Doubts remain as Brough denies seeing offensive menu Menu 'had nothing to do with' Brough Tony Abbott defends fellow Liberal Mal Brough after an offensive menu from a Liberal party fundraising event was made public on Wednesday. The Prime Minister isn't impressed. Liberal candidate Mal Brough has insisted that he did not see an offensive menu that compared Julia Gillard's body to a cooked quail, as Labor frontbenchers continue to press the case that the Coalition has questions to answer about the menu. Mr Brough, who is standing in the Queensland seat of Fisher, has explained he initially apologised for the menu that was reported to have been used at his fund-raiser because it was presented to him as a "fait accompli." "I get presented early in the morning [on Wednesday] with almost a fait accompli, that this thing was at a fund-raising function that was there to support me," Mr Brough told reporters on Thursday. Mal Brough said he initially apologised for the menu on Wednesday morning because it was presented to him as a ""fait accompli"." You can understand the confusion that occurred yesterday for us. Mr Brough said he rang the restaurant owner that held the fund-raiser, Joe Richards, on Wednesday, to ask if he knew about the menu. 'He said 'yes', and that's when it became clear and I immediately said well it . . . was a function that I was part of. And then it [later] became clear it wasn't there. The menu, which makes offensive jokes about the Prime Minister's anatomy, created a furore on Wednesday after it was circulated via Twitter. Late on Wednesday, after calls from Ms Gillard and Labor ministers for Mr Brough to be disendorsed, Mr Richards - a personal friend of Mr Brough's - claimed responsibility for the menu. In an email to Mr Brough that was then circulated by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's office, the restaurant owner said it was a "in-house joke" that was never distributed on tables or in the restaurant. This is despite an LNP statement on Wednesday morning, confirming it was used at a "small local event" in March. On Thursday, Ms Gillard was not satisfied with Mr Brough's version of events. "Well that's not what Mr Brough said yesterday," she told ABC radio in Perth. Mr Brough yesterday said he was aware of it, so I don't understand how those two stories add up. Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, who also called for Mr Brough to withdraw his candidacy, cast doubt on the veracity of the restaurant owner's claims. She said she had been told that it was "implausible" that the guests at the dinner couldn't have seen the menu. She also questioned why the email was being distributed to journalists by the office of Mr Abbott. "I think you'd have to take that [email] with a grain of salt, as an after-the-fact justification or explanation of what is incredibly poor taste," she told ABC TV. Mr Brough said Mr Richards, who is understood to be an LNP donor, was not put up to taking responsibility for the menu. "His statement is his statement alone," Mr Brough said. On Thursday morning, Mr Abbott explained that his office had distributed the email explanation from Mr Richards because the restaurant owner did not have media staff. The email from the restaurant owner went to Joe Hockey, it went to Mal Brough, it went to my office and it's perfectly appropriate that my office should distribute it to people who need the facts. And I think its very important that the media should report the facts. The Opposition Leader dismissed suggestions that there had been some inconsistencies in Mr Brough's response to the menu - given ABC reports that he initially apologised for the menu on Wednesday morning. I think it wasn't exactly apparent what the facts were. But now we know exactly what the facts were," Mr Abbott said. In his email, Mr Richards said he wanted to confirm "what actually happened." Unfortunately a staff member saw the mock menu, and unbeknownst to myself, posted it on their Facebook. His restaurant, Richards & Richards has been forced to disable its Facebook page after receiving a string of abusive messages. It also shuttered a review page on the website Urbanspoon after users vented their outrage there. With Amy Remeikis, AAP