Mrs HICKEY - 1996-09-17
I refer to the full-page advertisement that the Chief Minister made the Commissioner of Police write concerning the Country Liberal Party government's proposed gun laws. Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy.
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: Will the Chief Minister tell us why he is afraid to put his own name to the proposed gun laws and why he has left it to the Commissioner of Police to carry the can for the Country Liberal Party government's proposed gun laws?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is spectacular. The Leader of the Opposition must have been badly beaten up after she went on radio and supported my defence of the member for Millner by saying: `Shane is right to judge these things on the facts'.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Obviously, your colleagues worked you over. They said that, in Question Time today, you will be on probation. They told you to get in there, fire up the government members and hurl brickbats across the Chamber. Is this the result?
Mrs Hickey: Brian Bates represents the police. He does not represent the Chief Minister.
Mr STONE: Can the Leader of the Opposition show me any similar ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: It is pretty hopeless, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the Chief Minister to resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition has heard the warnings given to other members. I have called her continually to order. She is continuing to interject and now I am warning her.
Mrs Hickey: There won't be any of us left!
Page 1590
Mr STONE: She cannot help herself. Mind you, that might give her the bit of notoriety she is looking for.
Let me say this. I do not tell the Commissioner of Police what to do. In this country, no government that is even halfway smart gives political direction to its Commissioner of Police. The problem is that the Leader of the Opposition has never been in government - she is unlikely ever to be in government - and she does not understand the proprieties of staying at arm's length from the police force and allowing it to get on with the job. Let me make it very clear ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will count that as strike 2 for the member for Nhulunbuy.
Mr STONE: Let me make it very clear that I do not telephone the commissioner and tell him that he should place advertisements in the newspaper. For the information of the Leader of the Opposition, this was a national campaign. I would have thought she would have been told that in the briefings that she sought from the police. I am interested to know whether she was told that there was a national advertising campaign. If she was told that, she has come here and has deliberately misled the House. I would be very surprised if she was not aware that these advertisements ...
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If the Chief Minister wishes to make that accusation, he knows he has to do so by way of substantive motion. He knows that this advertisement by the Commissioner of Police is arrant politicisation of his office. He cannot disguise that fact by making extravagant allegations of that kind.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr STONE: I find it interesting that the member for MacDonnell is on his feet and the Leader of the Opposition does not complain. One has really to wonder who is running the show over there.
These advertisements are appearing around Australia. I would be very surprised if they carried necessarily the endorsements of the relevant police ministers. It would be the Commissioners of Police. The nuts-and-bolts implementation of the national proposals has been very much the carriage of the police.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is strike 2 for the member for Wanguri.
Mr STONE: The green people will get him, Mr Speaker.
I am very surprised that the Leader of the Opposition would make an unsubstantiated allegation that the Commissioner of Police in the Territory was being directed politically in any way. That is not the case and has not been the case during my time as Chief Minister. I know certainly that it was not the case during the time of my predecessor or of his predecessor.
Page 1591
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: Will the Chief Minister tell us why he is afraid to put his own name to the proposed gun laws and why he has left it to the Commissioner of Police to carry the can for the Country Liberal Party government's proposed gun laws?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is spectacular. The Leader of the Opposition must have been badly beaten up after she went on radio and supported my defence of the member for Millner by saying: `Shane is right to judge these things on the facts'.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Obviously, your colleagues worked you over. They said that, in Question Time today, you will be on probation. They told you to get in there, fire up the government members and hurl brickbats across the Chamber. Is this the result?
Mrs Hickey: Brian Bates represents the police. He does not represent the Chief Minister.
Mr STONE: Can the Leader of the Opposition show me any similar ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs Hickey interjecting.
Mr STONE: It is pretty hopeless, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the Chief Minister to resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition has heard the warnings given to other members. I have called her continually to order. She is continuing to interject and now I am warning her.
Mrs Hickey: There won't be any of us left!
Page 1590
Mr STONE: She cannot help herself. Mind you, that might give her the bit of notoriety she is looking for.
Let me say this. I do not tell the Commissioner of Police what to do. In this country, no government that is even halfway smart gives political direction to its Commissioner of Police. The problem is that the Leader of the Opposition has never been in government - she is unlikely ever to be in government - and she does not understand the proprieties of staying at arm's length from the police force and allowing it to get on with the job. Let me make it very clear ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will count that as strike 2 for the member for Nhulunbuy.
Mr STONE: Let me make it very clear that I do not telephone the commissioner and tell him that he should place advertisements in the newspaper. For the information of the Leader of the Opposition, this was a national campaign. I would have thought she would have been told that in the briefings that she sought from the police. I am interested to know whether she was told that there was a national advertising campaign. If she was told that, she has come here and has deliberately misled the House. I would be very surprised if she was not aware that these advertisements ...
Mr BELL: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If the Chief Minister wishes to make that accusation, he knows he has to do so by way of substantive motion. He knows that this advertisement by the Commissioner of Police is arrant politicisation of his office. He cannot disguise that fact by making extravagant allegations of that kind.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr STONE: I find it interesting that the member for MacDonnell is on his feet and the Leader of the Opposition does not complain. One has really to wonder who is running the show over there.
These advertisements are appearing around Australia. I would be very surprised if they carried necessarily the endorsements of the relevant police ministers. It would be the Commissioners of Police. The nuts-and-bolts implementation of the national proposals has been very much the carriage of the police.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is strike 2 for the member for Wanguri.
Mr STONE: The green people will get him, Mr Speaker.
I am very surprised that the Leader of the Opposition would make an unsubstantiated allegation that the Commissioner of Police in the Territory was being directed politically in any way. That is not the case and has not been the case during my time as Chief Minister. I know certainly that it was not the case during the time of my predecessor or of his predecessor.
Page 1591
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016