of Rights, he conveniently omits all the others who are associated with our platform.
We have no association with this organisation, in fact we are not even aware of their policies.
If you are to believe Mr Costello's lies, then you must equally believe the Labor Party, the parliamentary library and even John Howard are connected in some way to the League of Rights.
Clearly, this is as foolish and as dishonest as the whole of Mr Costello's attack.
I suggest Mr Costello try to defend his own party on the allegations surrounding the high ranking Liberal Party official in the NSW seat of Maitland who was last year reported to be selling Hitler's early biography Mein Kampf and other Hitler and Nazi materials by mail order.
Mr Costello is a politically motivated liar, nothing more.
He has discredited himself before the Australian people and is unfit to aspire to the Prime Ministerial position he so obviously covets.
Mr Costello, you are telling lies, I know it, you know it and the Australian people know it.
The need for a peoples' Bank is as great now as it ever was and we will inform the Australian people of its use and continue this debate regardless of the Treasurer's self interest in stopping such discussion.