Jones: Gillards Dad ‘died of shame’

UPDATED

2GB’s Alan Jones has issued an extraordinary attack on the Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Jones has said that Gillard was responsible for the death of her father this month, making the statement that John Gillard ‘died a few weeks ago of shame’ due to his daughter.

You can hear the audio below of Jones statements.

Jones was speaking to a Young Liberals function at The Rocks in Sydney, which unknown to him was attended by a journalist from Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph.

The Telegraph have published the story as its front page lead today.

In the speech, Jones said;

“Every person in the caucus of the Labor Party knows that Julia Gillard is a liar. Everybody, and I’ll come to that in a moment. The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think that he had a daughter who told lies every time she stood for parliament”

“This is where we’re weak. Can you believe that they have gone, the federal party, because they’ve been brainwashed by the media to ‘oh back off, she’s a woman, go easy'”

Jones went on to say that Gillards recent improvement in opinion polls were due to her public tears over her fathers passing. John Gillard (right) died suddenly at the Gillard family home in Adelaide on September 8th this year.

Following the comments about Julia Gillard and her father, Jones went on to praise Tony Abbot.

“His overwhelming weakness is his humility. You will never ever hear this bloke argue his ability, his virtue, or indeed his competence, he is a man of incomparable integrity and conviction.”

The Sunday Telegraph approached the organiser of the speech, Alex Dore, who is an aspiring MP supported by Jones.

Dore initially told the newspaper that Jones had made no comments regarding Julia Gillard’s father. Subsequently, when told the speech had been recorded, he changed his position;

“It was a very long speech and I did not hear it. I have always found Alan to be respectful…..I will just let this one go through to the keeper, the room was a bit a noisy at the time, I can’t remember him saying it”

UPDATE 11.45am Sunday

In a press conference called by Alan Jones late Sunday morning Sydney time, Alan Jones has faced the media, and in a long 45 minute statement and questioning session said;

“There are days when you have to concede you got it wrong. The comments were, in the light of everything, they merit an apology, and you just have to admit you got it wrong. They shouldn’t have been said, no matter who it is”

When asked if has attempted to apologise directly to the Prime Minister, Jones commented;

“I have tried to contact Prime Minister Gillard, I rang The Lodge, I rang Kirribilli House, was told she was in Melbourne. I have spoken to her press advisor and said that if she saw fit to take a call from me, I would like to make that call. She’s a human being before she is a Prime Minister”

During the long media conference, Jones was asked about the extent of the reaction to his comments;

“There is a perception out there that Julia is off-limits on some issues, but it’s fair game to say the sorts of things that are said about me and others……the impression given is that I stood up with a prepared text Iand delivered some Churchillian statement about government in Australia”

“I spoke without notes for 58 minutes, I have no idea the material that I covered, I just say it as i see it, but that’s an explanation, not an excuse, those comments shouldn’t have been made”

” A person like me shouldn’t have made that comment anywhere, it was a bit of a smartalec remark and if I’ve got to be belted up for it then so be it”

Under heavy questioning Jones went on to say;

“When you look at what I’ve said, for which I’m answering today – one sentence – I’m thinking, god help me, think about what was said about Kevin Rudd. Doesn’t matter what you think of him, he was our Prime Minister, and (he) had his reputation trashed around the world by his own party, things said about him that some people should have apologised for.

Holy nelly they dish some stuff out some of these people to their own people and they don’t have to apologise to anyone”.

When asked about whether he should apologise to John Gillard’s widow, Jones said;

“If I have to say to Mrs Gillard, the mother, those comments that have caused her anguish, then I would say the same thing that I’m saying to her daughter”

One reporter asked Jones if he is the ‘seniors’ version of Kyle Sandilands, Jones responded;

“I approach the Sandilands stuff, and I think everyone in this room and the hundreds of thousands of people who listen to me know, that I do a lot of work in preparing material for my programme and it is thorough. I do all that research myself, all day and all night. I don’t go in there half-cocked.” 

“If you want to draw that analogy that’s fine, but I’m comfortable with the approach that i take towards  the programme and the kind of preparation that I do, and the safeguards that we have in place to ensure that circumstances like this don’t occur. I ignored those safeguards last saturday night and that’s why I’m here” 

“I have met Kyle Sandilands twice in my life, I know nothing about him”

Jones has had a long history of criticising Julia Gillard, once saying that she should be “put in a chaff bag and dropped at sea”. In His press conference this morning when asked about the chaff bag comment, Jones said “it was a joke”.

Hear the audio, from Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph, of Jones extraordinary comments this week regarding the Prime Minister;

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