Mr BALCH - 1998-11-24
Will the Chief Minister respond to allegations from the member for Nhulunbuy that the Country Liberal Party secretly videotaped focus group sessions and that these sessions are ‘secretly observed by Country Liberal Party officials and minders behind a viewing screen’?
Ms Martin: The Chief Minister knows about it. He has all the tapes.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will pick up the interjection from the member for Fannie Bay who said that I have all the tapes. I have no such tapes – understand that. This is a serious matter, and I can only assume that the member for Nhulunbuy made these allegations, serious allegations, with the full consent, and in the knowledge of …
Mr Ah Kit: Yep.
Mr STONE: ‘Yep’, says the member for Arnhem - of all of his parliamentary colleagues, and with the blessing and consent of the Leader of the Opposition. There he was on television, and there he appeared in the NT News with the headline ‘Government uses spy cameras’. And there is a very serious looking Syd, displaying documents which have never been produced at any time. I could either assume that he’s nave, or I could confirm, and perhaps he might confirm, that he made his way across to Cairns to meet with a man who, when I became Chief Minister, I immediately dismissed from the employ of government. I fired him on the first day that I became Chief Minister.
Mrs Martin: Why?
Mr STONE: Why, she asks. I’ll tell you why. This is a good manifestation of why. I don’t know just what Mr Andrew Coward told Mr Stirling, but quite obviously he has provided him with certain information including perhaps a tape, including perhaps documents which, if he did, he stole from my office, the office of the Chief Minister.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Nhulunbuy. You are just overacting.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, just so Territorians who are listening to this broadcast understand, focus groups are about market research. They are carried out by people who make dog food, breakfast food, tropical fish breeders and political parties and governments. It is carried out professionally. I know that government market research is carried out professionally and that certain rules apply. Perhaps the member for Nhulunbuy didn’t know, Madam Speaker, and it needs to be stated publicly, that there is a code about how you conduct yourself when you invite people to participate in a focus group and what you can and can’t do. It is only when people’s privacy is guaranteed and protected that people agree.
Mr Stirling: There is no privacy legislation in the Northern Territory.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, the member for Nhulunbuy interjects that there is no privacy legislation in the Northern Territory. Is this intended as a justification for what the member for Nhulunbuy now proposes to do? I quote from the code:
That is the code that people such as Mr Andrew Coward are supposed to adhere to. I ask the question: If Mr Coward showed Mr Stirling the video, or the person who did, did they seek permission from the researcher to view the tape or ask the researcher to obtain clearances from the respondents for the viewing of this tape?
Mr Toyne: That’s not the question.
Mr STONE: It is the question! It’s exactly the point! Because the member for Nhulunbuy has stated he’s going to produce all of this here in the parliament. Can we take it that having viewed the tape - which he had no right to view, because quite clearly it is stolen, it has been removed unlawfully - has he gone around and squared it off with everybody who might appear in the tape? Is this another example of the member for Nhulunbuy, as he did 2 weeks in a row, standing up waving around papers saying: ‘Just you wait’. This is someone who cries ‘wolf’. Now, he has a responsibility, having made these claims and these allegations, to come clean. This is the man who believes that there are one-way viewing areas in hotels around Darwin and Alice Springs.
This is where you tripped yourself up because you said in your press release that this had been filmed secretly. This is what you said: ‘The entire exercise is secretly videotaped and secretly observed by Country Liberal Party officials and minders behind a viewing wall’.
This is the day of truth. He either puts up or he shuts up. This is typical of the sort of allegations that the member for Nhulunbuy, with the consent of the Leader of the Opposition, makes on a very regular basis, and you try to get away with it.
Ms Martin: The Chief Minister knows about it. He has all the tapes.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will pick up the interjection from the member for Fannie Bay who said that I have all the tapes. I have no such tapes – understand that. This is a serious matter, and I can only assume that the member for Nhulunbuy made these allegations, serious allegations, with the full consent, and in the knowledge of …
Mr Ah Kit: Yep.
Mr STONE: ‘Yep’, says the member for Arnhem - of all of his parliamentary colleagues, and with the blessing and consent of the Leader of the Opposition. There he was on television, and there he appeared in the NT News with the headline ‘Government uses spy cameras’. And there is a very serious looking Syd, displaying documents which have never been produced at any time. I could either assume that he’s nave, or I could confirm, and perhaps he might confirm, that he made his way across to Cairns to meet with a man who, when I became Chief Minister, I immediately dismissed from the employ of government. I fired him on the first day that I became Chief Minister.
Mrs Martin: Why?
Mr STONE: Why, she asks. I’ll tell you why. This is a good manifestation of why. I don’t know just what Mr Andrew Coward told Mr Stirling, but quite obviously he has provided him with certain information including perhaps a tape, including perhaps documents which, if he did, he stole from my office, the office of the Chief Minister.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Nhulunbuy. You are just overacting.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, just so Territorians who are listening to this broadcast understand, focus groups are about market research. They are carried out by people who make dog food, breakfast food, tropical fish breeders and political parties and governments. It is carried out professionally. I know that government market research is carried out professionally and that certain rules apply. Perhaps the member for Nhulunbuy didn’t know, Madam Speaker, and it needs to be stated publicly, that there is a code about how you conduct yourself when you invite people to participate in a focus group and what you can and can’t do. It is only when people’s privacy is guaranteed and protected that people agree.
Mr Stirling: There is no privacy legislation in the Northern Territory.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, the member for Nhulunbuy interjects that there is no privacy legislation in the Northern Territory. Is this intended as a justification for what the member for Nhulunbuy now proposes to do? I quote from the code:
- Respondents anonymity must be strictly preserved. If the respondent on request from the researcher has given permission for data to be passed on in a form which allows that respondent to be personally identified:
That is the code that people such as Mr Andrew Coward are supposed to adhere to. I ask the question: If Mr Coward showed Mr Stirling the video, or the person who did, did they seek permission from the researcher to view the tape or ask the researcher to obtain clearances from the respondents for the viewing of this tape?
Mr Toyne: That’s not the question.
Mr STONE: It is the question! It’s exactly the point! Because the member for Nhulunbuy has stated he’s going to produce all of this here in the parliament. Can we take it that having viewed the tape - which he had no right to view, because quite clearly it is stolen, it has been removed unlawfully - has he gone around and squared it off with everybody who might appear in the tape? Is this another example of the member for Nhulunbuy, as he did 2 weeks in a row, standing up waving around papers saying: ‘Just you wait’. This is someone who cries ‘wolf’. Now, he has a responsibility, having made these claims and these allegations, to come clean. This is the man who believes that there are one-way viewing areas in hotels around Darwin and Alice Springs.
This is where you tripped yourself up because you said in your press release that this had been filmed secretly. This is what you said: ‘The entire exercise is secretly videotaped and secretly observed by Country Liberal Party officials and minders behind a viewing wall’.
This is the day of truth. He either puts up or he shuts up. This is typical of the sort of allegations that the member for Nhulunbuy, with the consent of the Leader of the Opposition, makes on a very regular basis, and you try to get away with it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016