Mr EDE - 1995-03-02
I direct another question to the Chief Minister in the bleak hope of obtaining an answer. Yesterday, I provided him with a question on notice on the activities of Mr Mark Textor who is now recognised as the Australian architect of the filthy tactic known as push-polling. I announced it in the press as well in case the Chief Minister does not read his mail. I will now ask him if he can tell ...
Mr Perron: I don't read it in the same day.
Mr EDE: ... this House on what date Mr Textor ceased full-time employment with the office of the Chief Minister. Was any money, whether by way of gratuity, fee for service or otherwise, provided to Mr Textor following the cessation of his full-time employment on the Chief Minister's staff? If so, what were the dates on which the payments were made and what was the nature of the service to which each relates? I would like the Chief Minister also to advise whether he met with Mr Textor during the 1994 election campaign.
Mr Perron: Do you want to know what I had for breakfast as well?
Mr EDE: Mr Speaker, I provided the question yesterday in order to give the Chief Minister 24 hours notice of it.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is guilty of being a little paranoid about Mr Textor. As I have said previously, I can inform him that Mr Textor did work in my office. He resigned from my office on 18 October 1991. The Leader of the Opposition suggests that Mr Textor, a very bright young Territorian who went to Darwin Primary School and Darwin High School, and who has got right up the nose of the Prime Minister, in fact is running all the conservative successes across Australia.
Page 487
In his statement to me, the Leader of the Opposition said: `I understand our conservative opponents have used similar tactics in the South Australian and Western Australian elections'. Is he suggesting that Mr Textor might have been part of the polling processes in those elections as well? Is he suggesting that, because of the huge hiding that the ALP received in Western Australia and South Australia, where Labor governments sent those states bankrupt and the electors rightly threw Labor out on its ear, it was all the result of push-polling? Can the South Australian and Western Australian election results be explained simply by a bit of unfair polling? In fact, the Western Australian and South Australian elections were held before the Northern Territory's 1994 election in which these practices were alleged to have occurred, but it is alleged that we started this whole process. Members opposite have a story that they are attempting to make stack up, but they are not succeeding.
If the Leader of the Opposition thinks that he can stand in here whenever he likes and ask me about my activities in respect of past election campaigns, he is very wrong. He ought to concentrate on issues of real importance to the Northern Territory instead of wasting his time on this.
Page 488
Mr Perron: I don't read it in the same day.
Mr EDE: ... this House on what date Mr Textor ceased full-time employment with the office of the Chief Minister. Was any money, whether by way of gratuity, fee for service or otherwise, provided to Mr Textor following the cessation of his full-time employment on the Chief Minister's staff? If so, what were the dates on which the payments were made and what was the nature of the service to which each relates? I would like the Chief Minister also to advise whether he met with Mr Textor during the 1994 election campaign.
Mr Perron: Do you want to know what I had for breakfast as well?
Mr EDE: Mr Speaker, I provided the question yesterday in order to give the Chief Minister 24 hours notice of it.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is guilty of being a little paranoid about Mr Textor. As I have said previously, I can inform him that Mr Textor did work in my office. He resigned from my office on 18 October 1991. The Leader of the Opposition suggests that Mr Textor, a very bright young Territorian who went to Darwin Primary School and Darwin High School, and who has got right up the nose of the Prime Minister, in fact is running all the conservative successes across Australia.
Page 487
In his statement to me, the Leader of the Opposition said: `I understand our conservative opponents have used similar tactics in the South Australian and Western Australian elections'. Is he suggesting that Mr Textor might have been part of the polling processes in those elections as well? Is he suggesting that, because of the huge hiding that the ALP received in Western Australia and South Australia, where Labor governments sent those states bankrupt and the electors rightly threw Labor out on its ear, it was all the result of push-polling? Can the South Australian and Western Australian election results be explained simply by a bit of unfair polling? In fact, the Western Australian and South Australian elections were held before the Northern Territory's 1994 election in which these practices were alleged to have occurred, but it is alleged that we started this whole process. Members opposite have a story that they are attempting to make stack up, but they are not succeeding.
If the Leader of the Opposition thinks that he can stand in here whenever he likes and ask me about my activities in respect of past election campaigns, he is very wrong. He ought to concentrate on issues of real importance to the Northern Territory instead of wasting his time on this.
Page 488
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016