Mr FINCH - 1994-08-25
Mr FINCH (Attorney-General): Mr Speaker, supplementary to the answer I gave earlier this morning, it was certainly with some reluctance that I wrote to the Ombudsman about this matter. Clearly, it was really his integrity and his propriety that was being challenged by the member for Wanguri when he suggested that the Ombudsman would write to a member of parliament, or in fact to anybody else, in such terms .
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! This is an extraordinary use of parliamentary forms and an extraordinary use of a supplementary answer.
Mr Manzie: But it is all right for a member of your team to tell lies in the parliament.
Mr BELL: Mr Speaker, will you ask the member for Sanderson to withdraw that comment before I continue.
Mr SPEAKER: I am sorry, but I did not hear the comment. I was listening to you.
Mr MANZIE: I asked if it was all right for a member of the opposition to tell lies in the parliament, Mr Speaker.
Mr BELL: The clear inference, Mr Speaker, is that he is saying that we are telling lies and he should be asked to withdraw the comment.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to withdraw.
Mr MANZIE: I withdraw the comment, Mr Speaker.
Mr BELL: Mr Speaker, this is an extraordinary use of supplementary answers on the part of a minister. A minister of the Crown has the ability to introduce at any time in this parliament a statement on a matter within his portfolio. When he introduces such a statement, there is opportunity for other members of the Assembly to debate it. A supplementary answer cannot be debated.
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I urge the minister to make a statement on his feet now so that other members of this Assembly may have the opportunity to debate it. This involves a crucial issue. A child has died at a Territory school. There have been questions about the coronial inquest and the form in which that has been carried out. It is an important issue for this parliament to resolve.
Mr SPEAKER: The minister has the opportunity now to add further to an answer given in Question Time. However, I am advised that the member for Wanguri in fact ought to have raised this matter by some process other than in a personal explanation.
Mr Bailey: Raised what matter?
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, I intend to refer to you for your consideration, as matter of privilege, the misleading of this House last evening by the member for Wanguri when he claimed without question that he had received written advice from the Ombudsman that accused the Departments of Education and Law of being obstructionist in his proceedings.
The reason I am moving that is that, whilst I was reluctant to write to the Ombudsman - and I am sure he was very reluctant to respond to me - because of the politicisation of that very high office and of a man of high integrity who is being accused by implication by the member for Wanguri ...
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! May we have some clarification from the minister as to whether in fact he is referring now to a matter of privilege or giving a supplementary answer to a question?
Mr SPEAKER: As I understand it, he has or is about to move a motion in relation to a matter of privilege. I understand from his words that he is about to give us the substance of that matter of privilege.
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Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! This is an extraordinary use of parliamentary forms and an extraordinary use of a supplementary answer.
Mr Manzie: But it is all right for a member of your team to tell lies in the parliament.
Mr BELL: Mr Speaker, will you ask the member for Sanderson to withdraw that comment before I continue.
Mr SPEAKER: I am sorry, but I did not hear the comment. I was listening to you.
Mr MANZIE: I asked if it was all right for a member of the opposition to tell lies in the parliament, Mr Speaker.
Mr BELL: The clear inference, Mr Speaker, is that he is saying that we are telling lies and he should be asked to withdraw the comment.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to withdraw.
Mr MANZIE: I withdraw the comment, Mr Speaker.
Mr BELL: Mr Speaker, this is an extraordinary use of supplementary answers on the part of a minister. A minister of the Crown has the ability to introduce at any time in this parliament a statement on a matter within his portfolio. When he introduces such a statement, there is opportunity for other members of the Assembly to debate it. A supplementary answer cannot be debated.
Page 96
I urge the minister to make a statement on his feet now so that other members of this Assembly may have the opportunity to debate it. This involves a crucial issue. A child has died at a Territory school. There have been questions about the coronial inquest and the form in which that has been carried out. It is an important issue for this parliament to resolve.
Mr SPEAKER: The minister has the opportunity now to add further to an answer given in Question Time. However, I am advised that the member for Wanguri in fact ought to have raised this matter by some process other than in a personal explanation.
Mr Bailey: Raised what matter?
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, I intend to refer to you for your consideration, as matter of privilege, the misleading of this House last evening by the member for Wanguri when he claimed without question that he had received written advice from the Ombudsman that accused the Departments of Education and Law of being obstructionist in his proceedings.
The reason I am moving that is that, whilst I was reluctant to write to the Ombudsman - and I am sure he was very reluctant to respond to me - because of the politicisation of that very high office and of a man of high integrity who is being accused by implication by the member for Wanguri ...
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! May we have some clarification from the minister as to whether in fact he is referring now to a matter of privilege or giving a supplementary answer to a question?
Mr SPEAKER: As I understand it, he has or is about to move a motion in relation to a matter of privilege. I understand from his words that he is about to give us the substance of that matter of privilege.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016