Mrs HICKEY - 1997-12-01
The Deputy Chief Minister has exposed himself as a liar and a hypocrite.
Mr COULTER: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mrs HICKEY: When is the Chief Minister going to sack him?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat.
Mr COULTER: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has been a member of this House long enough to know that, if she wants to call the Deputy Chief Minister a liar, she may do so only by means of a substantive motion. I ask that she withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw the remark.
Mrs HICKEY: I withdraw the remark and rephrase my question, Madam Speaker, with your indulgence. The Deputy Chief Minister has exposed himself as someone who is easy with the truth, and he is a hypocrite. When will the Chief Minister sack him?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I was feeling a little neglected this morning because the Leader of the Opposition had not asked any questions of me. I am reminded of events in 1994 when the member for Wanguri was complaining. I am not sure whether he was Deputy Leader of the Opposition at the time. He may have been the Whip. He was complaining bitterly about tactics that were being used against him. This brings me to 2 points this morning as to why the Labor Party has no credibility on this issue. The first is ...
Mr Toyne: Answer the question.
Mr Stirling: Answer the question.
Mr STONE: Members opposite may interject, but I ask that they give people listening to this broadcast an opportunity to hear the answer.
The reason that the Labor Party has no credibility on this issue is that, firstly, as was conceded by the member for Nhulunbuy on radio this morning, members opposite have known about this for some considerable period of time. If, in fact, it was such a big deal ...
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: If it was such a big issue ...
Mrs Hickey: Nobody believes him. You do not believe him.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... why did the Labor Party not say something about it earlier?
Mr Bailey: He had not done anything wrong.
Mr Burke: Well, leave him alone.
Mr Stirling: But he lied about what he did.
Mr Burke interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I ask the Chief Minister to resume his seat. There is no point in continuing with this debate. Members are wasting Question Time when there are continuous interjections from both sides of the House. Members have been told on numerous occasions that interjections are meant to be short, sharp and shiny. When members go on and on, they simply waste everyone’s time.
Mr STONE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will make the point again. The member for Nhulunbuy was spluttering and spurting on radio this morning because he was caught out. If, in fact, he had known about this issue for some time, why did he not bring it to public attention? I will tell you why he did not bring it to public attention. It was because, as was interjected by a member opposite, the Deputy Chief Minister had done nothing wrong. That is exactly right.
The Labor Party has come in here with what can only be described as trivial muckraking. Members opposite are good at it. I started answering this question by referring to an event in 1994 that I was reminded of. It was heard first on 8DDD radio. This is an extract:
Well, it seems, somewhere out there, there is a picture of Deputy Opposition Leader, John Bailey, and a collection of dildos, vibrators and condoms.
John Bailey says the picture is
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perfectly innocent.
Reporter: What does this photo show that has been written, but we have not had the opportunity here to see it?
Bailey: Well, I would have to say I am not 100% sure of what it does show.
Reporter: So you have not seen it either?
He then talked about where he thought it might have come from. The transcript continues:
There was an article in the Sunday Territorian on 6 March 1994 written by Nigel Adlam: ‘The CLP has been accused of waging a dirty war after the release
of a photograph of a Labor MP surrounded by condoms. The picture has been photocopied and sent to many NT government departments. It shows
Wanguri MLA, John Bailey, standing on a platform, surrounded by a display of condoms and dildos. “It is quite a normal, innocent photograph”, Mr Bailey
said. ‘Obviously it is being distributed by the CLP. It is a really nasty, dirty-tricks campaign because it is an election year. They are trying to create an image
in the community that I am some sort of immoral, improper person, a pervert”’.
My point in raising the article - and I can assure the member for Wanguri that the CLP was not sending out photographs about him ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
A member: Fairies in the garden!
Mr Reed: You can’t help yourself!
Mr STONE: You cannot help yourself. I make the point that the very thing that the member for Wanguri and the Labor Party complain about, they now seek to do. They talk out of both sides of their mouths.
Mr Bailey: I told people about the issue.
Mr STONE: You complained. Let me say this to the member for Wanguri: I accept his explanation that it was a perfectly innocent photograph, that it involved nothing improper. I ask members opposite why they come into this Chamber and muckrake and get into the gutter over the same sort of thing as they thermselves have complained about?
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: You have no credibility.
Mr Bailey: What did he say, over and over again, attacking homosexuals? And he is ...
Mr STONE: You have absolutely no credibility ...
Mr Bailey: ... lying about it.
Mr STONE: ... on this issue for the very simple reason that you sat on the story. You contrived it ...
Mr Stirling: What story? He had done nothing wrong.
Mr STONE: You contrived it, and you now seek to do what you complained about in the past.
Ms Martin: No one will trust him. Sack him!
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, before I sit down, let me say that the Deputy Chief Minister has my unqualified support and confidence. Had members opposite bothered to ask that question at the very beginning, I would have stated it quite happily.
Finally, I wonder whether the member for Nhulunbuy has managed, as a matter of courtesy, to obtain for me a copy of that syllabus in which he said that I am held up as an example. In an adjournment debate last week, he mumbled and spluttered that perhaps, if he ever did a course ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: I have only ever asked if I might see the syllabus, as a matter of courtesy, because the member for Nhulunbuy went out with great glee and showed it to the media who slavishly printed it all.
Mr Stirling: Treating him lightly - par for the course.
Mr STONE: Absolutely right! Stone v the Northern Territory Law Society: all charges dismissed and costs awarded against the Law Society. Go and read it! That is the case. It is one that I won! Thank you. You are a gem. You are fantastic. You are the greatest gift to the CLP ever.
Page 47
Madam Speaker, I am indebted to the member for Nhulunbuy because that was the case: Stone v the Northern Territory Law Society - misconduct charges thrown out and an order for costs against the Law Society.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: You went out and told the media ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: I hope there are news editors sitting in their offices now, saying: ‘Oh, dear. We published this without getting a copy of the syllabus from the member for Nhulunbuy’. It can be summed up in one word. It is called defamation.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: The member for Nhulunbuy was smart - he did it in the House. But who was the dummy who went out on the front steps and picked up what he had told her? The member for Barkly and Leader of the Opposition! She has been suckered. She has been conned by her own Whip. Why? Because they are so lazy and incompetent that they do not research their topics properly. They have the wrong case, the dills!
Page 48
Mr COULTER: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mrs HICKEY: When is the Chief Minister going to sack him?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat.
Mr COULTER: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has been a member of this House long enough to know that, if she wants to call the Deputy Chief Minister a liar, she may do so only by means of a substantive motion. I ask that she withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw the remark.
Mrs HICKEY: I withdraw the remark and rephrase my question, Madam Speaker, with your indulgence. The Deputy Chief Minister has exposed himself as someone who is easy with the truth, and he is a hypocrite. When will the Chief Minister sack him?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I was feeling a little neglected this morning because the Leader of the Opposition had not asked any questions of me. I am reminded of events in 1994 when the member for Wanguri was complaining. I am not sure whether he was Deputy Leader of the Opposition at the time. He may have been the Whip. He was complaining bitterly about tactics that were being used against him. This brings me to 2 points this morning as to why the Labor Party has no credibility on this issue. The first is ...
Mr Toyne: Answer the question.
Mr Stirling: Answer the question.
Mr STONE: Members opposite may interject, but I ask that they give people listening to this broadcast an opportunity to hear the answer.
The reason that the Labor Party has no credibility on this issue is that, firstly, as was conceded by the member for Nhulunbuy on radio this morning, members opposite have known about this for some considerable period of time. If, in fact, it was such a big deal ...
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: If it was such a big issue ...
Mrs Hickey: Nobody believes him. You do not believe him.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... why did the Labor Party not say something about it earlier?
Mr Bailey: He had not done anything wrong.
Mr Burke: Well, leave him alone.
Mr Stirling: But he lied about what he did.
Mr Burke interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I ask the Chief Minister to resume his seat. There is no point in continuing with this debate. Members are wasting Question Time when there are continuous interjections from both sides of the House. Members have been told on numerous occasions that interjections are meant to be short, sharp and shiny. When members go on and on, they simply waste everyone’s time.
Mr STONE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will make the point again. The member for Nhulunbuy was spluttering and spurting on radio this morning because he was caught out. If, in fact, he had known about this issue for some time, why did he not bring it to public attention? I will tell you why he did not bring it to public attention. It was because, as was interjected by a member opposite, the Deputy Chief Minister had done nothing wrong. That is exactly right.
The Labor Party has come in here with what can only be described as trivial muckraking. Members opposite are good at it. I started answering this question by referring to an event in 1994 that I was reminded of. It was heard first on 8DDD radio. This is an extract:
Well, it seems, somewhere out there, there is a picture of Deputy Opposition Leader, John Bailey, and a collection of dildos, vibrators and condoms.
John Bailey says the picture is
Page 46
perfectly innocent.
Reporter: What does this photo show that has been written, but we have not had the opportunity here to see it?
Bailey: Well, I would have to say I am not 100% sure of what it does show.
Reporter: So you have not seen it either?
He then talked about where he thought it might have come from. The transcript continues:
There was an article in the Sunday Territorian on 6 March 1994 written by Nigel Adlam: ‘The CLP has been accused of waging a dirty war after the release
of a photograph of a Labor MP surrounded by condoms. The picture has been photocopied and sent to many NT government departments. It shows
Wanguri MLA, John Bailey, standing on a platform, surrounded by a display of condoms and dildos. “It is quite a normal, innocent photograph”, Mr Bailey
said. ‘Obviously it is being distributed by the CLP. It is a really nasty, dirty-tricks campaign because it is an election year. They are trying to create an image
in the community that I am some sort of immoral, improper person, a pervert”’.
My point in raising the article - and I can assure the member for Wanguri that the CLP was not sending out photographs about him ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
A member: Fairies in the garden!
Mr Reed: You can’t help yourself!
Mr STONE: You cannot help yourself. I make the point that the very thing that the member for Wanguri and the Labor Party complain about, they now seek to do. They talk out of both sides of their mouths.
Mr Bailey: I told people about the issue.
Mr STONE: You complained. Let me say this to the member for Wanguri: I accept his explanation that it was a perfectly innocent photograph, that it involved nothing improper. I ask members opposite why they come into this Chamber and muckrake and get into the gutter over the same sort of thing as they thermselves have complained about?
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: You have no credibility.
Mr Bailey: What did he say, over and over again, attacking homosexuals? And he is ...
Mr STONE: You have absolutely no credibility ...
Mr Bailey: ... lying about it.
Mr STONE: ... on this issue for the very simple reason that you sat on the story. You contrived it ...
Mr Stirling: What story? He had done nothing wrong.
Mr STONE: You contrived it, and you now seek to do what you complained about in the past.
Ms Martin: No one will trust him. Sack him!
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, before I sit down, let me say that the Deputy Chief Minister has my unqualified support and confidence. Had members opposite bothered to ask that question at the very beginning, I would have stated it quite happily.
Finally, I wonder whether the member for Nhulunbuy has managed, as a matter of courtesy, to obtain for me a copy of that syllabus in which he said that I am held up as an example. In an adjournment debate last week, he mumbled and spluttered that perhaps, if he ever did a course ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: I have only ever asked if I might see the syllabus, as a matter of courtesy, because the member for Nhulunbuy went out with great glee and showed it to the media who slavishly printed it all.
Mr Stirling: Treating him lightly - par for the course.
Mr STONE: Absolutely right! Stone v the Northern Territory Law Society: all charges dismissed and costs awarded against the Law Society. Go and read it! That is the case. It is one that I won! Thank you. You are a gem. You are fantastic. You are the greatest gift to the CLP ever.
Page 47
Madam Speaker, I am indebted to the member for Nhulunbuy because that was the case: Stone v the Northern Territory Law Society - misconduct charges thrown out and an order for costs against the Law Society.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: You went out and told the media ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr STONE: I hope there are news editors sitting in their offices now, saying: ‘Oh, dear. We published this without getting a copy of the syllabus from the member for Nhulunbuy’. It can be summed up in one word. It is called defamation.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: The member for Nhulunbuy was smart - he did it in the House. But who was the dummy who went out on the front steps and picked up what he had told her? The member for Barkly and Leader of the Opposition! She has been suckered. She has been conned by her own Whip. Why? Because they are so lazy and incompetent that they do not research their topics properly. They have the wrong case, the dills!
Page 48
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016