Mrs HICKEY - 1996-05-16
We have reached the third day of these sittings and he has hardly mentioned the word 'statehood'. Why has he failed to respond to repeated requests from myself and the former Leader of the Opposition for a joint party meeting? We have requested this meeting to establish a bipartisan approach on as many issues as possible surrounding statehood. Further, will he tell Territorians whether he will be introducing legislation as a framework for a constitutional convention in these sittings of the Assembly, as the timetable of the Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development recommends?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. I am pleased to see that members opposite are expressing an interest in statehood. The Leader of the Opposition said that she had sought a joint party meeting. She has not done so, in fact. She sought a meeting between herself and myself and an official from each of our parties, which is not to be confused with a joint party meeting. Get your facts right when you get to your feet to speak in a public broadcast ...
Mrs Hickey: A joint political party ...
Mr STONE: That is not what you have asked for. Again, you are pretty loose with the truth. That is one of your problems.
I am very pleased to be able to report to the Assembly, and I will do so in greater detail as time goes on, that we have probably made greater progress towards our shared aspiration to statehood in the past 3 months than we have done in the previous 10 years. That has not been due to any lack of effort by people in the Territory but rather to the curmudgeonly attitude of the previous Labor federal government with which the Leader of the Opposition and her party were associated and affiliated. In Paul Keating, we had a Prime Minister who did not want to know about it. He did not share the aspirations of Territorians and would not even sit down and have a useful discussion about the issue. We have a Prime Minister now, in the Hon John Howard MHR, who has afforded me 3 opportunities to sit down and speak with him about the issue. He wrote to me as recently as yesterday, assuring me that it has been placed on the COAG agenda ...
Mr Stirling: It is better when you put your hand under your jacket, Shane.
Mr STONE: I beg your pardon?
Mr Stirling: It is better when you stand like this. Position Napoleon!
Mr STONE: That is how seriously you take this. You are a poseur, you really are.
The Prime Minister has placed the item on the COAG agenda and has invited the Territory government to enter into constructive dialogue with the Department of Prime
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Minister and Cabinet to work up a joint paper on the issue of statehood and the steps to be taken. I have written to the Prime Minister to set out a number of steps, particularly initial steps, that could be taken to achieve the goal of statehood by the year 2001.
The Leader of the Opposition has now asked this question and seeks to put the proposition that we have not been working collaboratively on this issue. The fact is that we have. We have the Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development and we have a Minister for Constitutional Development, in Hon Stephen Hatton MLA, who has carriage of maintaining that dialogue with members opposite on the progress the government has been making.
I hope that I will be proved wrong on this, but I see obstacles being thrown up continually by members opposite. That has been evident ...
Mrs Hickey: What sort of obstacles?
Mr STONE: I will give a very good example. It was one over which I felt compelled to ring ABC radio. The secretary of the administrative wing of the ALP was on ABC radio in Alice Springs, pushing the line that, if the Northern Territory becomes a state, it will be under different financial arrangements than those that apply at present. That is absolutely false.
Mr Ede: That was not what he said. I heard that broadcast.
Mr STONE: Indeed, I was so concerned about what he said that I rang in immediately to put the record straight. That is the sort of misinformation that your apparatchiks are peddling around the Territory. The simple fact is that the Territory has been treated as a state for many years, and its becoming a state would make not one ounce of difference to the financial arrangements put in place.
The Leader of the Opposition wants now to make a constructive contribution to the issue of statehood. She has that capacity, through the Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development. In the interim, I intend to get on with the business of governing, because that is what we have been elected to do. I will continue to negotiate with the Prime Minister ...
Mr Bailey: Are you going to introduce legislation for a constitutional convention during these sittings? That is the question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... and await hearing from the Prime Minister his requirements of this government, enabling me to relay those to the Assembly. We will be able then to debate those issues and decide where we will go from there.
I heard Mr Smith say also that this government was locked into holding a convention. That is absolutely not true. There are many different ways of garnering public input and opinion on the issue of Territory statehood. I know where the ALP is coming from. It wants to set up what would be almost a parallel parliament. It wants to set up some sort of structure, at great expense to the Territory taxpayer. I want really to work these issues through. I want
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to see what Territorians will gain from it at the end of the day. This Assembly is the ultimate authority in the Territory. This is where Territorians ...
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition scoffs at the proposition that the Legislative Assembly is the ultimate forum in the Territory. This is called the parliament. This is the forum to which people are elected to represent their constituents and speak about the important issues that affect them.
Mrs Hickey: You should be ashamed of this.
Mr STONE: You may say that, but you have demonstrated very little interest in statehood until recent times.
Mrs Hickey: I have been deputy chair of the committee for a considerable time.
Mr STONE: I am more than happy to sit down and talk with you, but I tell you frankly that I am not really comfortable about bringing party politics into it. What do you want to bring the ALP's general secretary along for? I really do not have much interest in having the president of the CLP there, or the general secretary of the CLP. I would like to think that, as we make our way down the path to statehood, we will be doing it in a fairly apolitical environment. You are trying to introduce the administrative wing, the apparatchiks of the ALP, into the equation. This Smith fellow even wrote to me: 'Dear Chief Minister, we must sit down and talk about this'. Who is this bloke? We are trying to achieve statehood for the Northern Territory. I do not deal with some union official who has had himself elected as general secretary of the ALP. I deal with you, because you are the leader of the loyal opposition. It is you that I should be hearing from, not some faceless man.
Mrs Hickey: And you have. You had a letter from me. You have not replied.
Mr STONE: If you think I will let apparatchiks in the ALP or any other political party take over the agenda for statehood, you are wrong. This is a matter for all Territorians. This is a matter that is above politics. I am extremely disappointed that the Leader of the Opposition should try to foist on the system the general secretary of the Labor Party, Mike Smith, as though somehow he has some degree of legitimacy that fits him to be part of the process, other than as an ordinary citizen of the Territory. I am happy to talk with the Leader of the Opposition, but she should not think for a single moment that I will sit down to negotiate with the faceless men and women of the ALP. I will not.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. I am pleased to see that members opposite are expressing an interest in statehood. The Leader of the Opposition said that she had sought a joint party meeting. She has not done so, in fact. She sought a meeting between herself and myself and an official from each of our parties, which is not to be confused with a joint party meeting. Get your facts right when you get to your feet to speak in a public broadcast ...
Mrs Hickey: A joint political party ...
Mr STONE: That is not what you have asked for. Again, you are pretty loose with the truth. That is one of your problems.
I am very pleased to be able to report to the Assembly, and I will do so in greater detail as time goes on, that we have probably made greater progress towards our shared aspiration to statehood in the past 3 months than we have done in the previous 10 years. That has not been due to any lack of effort by people in the Territory but rather to the curmudgeonly attitude of the previous Labor federal government with which the Leader of the Opposition and her party were associated and affiliated. In Paul Keating, we had a Prime Minister who did not want to know about it. He did not share the aspirations of Territorians and would not even sit down and have a useful discussion about the issue. We have a Prime Minister now, in the Hon John Howard MHR, who has afforded me 3 opportunities to sit down and speak with him about the issue. He wrote to me as recently as yesterday, assuring me that it has been placed on the COAG agenda ...
Mr Stirling: It is better when you put your hand under your jacket, Shane.
Mr STONE: I beg your pardon?
Mr Stirling: It is better when you stand like this. Position Napoleon!
Mr STONE: That is how seriously you take this. You are a poseur, you really are.
The Prime Minister has placed the item on the COAG agenda and has invited the Territory government to enter into constructive dialogue with the Department of Prime
Page 1369
Minister and Cabinet to work up a joint paper on the issue of statehood and the steps to be taken. I have written to the Prime Minister to set out a number of steps, particularly initial steps, that could be taken to achieve the goal of statehood by the year 2001.
The Leader of the Opposition has now asked this question and seeks to put the proposition that we have not been working collaboratively on this issue. The fact is that we have. We have the Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development and we have a Minister for Constitutional Development, in Hon Stephen Hatton MLA, who has carriage of maintaining that dialogue with members opposite on the progress the government has been making.
I hope that I will be proved wrong on this, but I see obstacles being thrown up continually by members opposite. That has been evident ...
Mrs Hickey: What sort of obstacles?
Mr STONE: I will give a very good example. It was one over which I felt compelled to ring ABC radio. The secretary of the administrative wing of the ALP was on ABC radio in Alice Springs, pushing the line that, if the Northern Territory becomes a state, it will be under different financial arrangements than those that apply at present. That is absolutely false.
Mr Ede: That was not what he said. I heard that broadcast.
Mr STONE: Indeed, I was so concerned about what he said that I rang in immediately to put the record straight. That is the sort of misinformation that your apparatchiks are peddling around the Territory. The simple fact is that the Territory has been treated as a state for many years, and its becoming a state would make not one ounce of difference to the financial arrangements put in place.
The Leader of the Opposition wants now to make a constructive contribution to the issue of statehood. She has that capacity, through the Sessional Committee on Constitutional Development. In the interim, I intend to get on with the business of governing, because that is what we have been elected to do. I will continue to negotiate with the Prime Minister ...
Mr Bailey: Are you going to introduce legislation for a constitutional convention during these sittings? That is the question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... and await hearing from the Prime Minister his requirements of this government, enabling me to relay those to the Assembly. We will be able then to debate those issues and decide where we will go from there.
I heard Mr Smith say also that this government was locked into holding a convention. That is absolutely not true. There are many different ways of garnering public input and opinion on the issue of Territory statehood. I know where the ALP is coming from. It wants to set up what would be almost a parallel parliament. It wants to set up some sort of structure, at great expense to the Territory taxpayer. I want really to work these issues through. I want
Page 1370
to see what Territorians will gain from it at the end of the day. This Assembly is the ultimate authority in the Territory. This is where Territorians ...
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition scoffs at the proposition that the Legislative Assembly is the ultimate forum in the Territory. This is called the parliament. This is the forum to which people are elected to represent their constituents and speak about the important issues that affect them.
Mrs Hickey: You should be ashamed of this.
Mr STONE: You may say that, but you have demonstrated very little interest in statehood until recent times.
Mrs Hickey: I have been deputy chair of the committee for a considerable time.
Mr STONE: I am more than happy to sit down and talk with you, but I tell you frankly that I am not really comfortable about bringing party politics into it. What do you want to bring the ALP's general secretary along for? I really do not have much interest in having the president of the CLP there, or the general secretary of the CLP. I would like to think that, as we make our way down the path to statehood, we will be doing it in a fairly apolitical environment. You are trying to introduce the administrative wing, the apparatchiks of the ALP, into the equation. This Smith fellow even wrote to me: 'Dear Chief Minister, we must sit down and talk about this'. Who is this bloke? We are trying to achieve statehood for the Northern Territory. I do not deal with some union official who has had himself elected as general secretary of the ALP. I deal with you, because you are the leader of the loyal opposition. It is you that I should be hearing from, not some faceless man.
Mrs Hickey: And you have. You had a letter from me. You have not replied.
Mr STONE: If you think I will let apparatchiks in the ALP or any other political party take over the agenda for statehood, you are wrong. This is a matter for all Territorians. This is a matter that is above politics. I am extremely disappointed that the Leader of the Opposition should try to foist on the system the general secretary of the Labor Party, Mike Smith, as though somehow he has some degree of legitimacy that fits him to be part of the process, other than as an ordinary citizen of the Territory. I am happy to talk with the Leader of the Opposition, but she should not think for a single moment that I will sit down to negotiate with the faceless men and women of the ALP. I will not.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016