Mr GUNNER - 2015-08-25
In this House today your Attorney-General, Police minister and Treasurer claimed that on receiving a report from Ernst & Young which informed them of alleged travel rorts by Flight Centre travel agents it was referred to police. However, in the NT News on 14 August this year, the Police Commissioner said police did not launch an investigation into Flight Centre because the matter was never referred to them for formal investigation. Who is telling the truth, your ministers or the Police Commissioner?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, all ministers in this Chamber have made it quite clear today that there was a report. I will go back a step to what the Treasurer was saying earlier in his answer. We came to government and the Health minister identified there was an issue with the PenCon scheme, then a report was done. I recollect Jeff Moffet was the CE at the time. It came to the minister who referred it straight to the police. Within that report there are a number of travel agents. I do not have it in front of me so I will use data off the top of my head. Excuse me if I get one or two wrong.
There were about 29 travel agents in the Northern Territory. Of the 29 travel agents, roughly speaking, 26 are identified as having some irregularity. About 650 pensioners were identified with irregularities in their travel. We have referred the whole report to police. A couple of the arrests that occurred and the procedures to date have been displayed in the public sphere. Police investigations and court proceedings are continuing on foot and it would be wrong to talk about the intricate details of those things. Was there a referral about Flight Centre? No, there was not. Was there a referral about a report which contained Flight Centre? Yes, there was.
I think there is probably three or four, maybe five Flight Centres in the Territory and they form part of the 29. The report was about the whole PenCon scheme with all 29 travel agents. About 26 were identified with irregularities – however, that is not to say that all 26 have done the wrong thing – and 650 pensioners. I remember holding many briefings where we talked about how we will deal with some of these issues. How do we carefully talk about the 650 pensioners because we did not want to scare all the other pensioners who may not have shown irregularities? The irregularities may not be seriously wrong, but the police are investigating them. As politicians, we must provide confidence in the police to undertake those investigations.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! As of 14 August, which was not that long ago, it had not been referred and $600 000 is not a small amount. Who is telling the truth, your ministers or the Police Commissioner?
Mr GILES: I have just laid out exactly what occurred. Whether or not the report in the paper is accurate, I have not read it, what I know is that is the process. We have changed the process to date for a range of reasons. Now we use 100% a corporate travel system for government travel. We have changed the process as a result of the findings of a report into travel which was undertaken under the Labor government. This is not the travel that was part of the PenCon scheme under our government; it is what we identified as a problem. We have not politicised it; we have been trying to fix it. There are court processes and procedures on foot. Let us wait and see what happens with that.
I have no idea what rabbit you are trying to chase down a hole, but this was all conducted under your former government.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, all ministers in this Chamber have made it quite clear today that there was a report. I will go back a step to what the Treasurer was saying earlier in his answer. We came to government and the Health minister identified there was an issue with the PenCon scheme, then a report was done. I recollect Jeff Moffet was the CE at the time. It came to the minister who referred it straight to the police. Within that report there are a number of travel agents. I do not have it in front of me so I will use data off the top of my head. Excuse me if I get one or two wrong.
There were about 29 travel agents in the Northern Territory. Of the 29 travel agents, roughly speaking, 26 are identified as having some irregularity. About 650 pensioners were identified with irregularities in their travel. We have referred the whole report to police. A couple of the arrests that occurred and the procedures to date have been displayed in the public sphere. Police investigations and court proceedings are continuing on foot and it would be wrong to talk about the intricate details of those things. Was there a referral about Flight Centre? No, there was not. Was there a referral about a report which contained Flight Centre? Yes, there was.
I think there is probably three or four, maybe five Flight Centres in the Territory and they form part of the 29. The report was about the whole PenCon scheme with all 29 travel agents. About 26 were identified with irregularities – however, that is not to say that all 26 have done the wrong thing – and 650 pensioners. I remember holding many briefings where we talked about how we will deal with some of these issues. How do we carefully talk about the 650 pensioners because we did not want to scare all the other pensioners who may not have shown irregularities? The irregularities may not be seriously wrong, but the police are investigating them. As politicians, we must provide confidence in the police to undertake those investigations.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! As of 14 August, which was not that long ago, it had not been referred and $600 000 is not a small amount. Who is telling the truth, your ministers or the Police Commissioner?
Mr GILES: I have just laid out exactly what occurred. Whether or not the report in the paper is accurate, I have not read it, what I know is that is the process. We have changed the process to date for a range of reasons. Now we use 100% a corporate travel system for government travel. We have changed the process as a result of the findings of a report into travel which was undertaken under the Labor government. This is not the travel that was part of the PenCon scheme under our government; it is what we identified as a problem. We have not politicised it; we have been trying to fix it. There are court processes and procedures on foot. Let us wait and see what happens with that.
I have no idea what rabbit you are trying to chase down a hole, but this was all conducted under your former government.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016