Why Mal Brough is under so much scrutiny

Federal police are investigating whether Mr Brough asked Mr Ashby – a then staffer to ex-Speaker Peter Slipper – to procure copies of his employer’s office diary.

Mr Brough later asked for a clearer copy that would be easier to read, Mr Ashby said.

“Mal Brough has been such a major figure in Australian politics for some time now, so I guess, he is quite a big scalp, in a way that Wyatt Roy is not so much”, Dr Cook said. I mean, if there is an investigation being conducted by the AFP then due process demands that the investigation continue.

This is being interpreted as a reference to allegations against Bill Shorten of a 1986 rape which police investigated previous year before deciding not to take further action. And Mr Turnbull has said the lack on any new material since the issues were ventilated in 2013 justifies his continued support for Mr Brough.

Having previously said he was motivated by a belief that Mr Slipper was defrauding the Commonwealth, it’s easy to see why Mr Brough believes he’s done nothing wrong.

“If there’s an end point when there’s a charge laid, that’s a whole different matter”.

Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham told the ABC that Mr Brough had his full support, while cabinet minister Barnaby Joyce offered some qualified support.

A similar motion, and defeat, followed in Question Time the same day.

But on Wednesday Mr Brough told the House that his “recollection of the interview was that the question was put to me in a somewhat disjointed manner”.

Labor said Brough’s questioning of the interview under false premises amounted to him misleading the parliament.

It’s the latest in what has been a trying week for Mr Brough, after he was forced to make a qualified apology to parliament for unwittingly adding to confusion, after he said on Tuesday that the 60 Minutes interview aired about the Ashby-Slipper scandal had not shown the full question, when Mr Brough appeared to admit to asking James Ashby to obtain the diary.

But this claim was undermined by the release of the official transcript – which proved the context had not been changed – and a contradictory answer to the same question in parliament on Wednesday.

Dreyfus asked the same question as Hayes: “Did you ask James Ashby to procure copies of Peter Slipper’s diary for you?”