Mrs HICKEY - 1998-02-26
Is it not a fact that his government is in disarray? Is it not a fact that his party room is split on the Statehood Convention? Is it not a fact that his own party room is the source of most of the unsavoury rumours that circulate about him? Is it not a fact that his Minister for Health and his Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries are doing the numbers on him?
ANSWER
Is that your best shot? You have had 2 weeks, and this is the king hit?
Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is the person who summoned all
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the media at the beginning of the sittings and said: 'Stone will be gone by the end of the sittings'. She called a big press conference and said: 'It is all over. Bye-bye Shane, see you later'. She has absolutely no credibility. She has the distinction of having led the Labor Party in the Northern Territory to one of the most decisive defeats in its history. This is the most failed leader that Labor has ever had, and she is still there. When it went through the soul-searching about what it was doing wrong, what it had to do to win an election, what new strategies it needed to put in place, its own report came to the startling conclusion - not startling to this side of the Chamber - that it is 'poorly led and not fit to govern'.
What the Labor Party does not seem to understand is that the CLP is a very robust organisation. We have differences of opinion on policy matters. People stand up and express a point of view from time to time. That has been one of the great strengths of the CLP - its very pluralistic approach to politics in the Northern Territory. We have had examples of the Leader of the Opposition making remarks about a particular issue, only to be reeled in by the member for Arnhem on the instructions of the land councils. It appears that there can be no diversity of opinion on that side. They are so ideologically bound up in their own policies that they have nowhere to move.
There sit 7 separate factions. They went into their party room to vote on the leadership. Two received 3 votes each and another received 1. The fellow who got 1 vote said: 'If you make me the deputy, I will vote for you'. The member for Wanguri had voted for himself - a faction of one. He traded his support among the 7 dwarfs to ensure that the member for Barkly retained the leadership after the worst result in Labor's entire history. Not only did it lose a percentage of the vote, it actually lost one of its safest seats. It lost MacDonnell. What a bunch of total amateurs!
Mr Bailey: You lost Fannie Bay - a former Chief Minister's seat.
Mr STONE: What is said by the grubs on that side of the Chamber, and they are grubs, simply washes over me. I want to know how the Leader of the Opposition can now walk out of this Chamber at the end of these sittings and say to the media that the prediction she made was wrong. Once again, she got it wrong. They get it wrong because they are the biggest bunch of losers that have ever graced the political scene in the Northern Territory. They are destined to stay over on that side because, in their ever-diminishing numbers, they are more disunited that they have ever been in their history. Can you picture it? The voting was 3, 3 and 1: 'Maggie, I want to keep my job. You are in'.
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ANSWER
Is that your best shot? You have had 2 weeks, and this is the king hit?
Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is the person who summoned all
Page 13
the media at the beginning of the sittings and said: 'Stone will be gone by the end of the sittings'. She called a big press conference and said: 'It is all over. Bye-bye Shane, see you later'. She has absolutely no credibility. She has the distinction of having led the Labor Party in the Northern Territory to one of the most decisive defeats in its history. This is the most failed leader that Labor has ever had, and she is still there. When it went through the soul-searching about what it was doing wrong, what it had to do to win an election, what new strategies it needed to put in place, its own report came to the startling conclusion - not startling to this side of the Chamber - that it is 'poorly led and not fit to govern'.
What the Labor Party does not seem to understand is that the CLP is a very robust organisation. We have differences of opinion on policy matters. People stand up and express a point of view from time to time. That has been one of the great strengths of the CLP - its very pluralistic approach to politics in the Northern Territory. We have had examples of the Leader of the Opposition making remarks about a particular issue, only to be reeled in by the member for Arnhem on the instructions of the land councils. It appears that there can be no diversity of opinion on that side. They are so ideologically bound up in their own policies that they have nowhere to move.
There sit 7 separate factions. They went into their party room to vote on the leadership. Two received 3 votes each and another received 1. The fellow who got 1 vote said: 'If you make me the deputy, I will vote for you'. The member for Wanguri had voted for himself - a faction of one. He traded his support among the 7 dwarfs to ensure that the member for Barkly retained the leadership after the worst result in Labor's entire history. Not only did it lose a percentage of the vote, it actually lost one of its safest seats. It lost MacDonnell. What a bunch of total amateurs!
Mr Bailey: You lost Fannie Bay - a former Chief Minister's seat.
Mr STONE: What is said by the grubs on that side of the Chamber, and they are grubs, simply washes over me. I want to know how the Leader of the Opposition can now walk out of this Chamber at the end of these sittings and say to the media that the prediction she made was wrong. Once again, she got it wrong. They get it wrong because they are the biggest bunch of losers that have ever graced the political scene in the Northern Territory. They are destined to stay over on that side because, in their ever-diminishing numbers, they are more disunited that they have ever been in their history. Can you picture it? The voting was 3, 3 and 1: 'Maggie, I want to keep my job. You are in'.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016