Mr HATTON - 2001-03-01
During the first sittings of this year there has been a particularly notable preponderance of false and deliberately misleading allegations made by the Labor Party. Yesterday, the member for Stuart claimed that two teachers were seriously assaulted at Sanderson High School and a class was menaced by a student threatening to bring a firearm to school to attack a teacher.
Can the Chief Minister tell this House whether these allegations and other allegations made by Labor this past two weeks were true?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, all I can say is thank goodness the Leader of the Opposition does not have the same affliction that Pinocchio had because her nose would be so big she would not be able to stand up straight. The litany of lies that we have been subjected to in this House ...
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order. The Chief Minister cannot imply that the Leader of the Opposition is lying without a substantive motion.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, I will use the word ‘deceit’ or ‘distortions’, whatever is acceptable, but certainly I find it difficult to find any other word, and a simple one that most Australians understand. However, the litany of distortions that we have been subjected to in this House.
I firstly congratulate the media, particularly the NT News, who got the story of the teachers’ brawl into perspective. It is worth reminding ourselves of the allegation that the member for Stuart, the honourable Dr Toyne, made in this House yesterday where he said in his question: ‘At a recent incident at Sanderson High School, two teachers were seriously assaulted when they tried to break up a brawl between students. In the same school a class was menaced' ...
Dr Toyne: And where is the critical incident?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: You have been caught out with another distortion, haven’t you? NT News got it right. The story is accurate. Why couldn’t you do a bit of basic homework.
‘In the same school’, he said, ‘a class was menaced by a student threatening to bring a firearm to school to attack the teacher’. I am advised that there was no serious assault. The NT News article is correct. The students were involved in breaking up a brawl, and I understand one sprained their ankle and the other one had a similar injury to their thumb.
I understand the incident was such it was not even reported to the school constable, and this is the advice I have from the principal of that particular school. And the member for Stuart asked about why we did not have critical counselling in the school for that particular incident. We do have school-based constables and, if it was anything near the incident that he would suggest, I imagine that the school-based constable would have been involved very quickly.
This is another example of the kind of distortions that we are being subjected to. We are in a lead up to an election, there is no doubt about that, and Territorians need to be aware that this is a modus operandi for the Labor Party. They will bring in any fabrication into this House in order to try and get a headline out of it. The fabrication that the Accident and Emergency Department at Royal Darwin Hospital has lost its accreditation as a teaching unit for the training of specialists and emergency physicians is false. Read the letter to the editor in today’s paper. If that doesn’t put the member for Wanguri back in his box once and for all, nothing will.
The RDH has no specialist emergency physicians. False! The accident and emergency facility at RDH fails to meet the appropriate standards of patient care. False! Waratahs Cricket Club - the Leader of the Opposition said last night in Adjournment that she has written to the Minister for Sport and Recreation, looking forward to hearing a positive response from the minister on this subject. Never written to him. False! Fabrications! Another falsehood, another distortion, whatever you want to call it.
She came into this House yesterday and talked about a TCA survey that showed only 13% of businesses supported the Northern Territory government’s policies. The real story is that 53% of businesses either supported the fact that they were good or they were okay. Another distortion.
The member for Nhulunbuy claims that the government spends $8m per year on glossy pamphlets, glossy publications. Here are some of the glossy publications - because what they did was they went to all the annual reports and just added up the monies that the department spends on publications. These are the glossy political pamphlets: Ross River Virus; Territory Health Services; Childcare Services. This is party political, is it? This is $8m? Organ and Tissue Donations, Territory Health Senior’s Card glossy. Party political, terrible stuff, $8m. Disability service standard, there’s another one Here’s another one that’s part of the $8m that we put out: A Parent’s Guide. That’s a quick one I picked up from the desk in the outer room of my office. That’s the sort of stuff. Publications that are put out in the public interest, publications that refer to issues that are important to Territorians, but this mob runs the line that this is somehow party political.
They spent the last week saying that the government was using taxpayers’ money to engage in polling for Territorians and it was going on at the moment. At the same time, the member for Wanguri is on the radio talking to Fred McCue, making those allegations, the Labor Party are polling themselves.
The question for Territorians is: Why don’t you just say it? Your whole modus operandi is of deceit, deception and fabrication. I could go on. I have so many pages of this, I can’t find it. The renal dialysis facility. If ever there was a race card and a disgraceful race card played, it is that one. Renal dialysis services in Tennant Creek. That Aboriginal people are dying ...
Mr SPEAKER : Order! I can hear about six conversations on the opposition benches. I don’t want to hear any more.
Mr BURKE: And they made allegations that went to national television suggesting that Aboriginal people are dying because they can't access haemodialysis. The member for Barkly knows the numbers who died and knows that most of them died after renal dialysis or on renal dialysis. Now, just tell the truth. They died after being given renal dialysis, and they died in spite of the services that were given, and also the fact that it is a disease that eventually leads to a person’s death, not because they couldn’t get renal dialysis.
The last one is the classic. The Leader of the Opposition shakes her head or giggles. The deception of the Police Commissioner, the chief of staff, the Adele story, where they fabricated an incident, making allegations against the ABC, which resulted in the Police Commissioner himself calling for the person who made the allegations to come forward. And the Leader of the Opposition, who was her boss, who was part of the deception, stayed silent. But it went further than that. It cost an ABC staffer her job. A young person with a young child, who now doesn’t have a job. That was the end result of that particular deception.
This Leader of the Opposition set her up to deceive, totally uncaring about what would have been the end result, and the end results are for everyone to see. There is now one young mother who doesn’t have a job, and you, the lowest thing that one has ever had to deal with, the person who started her political career by lying, and I dare say will end her career by lying, was party to that deception. She has had endless opportunities to come clean ...
Ms MARTIN : A point of order, Mr Speaker! This is ridiculous. You should be pulling up this man.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! There is a point of order because without substantive motion no member can imply that another member of this House is lying.
Mr Lugg: He was quoting this article.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! I have made a ruling. The suggestion that the Leader of the Opposition is lying should be withdrawn.
Mr BURKE: My anger in ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: The implication must be withdrawn.
Mr BURKE: I withdraw, but Territorians should be very clear that the end result of that deception ...
Ms MARTIN: Mr Speaker, an unqualified withdrawal!
Mr SPEAKER: I have received the withdrawal.
Mr BURKE: The end result of that deception has been that one young person has now lost a job, whilst this person still sits here highly paid with her head in the sand and refuses to tell the truth of what happened. When she started her political career, a NT News article said, ‘Clare Martin starts her career in the old fashion way - by lying’, and I dare say that’s the way she will end it.
Integrity and truth she finds really hard to handle.
Can the Chief Minister tell this House whether these allegations and other allegations made by Labor this past two weeks were true?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, all I can say is thank goodness the Leader of the Opposition does not have the same affliction that Pinocchio had because her nose would be so big she would not be able to stand up straight. The litany of lies that we have been subjected to in this House ...
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order. The Chief Minister cannot imply that the Leader of the Opposition is lying without a substantive motion.
Mr BURKE: Mr Speaker, I will use the word ‘deceit’ or ‘distortions’, whatever is acceptable, but certainly I find it difficult to find any other word, and a simple one that most Australians understand. However, the litany of distortions that we have been subjected to in this House.
I firstly congratulate the media, particularly the NT News, who got the story of the teachers’ brawl into perspective. It is worth reminding ourselves of the allegation that the member for Stuart, the honourable Dr Toyne, made in this House yesterday where he said in his question: ‘At a recent incident at Sanderson High School, two teachers were seriously assaulted when they tried to break up a brawl between students. In the same school a class was menaced' ...
Dr Toyne: And where is the critical incident?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: You have been caught out with another distortion, haven’t you? NT News got it right. The story is accurate. Why couldn’t you do a bit of basic homework.
‘In the same school’, he said, ‘a class was menaced by a student threatening to bring a firearm to school to attack the teacher’. I am advised that there was no serious assault. The NT News article is correct. The students were involved in breaking up a brawl, and I understand one sprained their ankle and the other one had a similar injury to their thumb.
I understand the incident was such it was not even reported to the school constable, and this is the advice I have from the principal of that particular school. And the member for Stuart asked about why we did not have critical counselling in the school for that particular incident. We do have school-based constables and, if it was anything near the incident that he would suggest, I imagine that the school-based constable would have been involved very quickly.
This is another example of the kind of distortions that we are being subjected to. We are in a lead up to an election, there is no doubt about that, and Territorians need to be aware that this is a modus operandi for the Labor Party. They will bring in any fabrication into this House in order to try and get a headline out of it. The fabrication that the Accident and Emergency Department at Royal Darwin Hospital has lost its accreditation as a teaching unit for the training of specialists and emergency physicians is false. Read the letter to the editor in today’s paper. If that doesn’t put the member for Wanguri back in his box once and for all, nothing will.
The RDH has no specialist emergency physicians. False! The accident and emergency facility at RDH fails to meet the appropriate standards of patient care. False! Waratahs Cricket Club - the Leader of the Opposition said last night in Adjournment that she has written to the Minister for Sport and Recreation, looking forward to hearing a positive response from the minister on this subject. Never written to him. False! Fabrications! Another falsehood, another distortion, whatever you want to call it.
She came into this House yesterday and talked about a TCA survey that showed only 13% of businesses supported the Northern Territory government’s policies. The real story is that 53% of businesses either supported the fact that they were good or they were okay. Another distortion.
The member for Nhulunbuy claims that the government spends $8m per year on glossy pamphlets, glossy publications. Here are some of the glossy publications - because what they did was they went to all the annual reports and just added up the monies that the department spends on publications. These are the glossy political pamphlets: Ross River Virus; Territory Health Services; Childcare Services. This is party political, is it? This is $8m? Organ and Tissue Donations, Territory Health Senior’s Card glossy. Party political, terrible stuff, $8m. Disability service standard, there’s another one Here’s another one that’s part of the $8m that we put out: A Parent’s Guide. That’s a quick one I picked up from the desk in the outer room of my office. That’s the sort of stuff. Publications that are put out in the public interest, publications that refer to issues that are important to Territorians, but this mob runs the line that this is somehow party political.
They spent the last week saying that the government was using taxpayers’ money to engage in polling for Territorians and it was going on at the moment. At the same time, the member for Wanguri is on the radio talking to Fred McCue, making those allegations, the Labor Party are polling themselves.
The question for Territorians is: Why don’t you just say it? Your whole modus operandi is of deceit, deception and fabrication. I could go on. I have so many pages of this, I can’t find it. The renal dialysis facility. If ever there was a race card and a disgraceful race card played, it is that one. Renal dialysis services in Tennant Creek. That Aboriginal people are dying ...
Mr SPEAKER : Order! I can hear about six conversations on the opposition benches. I don’t want to hear any more.
Mr BURKE: And they made allegations that went to national television suggesting that Aboriginal people are dying because they can't access haemodialysis. The member for Barkly knows the numbers who died and knows that most of them died after renal dialysis or on renal dialysis. Now, just tell the truth. They died after being given renal dialysis, and they died in spite of the services that were given, and also the fact that it is a disease that eventually leads to a person’s death, not because they couldn’t get renal dialysis.
The last one is the classic. The Leader of the Opposition shakes her head or giggles. The deception of the Police Commissioner, the chief of staff, the Adele story, where they fabricated an incident, making allegations against the ABC, which resulted in the Police Commissioner himself calling for the person who made the allegations to come forward. And the Leader of the Opposition, who was her boss, who was part of the deception, stayed silent. But it went further than that. It cost an ABC staffer her job. A young person with a young child, who now doesn’t have a job. That was the end result of that particular deception.
This Leader of the Opposition set her up to deceive, totally uncaring about what would have been the end result, and the end results are for everyone to see. There is now one young mother who doesn’t have a job, and you, the lowest thing that one has ever had to deal with, the person who started her political career by lying, and I dare say will end her career by lying, was party to that deception. She has had endless opportunities to come clean ...
Ms MARTIN : A point of order, Mr Speaker! This is ridiculous. You should be pulling up this man.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! There is a point of order because without substantive motion no member can imply that another member of this House is lying.
Mr Lugg: He was quoting this article.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! I have made a ruling. The suggestion that the Leader of the Opposition is lying should be withdrawn.
Mr BURKE: My anger in ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: The implication must be withdrawn.
Mr BURKE: I withdraw, but Territorians should be very clear that the end result of that deception ...
Ms MARTIN: Mr Speaker, an unqualified withdrawal!
Mr SPEAKER: I have received the withdrawal.
Mr BURKE: The end result of that deception has been that one young person has now lost a job, whilst this person still sits here highly paid with her head in the sand and refuses to tell the truth of what happened. When she started her political career, a NT News article said, ‘Clare Martin starts her career in the old fashion way - by lying’, and I dare say that’s the way she will end it.
Integrity and truth she finds really hard to handle.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016