Tony Abbott has instructed the Liberal party to accept no further donations from tobacco companies on the grounds that Labor was using the issue as a “distraction” in the election campaign with its promise to ban all tobacco donations to political parties.

But Abbott said he would only ask the Liberal party to refund the $2.6m donated by tobacco companies since 1999 if Labor promised to refund to union members the donations it had received from the embattled Health Services Union, and if Rudd himself refunded a “travel sponsorship” he received from a “German tobacco company”.

“I think that’s a fair deal,” Abbott said.

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Abbott said Rudd was “like the [Hogan’s Heroes character] Sergeant Schulz of this campaign. When it suits him not to know he doesn’t know.”

Labor stopped taking tobacco donations in 2004. The Coalition has continued to accept donations. The Coalition at first criticised Labor’s recent announcement of a 60% increase in tobacco excise over four years, but then said it would retain the measure.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/22/tony-abbott-donations-tobacco-companies