Mrs HICKEY - 1998-11-25
Two months ago I asked you to rebut the allegations made against you by long term senior Country Liberal Party adviser, Andrew Coward. All agree that if these allegations against the Chief Minister are upheld, he will be forced to leave his office in disgrace. The Chief Minister responded to me by saying his accuser should be disregarded as irrelevant because he was merely a disgruntled employee who was driven by malice.
Will the Chief Minister tell the House why his health minister, Denis Burke, did not think he was irrelevant and rang Mr Coward? Did Minister Burke make contact with Mr Coward at your instigation, or was it behind your back, and will you now respond in a proper fashion to the accusations that have been made?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, Andrew Coward never worked for me. Never! Andrew Coward’s employment was terminated the day I became Chief Minister. I didn’t like him. I didn’t trust him. I treated him fairly. If I made a mistake in all of this, it was that, as a senior minister, I should have gone to the Chief Minister of the day and said all of those things to him before I became the Chief Minister and campaigned to remove him from the service of government.
Andrew Coward did not make any allegations about me. That is the bottom line in all of this. So, whilst the Leader of the Opposition gets to her feet, and yet again Labor lies, he did not actually make any allegations about me.
In relation to Minister Burke ringing Andrew Coward, I did not ask him to do that. The minister spoke to me about it after he had spoken to Mr Coward. But it is time that the Labor Party put up or shut up, because for weeks now, you have been running around out there in the public domain, waving around bits of paper saying that you have videos. ‘Just you wait, just you wait’. That is the cry of the member for Nhulunbuy: ‘Just you wait’. Well, we are waiting, we are waiting, and I cannot wait much longer, Syd, because the anticipation is killing me. Please come clean!
Mr Stirling: You have 4 more days to go.
Mr STONE: You say ‘4 more days’, but you lot have a major credibility problem, because we are waiting for you. Put it on the table.
What is the allegation in all of this. Let Territorians have a very clear understanding that this is the worst case scenario as put forward by Andrew Coward. It is that when a previous government did some polling - a previous government, not this government - they gave some information to the CLP administrative wing. That is the allegation. That is it! I mean, I am dumbfounded.
You have had every opportunity to come in here – 2 sittings now, because you started this in the last sittings. Put something on the table and give us something to respond to. Don’t just run around out there and say: ‘Just you wait, just you wait’.
Mr Reed: Labor lies.
Mr STONE: Labor lies.
Mr Bailey: Respond to it.
Mr STONE: Respond to what? This is the problem. What am I responding to?
Mr Coulter: Whispers, Chinese whispers.
Mr STONE: A whispering campaign. Get real, you lot. This is why Territorians have come to the view that you are not fit to govern, because you are weakly led, poorly led, and you cannot be trusted.
Will the Chief Minister tell the House why his health minister, Denis Burke, did not think he was irrelevant and rang Mr Coward? Did Minister Burke make contact with Mr Coward at your instigation, or was it behind your back, and will you now respond in a proper fashion to the accusations that have been made?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, Andrew Coward never worked for me. Never! Andrew Coward’s employment was terminated the day I became Chief Minister. I didn’t like him. I didn’t trust him. I treated him fairly. If I made a mistake in all of this, it was that, as a senior minister, I should have gone to the Chief Minister of the day and said all of those things to him before I became the Chief Minister and campaigned to remove him from the service of government.
Andrew Coward did not make any allegations about me. That is the bottom line in all of this. So, whilst the Leader of the Opposition gets to her feet, and yet again Labor lies, he did not actually make any allegations about me.
In relation to Minister Burke ringing Andrew Coward, I did not ask him to do that. The minister spoke to me about it after he had spoken to Mr Coward. But it is time that the Labor Party put up or shut up, because for weeks now, you have been running around out there in the public domain, waving around bits of paper saying that you have videos. ‘Just you wait, just you wait’. That is the cry of the member for Nhulunbuy: ‘Just you wait’. Well, we are waiting, we are waiting, and I cannot wait much longer, Syd, because the anticipation is killing me. Please come clean!
Mr Stirling: You have 4 more days to go.
Mr STONE: You say ‘4 more days’, but you lot have a major credibility problem, because we are waiting for you. Put it on the table.
What is the allegation in all of this. Let Territorians have a very clear understanding that this is the worst case scenario as put forward by Andrew Coward. It is that when a previous government did some polling - a previous government, not this government - they gave some information to the CLP administrative wing. That is the allegation. That is it! I mean, I am dumbfounded.
You have had every opportunity to come in here – 2 sittings now, because you started this in the last sittings. Put something on the table and give us something to respond to. Don’t just run around out there and say: ‘Just you wait, just you wait’.
Mr Reed: Labor lies.
Mr STONE: Labor lies.
Mr Bailey: Respond to it.
Mr STONE: Respond to what? This is the problem. What am I responding to?
Mr Coulter: Whispers, Chinese whispers.
Mr STONE: A whispering campaign. Get real, you lot. This is why Territorians have come to the view that you are not fit to govern, because you are weakly led, poorly led, and you cannot be trusted.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016