Mrs HICKEY - 1996-10-08
The Country Liberal Party lost the Stuart by-election with a 6% swing overall and an 8% swing in the urban area. This is the Chief Minister's third election defeat. During the course of this by-election, the Country Liberal Party promised to deliver $21.6m-worth of improvements to the electorate. I seek leave to table a copy of one list of promises made by the Country Liberal Party.
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: The Country Liberal Party also made a number of promises to communities throughout the course of the campaign. I will read these carefully to the Chief Minister, who is obviously very interested in this. They included a recording studio for Aboriginal bands at Yuendumu, a swimming pool for the people of Laramba and refurbishment of the women's centre at Yuendumu. Will he deliver on each of those promises despite the fact that he led his party to a third loss in this by-election?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I welcome the question from the Leader of the Opposition. She should be very grateful that I lost the by-election, as she puts it. Imagine if the CLP had won the last 3 by-elections! We would have 19 seats and Labor would not even be a parliamentary party in the context of this Assembly. She cannot have it both ways.
Mrs Hickey: I am grateful to the people of Stuart. I did not say I was grateful to you.
Mr STONE: The reality is that, if you had not been able to retain that seat, you would really have been in a great deal of trouble. That was something that even you, the Leader of the Opposition, conceded. While I congratulate you on your win, it was hardly a crushing defeat for us.
Mrs Hickey: 8%.
Mr STONE: We have heard this furphy about the 8% swing in urban areas. Of course, that is easy to achieve when you get the Tangentyere bus and have ALP campaign workers drive it. The new member for Stuart shakes his head. Is he going to tell me that Mike Bowden is not a member of the Labor Party? He was the driver of the Tangentyere bus and Aboriginal voters were bussed in. That was how the percentage increase was created. This was the Labor Party up to its old tricks. It said from the beginning that it would be a tough campaign, and it would employ whatever tactics it took. Most revealing of all was the interview that the Leader of the Opposition gave on the Fred McCue program on 4 October. The reporter asked: `Obviously you have not done that in the past. Where has it gone wrong?' The Leader of the Opposition replied:
No, I do not think we have. I think, in some respects, we have tried to be all things to all people. In the urban
areas, we have tried to run an urban line. In
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the bush we have, which is our natural constituency for many of us, because many of us hold bush seats, we have
done what we have always had to do out there.
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: That is exactly the point. You have run your campaigns in a disgraceful way. You have gone there with your campaign workers and you have told Aboriginal Territorians that, if they vote for the CLP, they will lose their land rights. You have told Aboriginal women that, if they vote for the CLP, the health clinics will close and that will undermine the health of their families. We have seen you do it. You do it time and time again. You do exactly what you said in your interview: `...we have done what we have always had to do out there'. That is the core of your tactics, and it is absolutely shameful.
I would like a response from the Leader of the Opposition, in due course, in relation to one particular incident. I urge all members to listen very carefully because this was absolutely appalling. It occurred at one of the booths. The Leader of the Opposition might like to tell us about the white, male campaign worker who got out of her Assembly-issue 4-wheel-drive, registration 472 023, at Kurrajong Bore at 3.50 pm on Thursday 26 September. The story I am about to relate has been verified to me by 2 eyewitnesses.
This person approached Mrs Rosie Kunoth-Monks, an Aboriginal woman who featured in the movie Jedda and who spent some years with an order of Anglican nuns before returning to Alice Springs and working very actively in her own community. This ALP campaign worker proceeded to attack Mrs Kunoth-Monks on the basis of her Aboriginality, her religious affiliations and her involvement in that pioneering film classic. He snarled at her - those are her words - that her support for the CLP meant that she was a traitor to her own people, and that he now understood why she lived like an outcast at Utopia. When Mrs Kunoth-Monks answered this man in her own language, he replied - and I quote, because it was written down contemporaneously: `Up yours, lady. Your religion isn't helping you now, is it?' The taunting and the goading, to use her own words, did not stop even when the man was moved away to stop the attack on Mrs Kunoth-Monks. He again snarled - and I quote, because it was written down contemporaneously: `I know what has happened to you. When you jumped off the cliff in Jedda, you lost your brains as well, didn't you?'
Those are the type of tactics that the Labor Party uses in the bush to intimidate Aboriginal people. It frightens Aboriginal people about what will happen to them in the event that they vote for the CLP. It must have been absolutely galling for members opposite to go into booths and find traditional Aboriginal people standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Bohning handing out how-to-vote cards. In fact, I am told that even the member for Nhulunbuy remarked that he had never seen, in his time of campaigning, a situation in which a booth voted so solidly for the CLP, assisted by traditional Aboriginal people.
Mr Stirling: That is true. I also said ...
Mr STONE: And he says that that is true. It is absolutely true.
This was a tough campaign. Members opposite seek to dress it up as though there was a massive swing to the ALP. In fact, there was very little in it, having come back from nothing.
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I think the NT News said that something from nothing is next to nothing, and that was right. They can hardly crow about anything other than that the ALP won the by-election, on which I have congratulated them. As I said, imagine had you lost. I did you a favour. I have done you a favour now on 3 occasions.
In relation to the promises that the Leader of the Opposition says were made, she tabled a press release from Tony Bohning. I did not see it, but I assume that is what she is talking about. The Leader of the Opposition has made a great fuss about the $21m, I think it is. She confuses budget items with election promises.
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: Members opposite may um and ah, but that is what the press release says. It goes on to say ...
Mrs Hickey: Are you going to get them all done before the next election?
Mr STONE: If you would like to be quiet and listen to the answer, you will be better informed. It is a shame you did not read this out when you were on your feet, but that is another of these clever little tricks you try. You get up and wave a piece of paper around and say: `This is damning'. I know why you did not read it out. It is because it says this:
I am happy to report that our Stuart electorate scored a massive $21.65m in new spending by the CLP
Territory government and federal Coalition government in last month's budget.
They are budget items. I will tell members opposite what that does prove. It proves that this government is here for all the people, whether they live in a Labor electorate, a CLP electorate or an electorate represented by an independent member. Everyone is dealt fairly with by this open, transparent government. What Tony Bohning referred to were all budget items.
We had the spectacle of the then candidate, now the member, for Stuart decrying the fact that we had made a commitment to the people of Napperby for a swimming pool. He said that they would never look after it. That is a great beginning for the new local member. Let me tell the member for Stuart that the people of Napperby will be getting their swimming pool because it is a budget item, and all these items ...
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: He interjects that it is true. He admits that. Therefore, he is clearly at odds with his leader on this issue. This makes the point that these were not inducements to vote in a particular way, but were part of the responsible government that is evident in the Territory, where people are dealt with fairly. I stand by that press release, if that is the answer the Leader of the Opposition wants. They are budget items and they reflect the very high level of expenditure by the Commonwealth and Territory governments.
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Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: The Country Liberal Party also made a number of promises to communities throughout the course of the campaign. I will read these carefully to the Chief Minister, who is obviously very interested in this. They included a recording studio for Aboriginal bands at Yuendumu, a swimming pool for the people of Laramba and refurbishment of the women's centre at Yuendumu. Will he deliver on each of those promises despite the fact that he led his party to a third loss in this by-election?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I welcome the question from the Leader of the Opposition. She should be very grateful that I lost the by-election, as she puts it. Imagine if the CLP had won the last 3 by-elections! We would have 19 seats and Labor would not even be a parliamentary party in the context of this Assembly. She cannot have it both ways.
Mrs Hickey: I am grateful to the people of Stuart. I did not say I was grateful to you.
Mr STONE: The reality is that, if you had not been able to retain that seat, you would really have been in a great deal of trouble. That was something that even you, the Leader of the Opposition, conceded. While I congratulate you on your win, it was hardly a crushing defeat for us.
Mrs Hickey: 8%.
Mr STONE: We have heard this furphy about the 8% swing in urban areas. Of course, that is easy to achieve when you get the Tangentyere bus and have ALP campaign workers drive it. The new member for Stuart shakes his head. Is he going to tell me that Mike Bowden is not a member of the Labor Party? He was the driver of the Tangentyere bus and Aboriginal voters were bussed in. That was how the percentage increase was created. This was the Labor Party up to its old tricks. It said from the beginning that it would be a tough campaign, and it would employ whatever tactics it took. Most revealing of all was the interview that the Leader of the Opposition gave on the Fred McCue program on 4 October. The reporter asked: `Obviously you have not done that in the past. Where has it gone wrong?' The Leader of the Opposition replied:
No, I do not think we have. I think, in some respects, we have tried to be all things to all people. In the urban
areas, we have tried to run an urban line. In
Page 1617
the bush we have, which is our natural constituency for many of us, because many of us hold bush seats, we have
done what we have always had to do out there.
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: That is exactly the point. You have run your campaigns in a disgraceful way. You have gone there with your campaign workers and you have told Aboriginal Territorians that, if they vote for the CLP, they will lose their land rights. You have told Aboriginal women that, if they vote for the CLP, the health clinics will close and that will undermine the health of their families. We have seen you do it. You do it time and time again. You do exactly what you said in your interview: `...we have done what we have always had to do out there'. That is the core of your tactics, and it is absolutely shameful.
I would like a response from the Leader of the Opposition, in due course, in relation to one particular incident. I urge all members to listen very carefully because this was absolutely appalling. It occurred at one of the booths. The Leader of the Opposition might like to tell us about the white, male campaign worker who got out of her Assembly-issue 4-wheel-drive, registration 472 023, at Kurrajong Bore at 3.50 pm on Thursday 26 September. The story I am about to relate has been verified to me by 2 eyewitnesses.
This person approached Mrs Rosie Kunoth-Monks, an Aboriginal woman who featured in the movie Jedda and who spent some years with an order of Anglican nuns before returning to Alice Springs and working very actively in her own community. This ALP campaign worker proceeded to attack Mrs Kunoth-Monks on the basis of her Aboriginality, her religious affiliations and her involvement in that pioneering film classic. He snarled at her - those are her words - that her support for the CLP meant that she was a traitor to her own people, and that he now understood why she lived like an outcast at Utopia. When Mrs Kunoth-Monks answered this man in her own language, he replied - and I quote, because it was written down contemporaneously: `Up yours, lady. Your religion isn't helping you now, is it?' The taunting and the goading, to use her own words, did not stop even when the man was moved away to stop the attack on Mrs Kunoth-Monks. He again snarled - and I quote, because it was written down contemporaneously: `I know what has happened to you. When you jumped off the cliff in Jedda, you lost your brains as well, didn't you?'
Those are the type of tactics that the Labor Party uses in the bush to intimidate Aboriginal people. It frightens Aboriginal people about what will happen to them in the event that they vote for the CLP. It must have been absolutely galling for members opposite to go into booths and find traditional Aboriginal people standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Bohning handing out how-to-vote cards. In fact, I am told that even the member for Nhulunbuy remarked that he had never seen, in his time of campaigning, a situation in which a booth voted so solidly for the CLP, assisted by traditional Aboriginal people.
Mr Stirling: That is true. I also said ...
Mr STONE: And he says that that is true. It is absolutely true.
This was a tough campaign. Members opposite seek to dress it up as though there was a massive swing to the ALP. In fact, there was very little in it, having come back from nothing.
Page 1618
I think the NT News said that something from nothing is next to nothing, and that was right. They can hardly crow about anything other than that the ALP won the by-election, on which I have congratulated them. As I said, imagine had you lost. I did you a favour. I have done you a favour now on 3 occasions.
In relation to the promises that the Leader of the Opposition says were made, she tabled a press release from Tony Bohning. I did not see it, but I assume that is what she is talking about. The Leader of the Opposition has made a great fuss about the $21m, I think it is. She confuses budget items with election promises.
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: Members opposite may um and ah, but that is what the press release says. It goes on to say ...
Mrs Hickey: Are you going to get them all done before the next election?
Mr STONE: If you would like to be quiet and listen to the answer, you will be better informed. It is a shame you did not read this out when you were on your feet, but that is another of these clever little tricks you try. You get up and wave a piece of paper around and say: `This is damning'. I know why you did not read it out. It is because it says this:
I am happy to report that our Stuart electorate scored a massive $21.65m in new spending by the CLP
Territory government and federal Coalition government in last month's budget.
They are budget items. I will tell members opposite what that does prove. It proves that this government is here for all the people, whether they live in a Labor electorate, a CLP electorate or an electorate represented by an independent member. Everyone is dealt fairly with by this open, transparent government. What Tony Bohning referred to were all budget items.
We had the spectacle of the then candidate, now the member, for Stuart decrying the fact that we had made a commitment to the people of Napperby for a swimming pool. He said that they would never look after it. That is a great beginning for the new local member. Let me tell the member for Stuart that the people of Napperby will be getting their swimming pool because it is a budget item, and all these items ...
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: He interjects that it is true. He admits that. Therefore, he is clearly at odds with his leader on this issue. This makes the point that these were not inducements to vote in a particular way, but were part of the responsible government that is evident in the Territory, where people are dealt with fairly. I stand by that press release, if that is the answer the Leader of the Opposition wants. They are budget items and they reflect the very high level of expenditure by the Commonwealth and Territory governments.
Page 1619
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016