Mrs HICKEY - 1995-03-02
Yesterday, the President of the Country Liberal Party, Suzanne Cavanagh, confirmed that Mr Mark Textor had worked on CLP polling in last year's election. The CLP's return to the Electoral Commission declared that the party had spent nothing on polling. I seek leave to table a copy of the CLP return to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: Mr Speaker, the completion of an incorrect electoral return is a federal offence under section 315 of the Electoral Act and is liable to a penalty of $10 000. I ask the Chief Minister, as the minister responsible for electoral matters in the Northern Territory, whether he will order an immediate investigation of the obvious inconsistency between the CLP's return and the statements made yesterday by the CLP president. Will the Chief Minister pass the findings of that inquiry to the Australian Electoral Commission?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do not have anything to do with the compilation of the CLP's electoral return, but I can assure honourable members ...
Members interjecting.
Mr PERRON: I will come to the Labor Party's return in a minute.
I can assure honourable members that the CLP's return is completed in meticulous detail because we have had a little experience of being pursued, I believe politically, by the Australian Electoral Commission on a previous occasion over a bit of nonsense that lasted a few years.
Mr Ede: Are you questioning public servants? Are you knocking public servants?
Mr PERRON: Don't tempt me or I will table the dossier.
Mr Ede: Okay.
Mr PERRON: I am aware that the Country Liberal Party pays very meticulous attention to its electoral return to ensure that it is 100% accurate. I can assure honourable members that stacking our return against the ALP's publicly would reveal a few deficiencies in theirs. I will touch on a couple of items in a minute. For a start, the ALP spent more than we did in the campaign and it declared about half as much. That was a good start. There was an anonymous donor to the ALP in the Northern Territory. Someone was picking up hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of expenses for the ALP campaign and not having them declared. We suspect it was through the ALP nationally.
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The honourable minister knows that he has responsibility for electoral matters. If he will carry out an investigation into the rorts that we
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are alleging, I would be quite happy, and I am sure all Territorians would applaud a broad investigation.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The Chief Minister is answering a question that was asked of him.
Mr Coulter: Why don't you admit that the feds picked up the tab for $250 000?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is too much chatter across the Chamber.
Mr PERRON: Mr Speaker, to pick up the point made by the Leader of the Opposition, he is fully aware that it is not the Northern Territory's Electoral Act that requires political parties to make returns in relation to their finances. It is a device of the Australian Labor Party to attempt to dry up donations to conservative parties in Australia.
Mr Ede: Garbage!
Mr PERRON: That is all it is and I oppose it absolutely. As I have said in this House on several occasions, I do not want to know who makes donations to the ALP. I am not interested. I do not care. Don't suggest that I ought to establish some inquiry into ALP finances. I am not interested in how you launder your money.
Mr Ede: Don't make unfounded allegations if you are not prepared to know the truth.
Mr PERRON: You guys are the experts at laundering money.
Mr Ede: We do not have any.
Mr PERRON: Mr Speaker, in fact the ALP's return to the Electoral Commission was qualified so extensively that obviously it has a team of accountants working on preparing the correct document for submission later. It contains statements such as the following:
The figures reported to you are not fully audited and, while they represent the best information I can provide
by the deadline, audit completion may require amendment. The figures include information reported to
me by units of the Northern Territory Branch which have not been independently audited and may contain errors
of which I am unaware and cannot identify. The figures include information reported to me for periods when I
have not been the agent nor the treasurer of the ALP and I personally cannot reasonably check and confirm
that all of this information is correct. The figures are incomplete owing to a failure by several of the
units of the Northern Territory Branch to provide the required information.
I suppose these reports make interesting reading if you have the time ...
Mr Ede: You just said you were not interested.
Page 492
Mr PERRON: I have not had the time and I have not read it. However, it was reported to me that the chook raffle section of this report indicated that $70 000 or $80 000 was raised. However, it actually cost more for the chooks than they got out of it.
Mr Reed: And they want to run the Territory!
Mr Ede: We give value for money.
Mr PERRON: They had an $11 000 deficit on their chook raffles. These are the people who are holding out economic policy to run the Northern Territory.
Page 493
Leave granted.
Mrs HICKEY: Mr Speaker, the completion of an incorrect electoral return is a federal offence under section 315 of the Electoral Act and is liable to a penalty of $10 000. I ask the Chief Minister, as the minister responsible for electoral matters in the Northern Territory, whether he will order an immediate investigation of the obvious inconsistency between the CLP's return and the statements made yesterday by the CLP president. Will the Chief Minister pass the findings of that inquiry to the Australian Electoral Commission?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do not have anything to do with the compilation of the CLP's electoral return, but I can assure honourable members ...
Members interjecting.
Mr PERRON: I will come to the Labor Party's return in a minute.
I can assure honourable members that the CLP's return is completed in meticulous detail because we have had a little experience of being pursued, I believe politically, by the Australian Electoral Commission on a previous occasion over a bit of nonsense that lasted a few years.
Mr Ede: Are you questioning public servants? Are you knocking public servants?
Mr PERRON: Don't tempt me or I will table the dossier.
Mr Ede: Okay.
Mr PERRON: I am aware that the Country Liberal Party pays very meticulous attention to its electoral return to ensure that it is 100% accurate. I can assure honourable members that stacking our return against the ALP's publicly would reveal a few deficiencies in theirs. I will touch on a couple of items in a minute. For a start, the ALP spent more than we did in the campaign and it declared about half as much. That was a good start. There was an anonymous donor to the ALP in the Northern Territory. Someone was picking up hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of expenses for the ALP campaign and not having them declared. We suspect it was through the ALP nationally.
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The honourable minister knows that he has responsibility for electoral matters. If he will carry out an investigation into the rorts that we
Page 491
are alleging, I would be quite happy, and I am sure all Territorians would applaud a broad investigation.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The Chief Minister is answering a question that was asked of him.
Mr Coulter: Why don't you admit that the feds picked up the tab for $250 000?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is too much chatter across the Chamber.
Mr PERRON: Mr Speaker, to pick up the point made by the Leader of the Opposition, he is fully aware that it is not the Northern Territory's Electoral Act that requires political parties to make returns in relation to their finances. It is a device of the Australian Labor Party to attempt to dry up donations to conservative parties in Australia.
Mr Ede: Garbage!
Mr PERRON: That is all it is and I oppose it absolutely. As I have said in this House on several occasions, I do not want to know who makes donations to the ALP. I am not interested. I do not care. Don't suggest that I ought to establish some inquiry into ALP finances. I am not interested in how you launder your money.
Mr Ede: Don't make unfounded allegations if you are not prepared to know the truth.
Mr PERRON: You guys are the experts at laundering money.
Mr Ede: We do not have any.
Mr PERRON: Mr Speaker, in fact the ALP's return to the Electoral Commission was qualified so extensively that obviously it has a team of accountants working on preparing the correct document for submission later. It contains statements such as the following:
The figures reported to you are not fully audited and, while they represent the best information I can provide
by the deadline, audit completion may require amendment. The figures include information reported to
me by units of the Northern Territory Branch which have not been independently audited and may contain errors
of which I am unaware and cannot identify. The figures include information reported to me for periods when I
have not been the agent nor the treasurer of the ALP and I personally cannot reasonably check and confirm
that all of this information is correct. The figures are incomplete owing to a failure by several of the
units of the Northern Territory Branch to provide the required information.
I suppose these reports make interesting reading if you have the time ...
Mr Ede: You just said you were not interested.
Page 492
Mr PERRON: I have not had the time and I have not read it. However, it was reported to me that the chook raffle section of this report indicated that $70 000 or $80 000 was raised. However, it actually cost more for the chooks than they got out of it.
Mr Reed: And they want to run the Territory!
Mr Ede: We give value for money.
Mr PERRON: They had an $11 000 deficit on their chook raffles. These are the people who are holding out economic policy to run the Northern Territory.
Page 493
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016