Mr HATTON - 2000-05-17
Last month, the Chief Minister called on the Leader of the Opposition to repudiate the outrageous claims that that they would place the Territory judiciary system under federal control. Has the Chief Minister had any sort of response from the Labor Party or the Leader of the Opposition to this assault on self government?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is appropriate that the member for Nightcliff and former Chief Minister would ask this question because whilst I know the Leader of the Opposition will giggle away, or try to giggle away, my comments …
Ms Martin: Oh, get real.
Mr BURKE: She normally says ‘get real’ or ‘sit down’ when it is a real problem to her.
This is probably the most serious question I have taken since I became Chief Minister. On 27 April, I issued a press release calling on the Leader of the Opposition to confirm and convince me, and other Territorians, that a federal Labor government, if in power in Canberra, would not seek to roll back the Self-Government Act of the Northern Territory.
I did that because I was concerned at a number of comments that were being made as a result of the mandatory sentencing debate from the federal Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, in press releases and being quoted all over Australia. These comments included: a ‘yobbo government’ and Territorians not being ‘mature enough’ to vote for the right government in the Northern Territory. Essentially, because the Labor government in the Northern Territory was not in power, somehow Territorians were not mature enough to have self-government in the Northern Territory.
We then had the issue with regards to the Chief Magistrate Mr Bradley, and I wondered where this was all going. When NAALAS began their case against the Chief Magistrate, on the face of it there was an issue at law, an issue to the profession, that one could easily see. In my mind, if this was an issue of principle for the legal profession, it should have been initiated itself by the profession, not by an organisation such as NAALAS under the guise of mandatory sentencing.
As that particular issue progressed we had the federal Labor spokesman on legal affairs, Robert McClelland, saying that the federal government should seize control of the Territory’s courts. The Australian on 22 April reported McClelland as saying that the system in the Northern Territory had degenerated to the point where the Commonwealth must consider amending the Territory’s self-government legislation to take control. It was as a result of those comments that I issued a press release calling on the Leader of the Opposition to guarantee to Territorians that a federal Labor government would not seek to amend the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory and roll back things like the CLP government’s control of our own courts and put it in the hands of a federal Labor government. But I was ignored. This is a Leader of the Opposition who claims ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: She dismisses my request, but it is a very simple allegation to put to bed. All you do is get a written undertaking from the federal Leader of the Opposition - of whom she claims influence and friendship in that she could call him to butt out of Territory affairs – to me and Territorians that a federal Labor government would not, if they gained control in Canberra, seek to amend the Self-Government Act to roll back certain powers such as powers over our courts, and also to overturn our mandatory sentencing laws, as senior Labor figures federally have called upon the present government to do. She has ignored that threat. I have it from impeccable Labor sources - I do not intend to name them in this House and you don’t need a letter; this is the Chief Minister speaking in parliament - that the agenda of a federal Labor government is, if they were to gain power in Canberra, to overturn the Self-Government Act and return government of the Northern Territory back to Canberra’s central control.
Mr Stirling: Mr Speaker! We cannot let the Chief Minister get away with such nonsense as this…
Mr SPEAKER: Order! What are you doing?
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! You have not indicated a point of order.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order! There is no point of order, just let it go.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, I will say ...
Ms Martin: That is a lie, Denis.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: I will withdraw ‘impeccable Labor sources’; that in itself is a nonsense. I will say that I have sources belonging to the Labor party who believe - and I would not waste the parliament’s time unless this was serious - who believe that the Beazley Labor government, if it gains power in Canberra at the next election, would overturn the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory and return power to Canberra. There is a simple way to get rid of this allegation, and that is to get an undertaking in writing from Kim Beazley …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: They may abuse me and laugh at me but your silence and Beazley’s silence is proof in itself that the attack on the judicial system is going, when we see...
Ms Martin: It is your fault.
Mr BURKE: The audacity of the Leader of the Opposition to widen the attack on the judiciary to now include judges, with the scurrilous attack on the fact that their terms and conditions are such that they could be compromised in the Northern Territory! We hear the sorts of comments that are coming out of Canberra from Robert McClelland. All of those things are worrying in themselves but what is very worrying is the latest source of information, who I will not name, but who tells me that this is a fact. I want the Leader of the Opposition to simply put this case to rest. Mr Beazley will be in the Northern Territory, I understand, this weekend. He can put this case to rest very simply by giving an undertaking to Territorians. He should do it …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr BURKE: If it is such a laughable issue he could do it today. He could have done it because my press release went out nationally. He could give an undertaking to Territorians that a Labor Beazley government, federally, will not return...
Ms Martin:Did you ring me?
Mr BURKE: You are irrelevant, that is the problem. You are irrelevant because none of your Labor people in the Northern Territory take any notice of what you say. If she took the time, and I’m sure she hasn’t, but if she took the time to read the comments of Senator Crossin in the debate on parliamentary secretaries in the Senate, she would be ashamed that a Labor Senator, a Northern Territory Senator, could speak so scurrilously about the Northern Territory, could laugh hilariously that we have a parliamentary secretary responsible for statehood. Other Labor spokesmen laughed hilariously that we have ministers responsible for youth and women’s affairs. They think that is hilarious.
Some of the comments in that particular debate only ...
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! We have had this rambling diatribe for about 10 minutes now.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This answer would have been over 5 minutes ago if there had not been so much interjection. I require the members of the opposition to remain silent - at a reasonable level at least - during Question Time.
Mr BURKE: Other comments point to, clearly, Labor Senators and Labor spokesmen federally who believe that the Northern Territory government is unworthy to ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Both the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition are going too far! Would you please remain silent.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, my case is simply that no matter how much the Leader of the Opposition giggles, she has her federal colleagues in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, on the record, saying that the Northern Territory government is unworthy of statehood, of self-government.
We also have the federal Labor spokesmen on legal affairs saying that the judicial system in the Northern Territory should come back under central control. I have further evidence that the Labor agenda is that, on achieving government, they will overturn the Self-Government Act and reappoint control back in Canberra because it has worked for them with some southern vote.
The Leader of the Opposition can dismiss this very easily. She can get a letter from the Leader of the Opposition …
Ms Martin: Dismiss what; your allegation?
Mr BURKE: Laughing at my allegations, if you like. He could be contemptuous in that letter about my remarks, as long as he says this: ‘A federal Labor government elected will not interfere in the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory’, and that, to my mind, will be sufficient.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is appropriate that the member for Nightcliff and former Chief Minister would ask this question because whilst I know the Leader of the Opposition will giggle away, or try to giggle away, my comments …
Ms Martin: Oh, get real.
Mr BURKE: She normally says ‘get real’ or ‘sit down’ when it is a real problem to her.
This is probably the most serious question I have taken since I became Chief Minister. On 27 April, I issued a press release calling on the Leader of the Opposition to confirm and convince me, and other Territorians, that a federal Labor government, if in power in Canberra, would not seek to roll back the Self-Government Act of the Northern Territory.
I did that because I was concerned at a number of comments that were being made as a result of the mandatory sentencing debate from the federal Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, in press releases and being quoted all over Australia. These comments included: a ‘yobbo government’ and Territorians not being ‘mature enough’ to vote for the right government in the Northern Territory. Essentially, because the Labor government in the Northern Territory was not in power, somehow Territorians were not mature enough to have self-government in the Northern Territory.
We then had the issue with regards to the Chief Magistrate Mr Bradley, and I wondered where this was all going. When NAALAS began their case against the Chief Magistrate, on the face of it there was an issue at law, an issue to the profession, that one could easily see. In my mind, if this was an issue of principle for the legal profession, it should have been initiated itself by the profession, not by an organisation such as NAALAS under the guise of mandatory sentencing.
As that particular issue progressed we had the federal Labor spokesman on legal affairs, Robert McClelland, saying that the federal government should seize control of the Territory’s courts. The Australian on 22 April reported McClelland as saying that the system in the Northern Territory had degenerated to the point where the Commonwealth must consider amending the Territory’s self-government legislation to take control. It was as a result of those comments that I issued a press release calling on the Leader of the Opposition to guarantee to Territorians that a federal Labor government would not seek to amend the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory and roll back things like the CLP government’s control of our own courts and put it in the hands of a federal Labor government. But I was ignored. This is a Leader of the Opposition who claims ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: She dismisses my request, but it is a very simple allegation to put to bed. All you do is get a written undertaking from the federal Leader of the Opposition - of whom she claims influence and friendship in that she could call him to butt out of Territory affairs – to me and Territorians that a federal Labor government would not, if they gained control in Canberra, seek to amend the Self-Government Act to roll back certain powers such as powers over our courts, and also to overturn our mandatory sentencing laws, as senior Labor figures federally have called upon the present government to do. She has ignored that threat. I have it from impeccable Labor sources - I do not intend to name them in this House and you don’t need a letter; this is the Chief Minister speaking in parliament - that the agenda of a federal Labor government is, if they were to gain power in Canberra, to overturn the Self-Government Act and return government of the Northern Territory back to Canberra’s central control.
Mr Stirling: Mr Speaker! We cannot let the Chief Minister get away with such nonsense as this…
Mr SPEAKER: Order! What are you doing?
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! You have not indicated a point of order.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order! There is no point of order, just let it go.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, I will say ...
Ms Martin: That is a lie, Denis.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: I will withdraw ‘impeccable Labor sources’; that in itself is a nonsense. I will say that I have sources belonging to the Labor party who believe - and I would not waste the parliament’s time unless this was serious - who believe that the Beazley Labor government, if it gains power in Canberra at the next election, would overturn the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory and return power to Canberra. There is a simple way to get rid of this allegation, and that is to get an undertaking in writing from Kim Beazley …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: They may abuse me and laugh at me but your silence and Beazley’s silence is proof in itself that the attack on the judicial system is going, when we see...
Ms Martin: It is your fault.
Mr BURKE: The audacity of the Leader of the Opposition to widen the attack on the judiciary to now include judges, with the scurrilous attack on the fact that their terms and conditions are such that they could be compromised in the Northern Territory! We hear the sorts of comments that are coming out of Canberra from Robert McClelland. All of those things are worrying in themselves but what is very worrying is the latest source of information, who I will not name, but who tells me that this is a fact. I want the Leader of the Opposition to simply put this case to rest. Mr Beazley will be in the Northern Territory, I understand, this weekend. He can put this case to rest very simply by giving an undertaking to Territorians. He should do it …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr BURKE: If it is such a laughable issue he could do it today. He could have done it because my press release went out nationally. He could give an undertaking to Territorians that a Labor Beazley government, federally, will not return...
Ms Martin:Did you ring me?
Mr BURKE: You are irrelevant, that is the problem. You are irrelevant because none of your Labor people in the Northern Territory take any notice of what you say. If she took the time, and I’m sure she hasn’t, but if she took the time to read the comments of Senator Crossin in the debate on parliamentary secretaries in the Senate, she would be ashamed that a Labor Senator, a Northern Territory Senator, could speak so scurrilously about the Northern Territory, could laugh hilariously that we have a parliamentary secretary responsible for statehood. Other Labor spokesmen laughed hilariously that we have ministers responsible for youth and women’s affairs. They think that is hilarious.
Some of the comments in that particular debate only ...
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! We have had this rambling diatribe for about 10 minutes now.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This answer would have been over 5 minutes ago if there had not been so much interjection. I require the members of the opposition to remain silent - at a reasonable level at least - during Question Time.
Mr BURKE: Other comments point to, clearly, Labor Senators and Labor spokesmen federally who believe that the Northern Territory government is unworthy to ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Both the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition are going too far! Would you please remain silent.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, my case is simply that no matter how much the Leader of the Opposition giggles, she has her federal colleagues in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, on the record, saying that the Northern Territory government is unworthy of statehood, of self-government.
We also have the federal Labor spokesmen on legal affairs saying that the judicial system in the Northern Territory should come back under central control. I have further evidence that the Labor agenda is that, on achieving government, they will overturn the Self-Government Act and reappoint control back in Canberra because it has worked for them with some southern vote.
The Leader of the Opposition can dismiss this very easily. She can get a letter from the Leader of the Opposition …
Ms Martin: Dismiss what; your allegation?
Mr BURKE: Laughing at my allegations, if you like. He could be contemptuous in that letter about my remarks, as long as he says this: ‘A federal Labor government elected will not interfere in the Self-Government Act in the Northern Territory’, and that, to my mind, will be sufficient.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016