Mr ELFERINK - 2000-08-17
The Deputy Chief Minister has been required to correct a number of bare-faced misrepresentations made by the members opposite during these sittings. The latest one is a scare campaign by Labor suggesting that the public service leave conditions are under threat. Can the minister again rebut Labor’s misleading claims on recreation leave?
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! That question was asked first-up this morning and it has been dealt with by the minister.
Mr SPEAKER: The member is entitled to ask the question.
Mr Stirling: It’s the same question. Do you have a different answer? Are you going to jump up and tell us you are going to put …
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member for Nhulunbuy will please refrain from interjection. Member for Macdonnell, have you completed the question?
Mr ELFERINK: I have completed the question.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it isn’t repetition, as interjected by the …
Mr Toyne: Why don’t you get your act together over there? The question has already been asked.
Mr REED: Act responsibly. You have a job to do. Why don’t you get on and do it?
It is a very appropriate question asked by the member for Macdonnell. He referred specifically to recreation leave. It is most inappropriate that a destructive position should be raised, bringing the entitlement of public servants to recreation leave into question, when there is absolutely …
Mr Stirling: You brought it into question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, member for Nhulunbuy!
Mr REED: There is no risk whatsoever of public servants losing any of their recreation leave. It is a historic and enshrined entitlement. To be further destructive, to be further derogatory in terms of unsettling the wellbeing of Territorians, the Leader of the Opposition has now asked CEOs to distribute her comment to all public servants, saying they are going to lose recreation leave. If that is what she would do in disrupting the public servants, distracting their attention unnecessarily from the work that they are doing on behalf of all Territorians, it clearly demonstrates that she has no capacity to be responsible, no capacity to be constructive and no capacity to be positive.
Let us have a look at some of the …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition!
Mr REED: … other matters that she has raised during the course of these sittings and has had to be corrected on.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! In answer to the question from the member for Macdonnell, for the second time this morning he is going into other areas.
Mr SPEAKER: I am prepared to hear it this at this stage. I have not detected that it is straying from the question.
Mr REED: We heard, in addition to the erroneous suggestion that annual leave was under threat, that we were undergoing a recession. Not so. The economy is sound. It continues to grow and employment levels are very strong. We heard that the Leader of the Opposition had $1.50 in relation to her entertainment expenses when in fact so far until 31 May this year she has spent $12 728.90.
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! This has nothing to do with recreation leave. It is straying from the question.
Mr SPEAKER: No, the member referred to a number of misleading statements by the Leader of the Opposition, and in that light I have to say it he has not wandered. Are you continuing?
Mr REED: I have not finished, Mr Speaker. In relation to …
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If he wants to talk about my entertainment bills, for this year it is $4000. Let’s have it quite straight.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am not going to take part in the slanging match across the Chamber. I cannot judge whose figure is right. Let us hear the minister’s answer. If you wish to make any comment beyond that …
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: Last week the Opposition Leader, asked how much she spent on entertainment, blatantly and arrogantly said $1.50. So far, to the end of May, it exceeds $12 000. So let’s get the facts right. She is not good with facts, but we are going to remind her of them as they pertain to her own behaviour.
Her integrity was called into question by none other than the Police Commissioner this week when she eroded the public image of police by quite incorrectly saying that they were under-resourced. The Police Commissioner had to respond in defence of his troops, who work hard to service Territorians. She could be nothing less than destructive in that regard. The Police Commissioner is not one who is easily drawn into public debate. It has to be a serious issue, as it was following the derogatory remarks made by the Leader of the Opposition, for him to get involved.
We had the good member for Wanguri, in relation to the toxic concoction of waste that was about to spill …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! Now he is wavering off the question. The original question referred to the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr REED: No, the opposition.
Mr SPEAKER: Because there was so much interjection when the question was being asked, perhaps we could hear that part of the question which referred to other members.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Speaker, speaking to the point of order, I referred to the members opposite.
Mr SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr REED: Trying to dramatise a situation that was not dramatic at all, he referred to a toxic concoction - that is to say, Darwin residents were about to be consumed by this toxic concoction It happened to be remnant sludge that was caught in what - caught in a trap designed to trap remnant sludge. That is how the members opposite misrepresent the facts and try and create unnecessary concerns among Territorians.
I give a further example. The Leader of the Opposition quite blatantly claims that the government did not forewarn the construction industry of a downturn in the Northern Territory. I draw her attention to my budget speech, the Treasurer’s budget speech, on page 5 of Budget Paper No 1 1999-2000 and page 4 of Budget Paper No 1 2000-01, in which I specifically and quite deliberately drew attention to the fact that we were coming out of very high levels of construction activity and as a result of that there would be an experience of the construction industry reducing to more normal levels of activity, compared with the historic levels of the last six or eight years with the build up of the Defence Force.
It is important that these inconsistencies, these deliberate and deceitful misrepresentations of the facts as presented by the Leader of the Opposition, are represented to people listening to this broadcast, and further that they are put on the public record. The Leader of the Opposition only yesterday said that the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment cannot fill the five vacant positions for planners. Three have already been filled, and the process to fill the other two continues. That was a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts.
Stop being destructive. Stop being derogatory. Stop being negative. Try to be constructive, try to be positive and, most of all, try to be useful. You have not been useful in serving Territorians and fulfilling the responsibilities of your job over this last period of sittings.
Probably the daddy of them all, or in your case the mummy of them all, was the quite blatant misrepresentation of the facts, completely ignoring what she said previously – or she doesn’t remember what she has said previously - in starting her political profession. I quote the Sunday Territorian headline on 13 February 1994: ‘Martin Starts in Old-Fashioned Way – By Lying’. That was the start of your political career. That was the view of the media in relation to how you behave.
Your performance throughout the course of these sittings has clearly proved that that is not only your philosophy but also your practice. You have demonstrated it very well during the course of these sittings.
Speaking about drugs, trying to get an emotive issue before the public eye so that they can present themselves as looking like doing something, suggesting that illegal drugs are awash on the streets and police are doing nothing about them, what is her view of an illegal drug? In her own words, marijuana is much the same thing as having a glass of whisky or a drink of red wine’. Channel 8 TV news, 8 June 1995, on the public record.
You cannot get away with it with the mirthful chuckle that you are presenting now. It is instructive that she started in her old-fashioned way, lying when entering the political profession, and she commits to that philosophy and practice in this House. This has been demonstrated by those matters that I have alluded to during the course of answering this very responsible question from the good member for Macdonnell.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! That question was asked first-up this morning and it has been dealt with by the minister.
Mr SPEAKER: The member is entitled to ask the question.
Mr Stirling: It’s the same question. Do you have a different answer? Are you going to jump up and tell us you are going to put …
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member for Nhulunbuy will please refrain from interjection. Member for Macdonnell, have you completed the question?
Mr ELFERINK: I have completed the question.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it isn’t repetition, as interjected by the …
Mr Toyne: Why don’t you get your act together over there? The question has already been asked.
Mr REED: Act responsibly. You have a job to do. Why don’t you get on and do it?
It is a very appropriate question asked by the member for Macdonnell. He referred specifically to recreation leave. It is most inappropriate that a destructive position should be raised, bringing the entitlement of public servants to recreation leave into question, when there is absolutely …
Mr Stirling: You brought it into question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, member for Nhulunbuy!
Mr REED: There is no risk whatsoever of public servants losing any of their recreation leave. It is a historic and enshrined entitlement. To be further destructive, to be further derogatory in terms of unsettling the wellbeing of Territorians, the Leader of the Opposition has now asked CEOs to distribute her comment to all public servants, saying they are going to lose recreation leave. If that is what she would do in disrupting the public servants, distracting their attention unnecessarily from the work that they are doing on behalf of all Territorians, it clearly demonstrates that she has no capacity to be responsible, no capacity to be constructive and no capacity to be positive.
Let us have a look at some of the …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition!
Mr REED: … other matters that she has raised during the course of these sittings and has had to be corrected on.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! In answer to the question from the member for Macdonnell, for the second time this morning he is going into other areas.
Mr SPEAKER: I am prepared to hear it this at this stage. I have not detected that it is straying from the question.
Mr REED: We heard, in addition to the erroneous suggestion that annual leave was under threat, that we were undergoing a recession. Not so. The economy is sound. It continues to grow and employment levels are very strong. We heard that the Leader of the Opposition had $1.50 in relation to her entertainment expenses when in fact so far until 31 May this year she has spent $12 728.90.
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! This has nothing to do with recreation leave. It is straying from the question.
Mr SPEAKER: No, the member referred to a number of misleading statements by the Leader of the Opposition, and in that light I have to say it he has not wandered. Are you continuing?
Mr REED: I have not finished, Mr Speaker. In relation to …
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If he wants to talk about my entertainment bills, for this year it is $4000. Let’s have it quite straight.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am not going to take part in the slanging match across the Chamber. I cannot judge whose figure is right. Let us hear the minister’s answer. If you wish to make any comment beyond that …
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: Last week the Opposition Leader, asked how much she spent on entertainment, blatantly and arrogantly said $1.50. So far, to the end of May, it exceeds $12 000. So let’s get the facts right. She is not good with facts, but we are going to remind her of them as they pertain to her own behaviour.
Her integrity was called into question by none other than the Police Commissioner this week when she eroded the public image of police by quite incorrectly saying that they were under-resourced. The Police Commissioner had to respond in defence of his troops, who work hard to service Territorians. She could be nothing less than destructive in that regard. The Police Commissioner is not one who is easily drawn into public debate. It has to be a serious issue, as it was following the derogatory remarks made by the Leader of the Opposition, for him to get involved.
We had the good member for Wanguri, in relation to the toxic concoction of waste that was about to spill …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! Now he is wavering off the question. The original question referred to the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr REED: No, the opposition.
Mr SPEAKER: Because there was so much interjection when the question was being asked, perhaps we could hear that part of the question which referred to other members.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Speaker, speaking to the point of order, I referred to the members opposite.
Mr SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr REED: Trying to dramatise a situation that was not dramatic at all, he referred to a toxic concoction - that is to say, Darwin residents were about to be consumed by this toxic concoction It happened to be remnant sludge that was caught in what - caught in a trap designed to trap remnant sludge. That is how the members opposite misrepresent the facts and try and create unnecessary concerns among Territorians.
I give a further example. The Leader of the Opposition quite blatantly claims that the government did not forewarn the construction industry of a downturn in the Northern Territory. I draw her attention to my budget speech, the Treasurer’s budget speech, on page 5 of Budget Paper No 1 1999-2000 and page 4 of Budget Paper No 1 2000-01, in which I specifically and quite deliberately drew attention to the fact that we were coming out of very high levels of construction activity and as a result of that there would be an experience of the construction industry reducing to more normal levels of activity, compared with the historic levels of the last six or eight years with the build up of the Defence Force.
It is important that these inconsistencies, these deliberate and deceitful misrepresentations of the facts as presented by the Leader of the Opposition, are represented to people listening to this broadcast, and further that they are put on the public record. The Leader of the Opposition only yesterday said that the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment cannot fill the five vacant positions for planners. Three have already been filled, and the process to fill the other two continues. That was a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts.
Stop being destructive. Stop being derogatory. Stop being negative. Try to be constructive, try to be positive and, most of all, try to be useful. You have not been useful in serving Territorians and fulfilling the responsibilities of your job over this last period of sittings.
Probably the daddy of them all, or in your case the mummy of them all, was the quite blatant misrepresentation of the facts, completely ignoring what she said previously – or she doesn’t remember what she has said previously - in starting her political profession. I quote the Sunday Territorian headline on 13 February 1994: ‘Martin Starts in Old-Fashioned Way – By Lying’. That was the start of your political career. That was the view of the media in relation to how you behave.
Your performance throughout the course of these sittings has clearly proved that that is not only your philosophy but also your practice. You have demonstrated it very well during the course of these sittings.
Speaking about drugs, trying to get an emotive issue before the public eye so that they can present themselves as looking like doing something, suggesting that illegal drugs are awash on the streets and police are doing nothing about them, what is her view of an illegal drug? In her own words, marijuana is much the same thing as having a glass of whisky or a drink of red wine’. Channel 8 TV news, 8 June 1995, on the public record.
You cannot get away with it with the mirthful chuckle that you are presenting now. It is instructive that she started in her old-fashioned way, lying when entering the political profession, and she commits to that philosophy and practice in this House. This has been demonstrated by those matters that I have alluded to during the course of answering this very responsible question from the good member for Macdonnell.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016