Mrs HICKEY - 1998-11-26
I seek leave to table a copy of a document from Ron Klein to Mark Textor dated 22 May 1990.
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: This letter shows that the Country Liberal Party made little more than a token payment for the operation. The letter says on the last page: ‘The Country Liberal Party will only pay $3700’.
Whether this money was ever paid we do not know.
Does the Chief Minister now admit that this token payment was just an attempt to disguise the fact that Territory taxpayers were bank rolling this operation?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, what the Leader of the Opposition has confirmed is that the Country Liberal Party actually did pay for research that was undertaken.
I am not conscious of ever having seen this, and that ...
A member interjecting.
Mr STONE: You can laugh. I retired as President of the CLP in 1990. That’s the year I went on to be elected. There is an invoice dated 16 July and this particular report is July 1990, and on 11 August I had left the position.
I subsequently stood for parliament, and was elected as the member for Port Darwin, I think, in October of that year. I am not conscious of having seen that. But I would have liked to have seen it. This has some interesting information in it, such as: ‘The ALP commands little respect right across the Northern Territory’. Nothing has changed. It goes on to highlight quite a few things. I suppose you will find this pretty helpful for yourselves as you are shaping the way you direct yourselves in the time ahead.
It goes on: ‘The fear that a local ALP government might give more to the Aboriginals’ and ‘a lack of ALP team’. Neil Bell was mentioned in Alice Springs as a poor representative. Mr Smith is the opposition. He is not a voting alternative, he is not leadership material. He lacks credibility amongst men and women right across the Territory. He says stupid things. He talks when he is half asleep. He is negative, a knocker for the sake of it. He doesn’t have a single policy.
You will probably find all this pretty helpful. But in terms of the threads you are trying to pull together, you are not doing it well, particularly given that you have now passed me a letter that says the CLP did pay for research.
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: This letter shows that the Country Liberal Party made little more than a token payment for the operation. The letter says on the last page: ‘The Country Liberal Party will only pay $3700’.
Whether this money was ever paid we do not know.
Does the Chief Minister now admit that this token payment was just an attempt to disguise the fact that Territory taxpayers were bank rolling this operation?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, what the Leader of the Opposition has confirmed is that the Country Liberal Party actually did pay for research that was undertaken.
I am not conscious of ever having seen this, and that ...
A member interjecting.
Mr STONE: You can laugh. I retired as President of the CLP in 1990. That’s the year I went on to be elected. There is an invoice dated 16 July and this particular report is July 1990, and on 11 August I had left the position.
I subsequently stood for parliament, and was elected as the member for Port Darwin, I think, in October of that year. I am not conscious of having seen that. But I would have liked to have seen it. This has some interesting information in it, such as: ‘The ALP commands little respect right across the Northern Territory’. Nothing has changed. It goes on to highlight quite a few things. I suppose you will find this pretty helpful for yourselves as you are shaping the way you direct yourselves in the time ahead.
It goes on: ‘The fear that a local ALP government might give more to the Aboriginals’ and ‘a lack of ALP team’. Neil Bell was mentioned in Alice Springs as a poor representative. Mr Smith is the opposition. He is not a voting alternative, he is not leadership material. He lacks credibility amongst men and women right across the Territory. He says stupid things. He talks when he is half asleep. He is negative, a knocker for the sake of it. He doesn’t have a single policy.
You will probably find all this pretty helpful. But in terms of the threads you are trying to pull together, you are not doing it well, particularly given that you have now passed me a letter that says the CLP did pay for research.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016