KEVIN RUDD SWORE ON LABOUR MPS

PRADEEP K TIMALSINA, Sydney, Australia

Kevin Rudd has refused to apologise for repeatedly swearing during a meeting with factional bosses earlier this month, saying the "robust conversation" was consistent with Labor Party traditions.
A number of MPs copped some expletives when they visited the prime minister's parliament house office to object to plans to cut politicians' annual printing allowances by 25 per cent to $75,000.
The PM said in the presence of three female MPs: "I don't care what you f***ers think," News Limited has reported.
He later told another senator: "You can get f***ed."
Mr Rudd admits he swore.
"It's fair to say, consistent with the traditions of the Australia Labor Party, we're given to robust conversations," Mr Rudd told reporters in New York when asked about the meeting.
"I made my point of view absolutely clear.
"These entitlements needed to be cut back.
"I make no apology for either the content of my conversation or the robustness with which I expressed my views."
In a random survey of printing allowance use, the auditor-general found that in 74 per cent of instances the entitlement was at risk of being misused.
During the 2007/08 financial year - which covered the 2007 election - the auditor-general found some MPs were using the printing allowance primarily for re-election purposes.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says Mr Rudd doesn't have more of a potty mouth than anyone else in the community.
"There's as much chance of the prime minister swearing as you and I have sworn from time to time in the past," he told the Nine Network's Laurie Oakes.
"All of us engage regrettably in that sort of language from time to time."
Mr Smith said the most important thing was that the policy of capping printing payments was "absolutely right".
Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese declined to comment on the swearing because he wasn't at the meeting but said the prime minister had acted appropriately regarding the allowance.
"The Australian people will get some comfort from the fact that the prime minister isn't dictated to by any group, faction, interest group within the party," Mr Albanese told Network Ten.
Asked about the incident, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said politics was a robust business.
"One of the amusing things in the article was the suggestion that Labor backbenchers might have been horrified at someone swearing at them," Mr Tanner told ABC Television on Sunday.
"The truth is that politics, whether it's on our side or the other side, is a robust business where exchanges of views can sometimes be laced with less than polite descriptions - that's life.
"These discussions can sometimes be robust and all I can say is: Let he who is without sin cast the first line."
Mr Tanner said previous entitlements were too loose, ambiguous and open to being misused.
"We have clamped down on that vigorously and inevitably a few toes have been trodden on," he said.
"We make no apologies for that."