But back in 2003, he did take questions from Kerry O'Brien - the transcript from that interview (7.30 Report, August 27, 2003) is below.
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KERRY O'BRIEN: Tony Abbott, when you established the slush fund to get Pauline Hanson politically, you called it Australians for Honest Politics. Was that some kind of a joke, a bad joke?
TONY ABBOTT, EMPLOYMENT & WORKPLACE RELATIONS MINISTER: Of course it wasn't and it wasn't a slush fund.. It had three trustees - myself, two other distinguished Australians, one, Peter Coleman -
KO: You count yourself as a distinguished Australian?
TA: Well, it had two distinguished Australians - Peter Coleman, former federal member for the Liberal Party, and John Wheeldon, who was a minister in the Whitlam Government - as its trustees and we had a perfectly honourable intention to fund legal actions to challenge the validity of the registration of the One Nation Party in Queensland. Nothing wrong with that. And ultimately a Supreme Court decision in Queensland vindicated the position we had.
KO: There are a lot of people out there right now who would believe that you're anything but honest in the way you've explained all this.
TA: Well, I think that I can live with my conscience. I think it was very important to challenge the Hanson juggernaut back then in 1998. The difference is, Kerry, that a lot of people who were angry with her then feel sorry for her now, and I suppose I do myself, because I think that there's a sense in which the punishment meted out to her doesn't really fit the crime, but certainly, at the time, the reality of her so-called party needed to be exposed and I was happy to try to do it.
KO: We know you established that fund to use Terry Sharples as a stalking horse in 1998.
TA: No, that's not right.
KO: No?
TA: No. I had dealt with Terry Sharples - I had dealt with Terry Sharples because he was the person who initially was going to bring this legal case to stop Des O'Shea from providing that money to One Nation. Terry Sharples and I came to a parting of the ways and it was after that parting of the ways that I set up the Australians for Honest Politics trust.
KO: But it's not the first time you talked about money with Terry Sharples?
TA: Well, I promised that Terry Sharples would not be out of pocket.
KO: Hmm. Well, just on this issue, let's briefly flash back to the interview you did with Tony Jones on Four Corners which went to air on August 10. You did that interview, I'm told, on July 31, '98, where you denied any knowledge of any sort of fund for Terry Sharples. We'll just have a quick look.
*
TONY JONES: So there was never any question of any party funds -
TONY ABBOTT: Absolutely not.
TONY JONES: Or other funds from any other source -
TONY ABBOTT: Absolutely not.
TONY JONES: Being offered to Terry Sharples?
TONY ABBOTT: Absolutely not.
*
KO: And you're saying now that wasn't a lie - not just Liberal Party funds but any other funds?
TA: I had promised that he wouldn't be out of pocket, but there's a difference between telling someone he won't be out of pocket and telling someone that you're going to have to pay him money.
KO: What's the difference? If you say to me, "Kerry, you won't be out of pocket for this", aren't I entitled to assume that means you're going to guarantee the funds for me?
TA: But the thing was that it was an entirely contingent matter. Money would only have gone from a person who was willing to support this case to Sharples in what I thought was the then-unlikely event of a cost orders being made against him.
KO: Let's just look at precisely the question that Tony Jones put to you in '98. He said, "So there was never any question of any party funds -
TA: Party funds.
KO: "Or other funds?".
TA: Yes and as you'll notice -
KO: And you didn't lie in your response when you said, "Absolutely not, absolutely not."?
TA: And as you'll notice, Kerry, he said "party funds". I started to answer the question and I went on to answer the question, but strictly speaking no money at all was ever offered to Terry Sharples. Pro bono lawyers were arranged and someone had offered to stand a costs order, should a costs order be made, but, no, no money was ever offered to Terry Sharples.
KO: When you put out your statement last night explaining your position, you were at pains to say that your answer only applied to the first part of the question, that is to Liberal Party funds, but it didn't apply to the second part of the question - "or other funds".
TA: And then I went on to say, strictly speaking no money at all was offered to Terry Sharples, and that's correct.
KO: Look, by your own admission now, you set up the fund -
TA: Yes, after - well after -
KO: ..for the Australians for Honest Politics Trust -
TA: Well after that incident.
KO: ..on August 24.
TA: That's correct.
KO: On August 24, 25 days after the interview.
TA: Yeah.
KO: That's not well after.
TA: Well, it's after.
KO: It's three weeks.
TA: So I was supposed to say, Kerry -
KO: But nothing was in train?
TA: So I was supposed to say, "Oh, and by the way, Tony, in a few weeks time I'm going to set up a trust fund that is going to fund a different legal action"? Was I supposed to say that?
KO: And you weren't working on setting up that fund?
TA: No, because at that point in time I believe I may still have had some kind of an involvement with Terry Sharples, but after the Sharples matter wasn't going to progress anywhere, or certainly wasn't going to progress anywhere with my assistance, I then thought, "Well, it is really important to regularise this whole thing", and that's why -
KO: So in the space of three weeks you got around all these other people and organised and set up a trust fund in three weeks?
TA: You're amazed by that, are you?
KO: I am.
TA: Well, get real, Kerry.
KO: But you did? You did all that in three weeks?
TA: Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure.
KO: It must have been really urgent.
TA: Well, look, it was. Think back, Kerry, to that time. I mean, you were crying, as were so many other people, for someone to stop this terrible Hanson juggernaut.
KO: I was asking questions. I wasn't crying for anything.
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KO: What we're focusing on was whether you misled the people of Australia -
TA: The ABC?
KO: No, the public, the audience that watched the program.
TA: And I believe that my answers were justified.
KO: Well, Terry Sharples says you had a meeting with him and others on July 7, '98, where you offered him $20,000 to cover his legal costs.
TA: Well, see, I dispute that and I always have.
KO: You did have the meeting though, didn't you, on July 7?
TA: Yes, so what? Big deal.
KO: And the question of costs didn't come up?
TA: Look, the question of how much it would cost, what would be the possible downside of a court case - sure, that came up.
KO: So you did talk about costs with him and you talked about meeting the costs?
TA: Yes, but there's a difference between offering to pay someone money - offering to pay Terry Sharples money - and supporting a legal case.
KO: Where were you going to get the money?
TA: Well, I'm not going to tell you that, Kerry.
KO: When you offered him the money where were you going to get it from?
TA: Kerry, I am not going to tell you that.
KO: So you didn't have a fund in mind?
TA: No, I didn't.
KO: You didn't have a fund in train?
TA: No, I didn't at that stage.
KO: But you were confident that you would be able to find money for him, presumably not out of your own pocket?
TA: Not for him not for him - but for an action, for a legal action.
KO: Let's not split hairs. Let's not split hairs.
TA: Well, let's not.
KO: It was to fund his action?
TA: Yes, and there is a world of difference between funding an action or, at least, getting pro bono lawyers to act without charge and having someone who might stand a costs order in the contingency that a costs order might be made and offering him money. I did not offer him money.
KO: And then you offered to underwrite effectively his costs in a legal action. That is money. Costs is money, isn't it?
TA: Well, I said that he would not be out of pocket.
KO: Is costs money?
TA: Well -
KO: When it really gets down to it, costs is money, isn't it?
TA: What I said was that he would not be out of pocket.
KO: He wouldn't be out of pocket?
TA: That's correct.
KO: With money? Money? Cash? Money?
TA: Well, I said he wouldn't be out of pocket.
KO: And on July 11 you met him again and you handwrote a guarantee, didn't you?
TA: I had sent him a note, but this is not new news, Kerry.
KO: No, but then on July 31 -
TA: All of this was on the record years ago.
KO: But on July 31, you told Tony Jones - you gave him an "absolutely not" denial about any kind of funds going to Terry Sharples.
TA: I said that I had not offered him money and I stand by that.
KO: You offered him costs?
TA: Well, I said that he wouldn't be out of pocket.
KO: That's money!
TA: Oh, come on, Kerry.
KO: Tony Abbott, that is money.
TA: Let's move on.
KO: You offered to cover his costs.
TA: But I did not offer to pay Terry Sharples any money.
KO: I think the audience understands that costs is money, so we'll move on..
You're free to draw your own conclusions from the transcript.
On matters of Tony Abbott's honesty, the following videos are further evidence of his track record.