Mr STIRLING - 1998-12-02
Madam Speaker,I seek leave to table a copy of a fax sent to his senior political adviser, Paul Cowdy, by the Country Liberal Party’s advertising agent.
Leave granted.
Mr Stone: May I have a copy please?
Mr STIRLING: Yes. It tells the CLP how its 1990 election campaign will be run. Unlike the Chief Minister, I have 3 copies. Exactly what I want to table, all the pages that I refer to, are in there.
Page 4 makes it clear that the voter opinion research paid for by taxpayers is being used to design the CLP’s campaign strategy. The report states:
By the time the election hits, presumably they will need some hip-pocket bribery as well ...
As we have nothing significant to say, we should consider singing it - a jingle may well be appropriate ...
They seem to resent the treatment/benefits given to Aboriginals on the rational basis that they cannot get these handouts. It’s not traditional racism as a poor man’s snobbery.
Does the Chief Minister accept this assessment by the agency of the way to conduct the election campaigns, and does he think it is reasonable that Aboriginal Territorians are disgusted that the CLP spent taxpayers’ dollars to help design a disgraceful election campaign aimed at them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the member indicated a date. Where does the date appear?
Mr Stirling: It was the 1990 election campaign.
Mr STONE: Where does it say that?
Mr Bailey: Front page: 5/9/90, strictly confidential, attention Paul Cowdy, from Tony Ralph.
Mr STONE: I don’t see any date, Madam Speaker.
Mrs Hickey: 5 September 1990.
Mr Coulter: The cover sheet.
Mr Burke: Anyone could write that.
Mr STONE: Well, this is exactly right. Anyone could write it. Look, we had an example yesterday ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I will come back to that. I will deal with this first. On 5 September 1990, I was not in this parliament and I was not the president of the CLP. Let us get that squarely on the public record.
Mr Stirling: You were a candidate for the ballot.
Mr STONE: Well, I must have been the most powerful candidate who ever walked the earth.
Mr Coulter: You ran the election campaign!
Mr STONE: Here in the Territory, I was running the government, I was running the campaign, so powerful were my tentacles in the system. This is the stuff of fantasy. On 5 September 1990, I was not president of the CLP.
Ms Martin: You’re the Chief Minister.
Mr STONE: I was not the Chief Minister then, you fool. I hadn’t even been elected to parliament at that stage of the game, and Paul Cowdy didn’t work for me. It’s that simple. When you want to put something to me that relates to when I wasn’t even in government, then you are drawing a very long bow.
I’ll start again where I wanted to start. Yesterday we had the classic example of: ‘Cop this document. Answer these questions. We have you on the run’. The only problem is that it came back to haunt the Leader of the Opposition because the document is a forgery.
Mrs Hickey: A forgery?
Mr STONE: Yes, it is. I will take you back to the original letter that you tabled yesterday. That was the one on 19 April 1993. Paul Cowdy was the recipient and it was written by Mark Textor. It had to do with qualitative research, again during a period when I was not Chief Minister. But I make this observation. The last paragraph reads: ‘As agreed, a verbal research debrief and presentation will be given to the Chief Minister on Thursday 22 April 1993’. The opposition produced what they claimed were the research findings. This is a fabrication. Textor is not the author of this document.
Mrs Hickey: Who says?
Mr STONE: Textor says. That is consistent with the last sentence, where Textor says: ‘In all of the briefings that were given to the then Chief Minister, Marshall Perron ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Jon Isaacs had to resign from parliament over a stunt like this. You’ve been caught.
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: ‘You prove it’, she says with a smile on her face. In other words she says: ‘I can get away with whatever I want in here because you can’t prove it’. You’re a fraud, an absolute fraud!
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Quite clearly, the Chief Minister has accused the Leader of the Opposition of being a fraud.
Mr STONE: I withdraw it, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Before you go on, Chief Minister - members of the opposition, your interjections are too loud. I’m quite sure the people listening cannot hear the answer. Just tone it down and come to order.
Mr STONE: I’ll put it another way. Both the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Nhulunbuy misled parliament and did it seriously ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I’m allowed to make that observation, in my view.
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! He can’t say that unless he is moving a substantive motion.
Mr Stone: I can say that. You’re really nervous about this, aren’t you? That’s because you’ve been caught.
Madam SPEAKER: Just to clarify, there is no point of order. The Chief Minister didn’t say ‘deliberately misled’. It is the word ‘deliberately’ when applied to misleading which would need a censure motion.
Mr STONE: Mr Textor says: ‘I don’t prepare reports like that, anyway. That’s not my formatting, that’s not my typeface, that’s not my handwriting’. Now, I went back and had a look at the way that the Leader of the Opposition had presented this to the parliament. I went back and read her original questions. Obviously she had been misled by her informant, which makes her a well-meaning fool, or she deliberately came in here to try to create the impression that this was the report. It is not the report. Now, this is what we are dealing with.
Mr Toyne: Whose is it?
Mr STONE: Would you mind? You’ve been caught. You’ve been caught out badly.
Mr Bailey: No, not at all.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wanguri.
Mr STONE: This report is a forgery. Jon Isaacs had to leave the parliament over a stunt like this. I understand that these are the last sittings for the Leader of the Opposition as leader. At least make a clean breast of it. Come clean now and admit that you have misled the parliament.
Leave granted.
Mr Stone: May I have a copy please?
Mr STIRLING: Yes. It tells the CLP how its 1990 election campaign will be run. Unlike the Chief Minister, I have 3 copies. Exactly what I want to table, all the pages that I refer to, are in there.
Page 4 makes it clear that the voter opinion research paid for by taxpayers is being used to design the CLP’s campaign strategy. The report states:
By the time the election hits, presumably they will need some hip-pocket bribery as well ...
As we have nothing significant to say, we should consider singing it - a jingle may well be appropriate ...
They seem to resent the treatment/benefits given to Aboriginals on the rational basis that they cannot get these handouts. It’s not traditional racism as a poor man’s snobbery.
Does the Chief Minister accept this assessment by the agency of the way to conduct the election campaigns, and does he think it is reasonable that Aboriginal Territorians are disgusted that the CLP spent taxpayers’ dollars to help design a disgraceful election campaign aimed at them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the member indicated a date. Where does the date appear?
Mr Stirling: It was the 1990 election campaign.
Mr STONE: Where does it say that?
Mr Bailey: Front page: 5/9/90, strictly confidential, attention Paul Cowdy, from Tony Ralph.
Mr STONE: I don’t see any date, Madam Speaker.
Mrs Hickey: 5 September 1990.
Mr Coulter: The cover sheet.
Mr Burke: Anyone could write that.
Mr STONE: Well, this is exactly right. Anyone could write it. Look, we had an example yesterday ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I will come back to that. I will deal with this first. On 5 September 1990, I was not in this parliament and I was not the president of the CLP. Let us get that squarely on the public record.
Mr Stirling: You were a candidate for the ballot.
Mr STONE: Well, I must have been the most powerful candidate who ever walked the earth.
Mr Coulter: You ran the election campaign!
Mr STONE: Here in the Territory, I was running the government, I was running the campaign, so powerful were my tentacles in the system. This is the stuff of fantasy. On 5 September 1990, I was not president of the CLP.
Ms Martin: You’re the Chief Minister.
Mr STONE: I was not the Chief Minister then, you fool. I hadn’t even been elected to parliament at that stage of the game, and Paul Cowdy didn’t work for me. It’s that simple. When you want to put something to me that relates to when I wasn’t even in government, then you are drawing a very long bow.
I’ll start again where I wanted to start. Yesterday we had the classic example of: ‘Cop this document. Answer these questions. We have you on the run’. The only problem is that it came back to haunt the Leader of the Opposition because the document is a forgery.
Mrs Hickey: A forgery?
Mr STONE: Yes, it is. I will take you back to the original letter that you tabled yesterday. That was the one on 19 April 1993. Paul Cowdy was the recipient and it was written by Mark Textor. It had to do with qualitative research, again during a period when I was not Chief Minister. But I make this observation. The last paragraph reads: ‘As agreed, a verbal research debrief and presentation will be given to the Chief Minister on Thursday 22 April 1993’. The opposition produced what they claimed were the research findings. This is a fabrication. Textor is not the author of this document.
Mrs Hickey: Who says?
Mr STONE: Textor says. That is consistent with the last sentence, where Textor says: ‘In all of the briefings that were given to the then Chief Minister, Marshall Perron ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Jon Isaacs had to resign from parliament over a stunt like this. You’ve been caught.
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: ‘You prove it’, she says with a smile on her face. In other words she says: ‘I can get away with whatever I want in here because you can’t prove it’. You’re a fraud, an absolute fraud!
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Quite clearly, the Chief Minister has accused the Leader of the Opposition of being a fraud.
Mr STONE: I withdraw it, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Before you go on, Chief Minister - members of the opposition, your interjections are too loud. I’m quite sure the people listening cannot hear the answer. Just tone it down and come to order.
Mr STONE: I’ll put it another way. Both the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Nhulunbuy misled parliament and did it seriously ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I’m allowed to make that observation, in my view.
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! He can’t say that unless he is moving a substantive motion.
Mr Stone: I can say that. You’re really nervous about this, aren’t you? That’s because you’ve been caught.
Madam SPEAKER: Just to clarify, there is no point of order. The Chief Minister didn’t say ‘deliberately misled’. It is the word ‘deliberately’ when applied to misleading which would need a censure motion.
Mr STONE: Mr Textor says: ‘I don’t prepare reports like that, anyway. That’s not my formatting, that’s not my typeface, that’s not my handwriting’. Now, I went back and had a look at the way that the Leader of the Opposition had presented this to the parliament. I went back and read her original questions. Obviously she had been misled by her informant, which makes her a well-meaning fool, or she deliberately came in here to try to create the impression that this was the report. It is not the report. Now, this is what we are dealing with.
Mr Toyne: Whose is it?
Mr STONE: Would you mind? You’ve been caught. You’ve been caught out badly.
Mr Bailey: No, not at all.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wanguri.
Mr STONE: This report is a forgery. Jon Isaacs had to leave the parliament over a stunt like this. I understand that these are the last sittings for the Leader of the Opposition as leader. At least make a clean breast of it. Come clean now and admit that you have misled the parliament.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016