Special Minister of State Mal Brough has offered a qualified apology to Parliament for "unwittingly" adding to confusion regarding his recollection of the Peter Slipper diaries affair.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is investigating Mr Brough for any role he played in getting former staffer James Ashby to obtain copies of the then-speaker's diary in 2012.
This morning Mr Brough addressed Parliament aiming "to clarify his comments" over a 2014 interview with Channel Nine.
In the 60 Minutes interview, Mr Brough appeared to admit that he did ask Mr Ashby to procure Mr Slipper's diary.
Yesterday he cast doubt on that admission, telling Parliament "what was put to air was not the full question".
Today Mr Brough told the House that his "recollection of the interview was that the question was put to me in a somewhat disjointed manner".
"I answered the question without clarifying what part of the question I was responding to," he said.
"This was confirmed by the tape by 60 Minutes and that was the reason for my answer yesterday. I have taken the opportunity to review the tape and transcript, and apologise to the house if my statement unwittingly added to the confusion, instead of clarifying the matter."
60 Minutes yesterday released the full transcript and vision of the interview, which shows journalist Liz Hayes fumbling for words at the start of the question.
"Um why then also did you um assist, seek well, did you ask James Ashby to procure um copies of Peter Slipper's diary for for you?" Hayes said.
"Yes I did," Mr Brough replied.
"Why did you do that?" Hayes responded.
"Because I believed Peter Slipper had committed a crime. I believed he was defrauding the Commonwealth," Mr Brough said.
Labour censure motion defeated
Labor today attempted to move a motion to strip Mr Brough of his roles of Special Minister of State and Minister for Defence Materiel and Science.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus also moved to censure Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for his "atrocious judgement in appointing" Mr Brough, as well as his "complete and utter failure in leadership" for failing to sack him.
The motion, seconded by Tony Burke, was defeated 82-42.
Mr Turnbull, who has previously expressed his support for Mr Brough, arrived back in Canberra from the Paris climate talks today and is likely to face questions over the affair.
Mr Brough defeated Mr Slipper in the seat of Fisher at the 2013 election, but he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Yesterday, Mr Ashby told Macquarie Radio that Mr Brough "never, never, ever, ever" asked him for copies of the diaries of Mr Slipper.
Mr Ashby now maintains he went to Mr Brough with copies of the diaries.
A police search warrant seen by the ABC says that procuring someone to disclose those documents (Peter Slipper's diaries) and provide them to third parties without authority would be a breach of the Crimes Act.
There are only two days of Parliament left before the end of the year and a short time for the Opposition to claim a scalp, but enough time to put pressure on Mr Turnbull to address the issue.
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