Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dressed down his predecessor Tony Abbott for missing a series of key parliamentary votes in 2009 because he was drunk and passed out on a couch.Â
After years of rumours, Mr Abbott has finally admitted he was asleep after a long night of drinking when several bills associated with the Rudd government's $42 billion stimulus package - its high-profile and contentious response to the global financial crisis -Â were voted on in the House of Representatives.
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Abbott's drunken admission
After years of denials, the former PM reveals he missed a vote in Parliament in 2009 because he passed out after drinking too much.
Mr Turnbull, who was opposition leader at the time of the 2009 votes, said he had been aware of Mr Abbott's booze-induced slumber and the opposition's parliamentary whips "tried to rouse him to get him down in the chamber to vote but they were unable to move him".
"It was a pretty important vote, too ... I was disappointed but you've got to move on with these things," Mr Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday.
![Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, pictured during this year's Pollie Pedal tour.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170826170923im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/8/8/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gy3vs4.png/1503661497244.jpg)
"I can't remember anyone else missing a vote because they were too drunk to get in the chamber, but the fact is Tony Abbott has 'fessed up to it. He knows it was an error or whatever; he's acknowledged it. It's clearly not acceptable or admirable in any way."
In 2013, Wayne Swan - at that time the treasurer of the Labor government - publicly accused Mr Abbott, by then the opposition leader, of being drunk during the important proceedings on February 12, 2009.
Mr Swan was forced to withdraw the remark after objections in Parliament, and a spokesman for Mr Abbott said the senior Labor figure "should stop telling lies".
But eight years on from the original incident, Mr Abbott has owned up in an interview with The House with Annabel Crabb, the ABC's show on the behind-the-scenes operations of Parliament House, to screen on September 5.
![Tony Abbott enjoys a beer during his time as opposition leader.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170826170923im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/q/s/g/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gy3vs4.png/1503661497244.jpg)
Mr Abbott confirmed to the ABC that, on the night, he and fellow Liberal MPs Peter Costello and Kevin Andrews drank "quite a few bottles of wine".
"The impact was rather greater than it should have been. I think I famously slept through several divisions," he said.
"I lay down and the next thing I knew it was morning."
On Friday, Mr Swan said Mr Abbott "was so self-indulgent on that night, he missed division after division after division and since that time he's simply lied about it".
The former treasurer said he was "pleased that the attitude of the Liberal Party was out there for everybody to see" four years after he criticised Mr Abbott over the matter in Parliament.
"He slept through some of the most important votes in the Australian Parliament in over 50 or 60 years."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the incident "just shows you how serious the Liberals were about saving the country during the GFC that they were asleep".
- with Cara Waters
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