Mr EDE - 1994-10-12
Yesterday, and again today, the minister attempted to make 2 points. One was that he did not know that Aquascene would feature in these advertisements and the other that it was all the DRTA's fault. The minister has just tabled for us a number of mock-ups. First of all, in relation to central Australia, there is a mock-up that indicates that, where photos were used in the final advertisement, they were replicas of items in the mock-ups. Nevertheless, the minister has not provided us with the mock-up behind the eventual advertisement that has Aquascene clearly identified. Firstly, why is the minister maintaining that it was all the DRTA's fault when
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its letter states clearly that it simply signed off on that particular day so there were no changes to that? Secondly, why won't the minister provide us with the mock-up copy for the one that featured Aquascene? Thirdly, why won't he provide us with the documents that he said yesterday that he would table before the close of business? When will the minister act on his advice of yesterday and bring all of that information into this House and table it to enable us to see what the system is?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, firstly, come the Royal Commission into this, I will call the Leader of the Opposition as a witness because he has provided extensive free radio and television advertising for Aquascene over the last 2 days.
Mr Stirling: You do not want to bring the material in, do you?
Mr COULTER: I think that it is some sort of a plot that the 2 of them have worked out ...
Mr Ede: You have no idea at all.
Mr COULTER: ... together.
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition asked about 18 Questions, but I will attempt to go through them little by little. The DRTA would hardly have approved the mock-ups for central Australia. Do you understand that?
Mr Ede: So you intend only to provide us with the Top End ones?
Mr COULTER: Hang on a minute. Let me answer your Question.
Mr Ede: It says 'Top End press advert'. What are you talking about?
Mr COULTER: No, we are talking about the mock-ups.
Mr Ede: No, we are talking about the DRTA's approval. That is what I said.
Mr COULTER: Do you ever read Hansard for the previous day? The facts are that the 2 concepts that I showed you were for central Australia. Do you agree on that?
Mr Ede: Yes, that is all right. Then it shows ...
Mrs Hickey: Not a great deal of fish feeding is taking place down there.
Mr Stone: They do not have their act together.
Mr Ede: And all the mock-ups fit, see? All of them.
Mr COULTER: No, they are for central Australia. Do you agree on that?
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Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Ede: Yes.
Mr COULTER: Therefore, the DRTA is hardly likely to approve that.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: There is another concept there too.
If there is a concept that shows the Chief Minister with his 2 fish fingers, as Wicking's cartoon depicted today, I will hand it over to you.
Mr Ede: Come on, don't get smart.
Mr COULTER: However, I do not recall in fact whether Aquascene was even in those concept drawings that came across my desk.
Mr Stirling: Yesterday, you said that you did not see any of it.
Mr Ede: And yesterday you intended to table it all.
Mr COULTER: No, it does not say that. Read Hansard!
Mr Stirling: You change your mind every ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr COULTER: It does not say that in Hansard.
Mr Ede: What does it say? Read it out!
Mr COULTER: You read Hansard! You are asking ...
Members interjecting.
Mr Stirling: You said that you never saw the concept!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister will direct his comments through the Chair and the opposition will remain silent. The Leader of the Opposition asked a Question. Please allow the minister to answer.
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, if there was a concept with no writing underneath it - I do not know how I would know that it was Aquascene - of somebody bending over ...
Mr Ede: Feed fish everywhere.
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Mr COULTER: No, the concepts. I am saying that the concepts came across my desk. Right?
Mr Bailey: Why haven't you tabled them?
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, if there is one, I am happy to table it to enable him to walk out and say: 'Here it is. Coulter would have known this was Aquascene because it depicts someone bending over feeding a fish in the water'. If there is one, certainly I will table it. If it came across my desk, certainly I will table it but we could not find one yesterday when ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: Here is your conspiracy for today.
Mr Ede: Why don't you simply table everything, as you said you would?
Mr COULTER: Are you into conspiracies too? I used to be into them. They are not very successful, let me tell you.
Mr Ede: Why don't you simply table everything as you said you would?
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is grasping at straws now. Is this the most important issue that he has on his mind? Whatever happened to debt? Do you remember the importance of that immediately before the election? What happened to his per capita debt and the Territory being in ruins? What happened to the fellow behind him who said that unemployment was so bad in the Northern Territory that we were all ...
Members interjecting.
Mr COULTER: What happened to health? The hospital turned into a cemetery when everybody there died and the member for Barkly rose here and spoke.
Members interjecting.
Mr COULTER: What happened to those issues? They have all died. What happened to conservation issues? They could not even speak on conservation yesterday. The fellow up the back, the member for MacDonnell, has the only excuse because he is in retirement. The fellow from Arafura sitting beside him is not allowed to speak and the other fellow over there ...
Mr Stirling: You do not want to talk about Aquascene, do you?
Mr COULTER: ... does not seem to have too many issues either.
Mr Stirling: What happened to Aquascene? What happened to the Question?
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Mr COULTER: In today's NT News, the Darwin Region Tourism Association's Executive Director, Rod Plaister said: 'Neither Mr Perron nor anyone else in government has been consulted over the use of the Aquascene name'.
Mr Ede: So he is conducting the investigation, but you will not?
Mr COULTER: Go and ask him! Sit down with Mr Plaister and ask him.
Mr Ede: How would he know? You are a joke.
Mr COULTER: It is very simple. This is a sham. It is an absolutely ...
Mr Stirling: One minute you have seen nothing, and the next minute you have seen the lot.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
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its letter states clearly that it simply signed off on that particular day so there were no changes to that? Secondly, why won't the minister provide us with the mock-up copy for the one that featured Aquascene? Thirdly, why won't he provide us with the documents that he said yesterday that he would table before the close of business? When will the minister act on his advice of yesterday and bring all of that information into this House and table it to enable us to see what the system is?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, firstly, come the Royal Commission into this, I will call the Leader of the Opposition as a witness because he has provided extensive free radio and television advertising for Aquascene over the last 2 days.
Mr Stirling: You do not want to bring the material in, do you?
Mr COULTER: I think that it is some sort of a plot that the 2 of them have worked out ...
Mr Ede: You have no idea at all.
Mr COULTER: ... together.
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition asked about 18 Questions, but I will attempt to go through them little by little. The DRTA would hardly have approved the mock-ups for central Australia. Do you understand that?
Mr Ede: So you intend only to provide us with the Top End ones?
Mr COULTER: Hang on a minute. Let me answer your Question.
Mr Ede: It says 'Top End press advert'. What are you talking about?
Mr COULTER: No, we are talking about the mock-ups.
Mr Ede: No, we are talking about the DRTA's approval. That is what I said.
Mr COULTER: Do you ever read Hansard for the previous day? The facts are that the 2 concepts that I showed you were for central Australia. Do you agree on that?
Mr Ede: Yes, that is all right. Then it shows ...
Mrs Hickey: Not a great deal of fish feeding is taking place down there.
Mr Stone: They do not have their act together.
Mr Ede: And all the mock-ups fit, see? All of them.
Mr COULTER: No, they are for central Australia. Do you agree on that?
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Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Ede: Yes.
Mr COULTER: Therefore, the DRTA is hardly likely to approve that.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: There is another concept there too.
If there is a concept that shows the Chief Minister with his 2 fish fingers, as Wicking's cartoon depicted today, I will hand it over to you.
Mr Ede: Come on, don't get smart.
Mr COULTER: However, I do not recall in fact whether Aquascene was even in those concept drawings that came across my desk.
Mr Stirling: Yesterday, you said that you did not see any of it.
Mr Ede: And yesterday you intended to table it all.
Mr COULTER: No, it does not say that. Read Hansard!
Mr Stirling: You change your mind every ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr COULTER: It does not say that in Hansard.
Mr Ede: What does it say? Read it out!
Mr COULTER: You read Hansard! You are asking ...
Members interjecting.
Mr Stirling: You said that you never saw the concept!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister will direct his comments through the Chair and the opposition will remain silent. The Leader of the Opposition asked a Question. Please allow the minister to answer.
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, if there was a concept with no writing underneath it - I do not know how I would know that it was Aquascene - of somebody bending over ...
Mr Ede: Feed fish everywhere.
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Mr COULTER: No, the concepts. I am saying that the concepts came across my desk. Right?
Mr Bailey: Why haven't you tabled them?
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, if there is one, I am happy to table it to enable him to walk out and say: 'Here it is. Coulter would have known this was Aquascene because it depicts someone bending over feeding a fish in the water'. If there is one, certainly I will table it. If it came across my desk, certainly I will table it but we could not find one yesterday when ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr COULTER: Here is your conspiracy for today.
Mr Ede: Why don't you simply table everything, as you said you would?
Mr COULTER: Are you into conspiracies too? I used to be into them. They are not very successful, let me tell you.
Mr Ede: Why don't you simply table everything as you said you would?
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is grasping at straws now. Is this the most important issue that he has on his mind? Whatever happened to debt? Do you remember the importance of that immediately before the election? What happened to his per capita debt and the Territory being in ruins? What happened to the fellow behind him who said that unemployment was so bad in the Northern Territory that we were all ...
Members interjecting.
Mr COULTER: What happened to health? The hospital turned into a cemetery when everybody there died and the member for Barkly rose here and spoke.
Members interjecting.
Mr COULTER: What happened to those issues? They have all died. What happened to conservation issues? They could not even speak on conservation yesterday. The fellow up the back, the member for MacDonnell, has the only excuse because he is in retirement. The fellow from Arafura sitting beside him is not allowed to speak and the other fellow over there ...
Mr Stirling: You do not want to talk about Aquascene, do you?
Mr COULTER: ... does not seem to have too many issues either.
Mr Stirling: What happened to Aquascene? What happened to the Question?
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Mr COULTER: In today's NT News, the Darwin Region Tourism Association's Executive Director, Rod Plaister said: 'Neither Mr Perron nor anyone else in government has been consulted over the use of the Aquascene name'.
Mr Ede: So he is conducting the investigation, but you will not?
Mr COULTER: Go and ask him! Sit down with Mr Plaister and ask him.
Mr Ede: How would he know? You are a joke.
Mr COULTER: It is very simple. This is a sham. It is an absolutely ...
Mr Stirling: One minute you have seen nothing, and the next minute you have seen the lot.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016