Mr TOYNE - 1996-11-20
The Northern Territory Electoral Office is a unit of the administration in the Department of the Chief Minister. Indeed, the Northern Territory Chief Electoral Officer is accountable to the deputy secretary of the Chief Minister's own department. The Australian Federal Police conclusion highlights the fact that the Chief Minister is incapable of protecting Territorians' private and confidential information held within his own department. Will he now allow
Page 1787
Territorians a truly independent electoral commission, as exists in every other mainland state and territory?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this question comes from a member of the Labor Party, the very same party whose electioneering workers left files on Territorians lying around in a pub in Katherine. This is from the party that, while it was in government federally, sold absolutely everything that it could in terms of lists. That is right. A person could walk into government departments and buy stuff across the counter because the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, was absolutely obsessed with his full-cost-recovery concept.
I obtained this book, The List of Lists, after reading about it in an article. It is a fascinating book. It indicates all the sorts of information that are obtainable in this country. There is even a list of retirees. `Description: A list of people approaching retirement or already retired. All records are 40 years or older. List size: 135 000. Address type: Personalised to home'. There is a retirement village residents list. It goes on: `Female executives and professionals' - 11 630 people appear on that list - and `Female executive database'. There are 32 000 on that list, most of them with personalised addresses to their workplace or to their home.
Members opposite come into this parliament and try to make up a story, pretending to Territorians that somehow, because a few birth dates ended up on a database, there has been a grave intrusion into the lives and privacy of Territorians. Members opposite really must think Territorians are stupid. Their own former campaign director, Jeff Kelland, conceded as much on the Morning Program on 8 November. He had this to say, at one stage - this is your man ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: Yes, he was. You disown him now. You do not want to know about him.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Jeff Kelland will be very pleased to know that he has been disowned, particularly by the member for Nhulunbuy. Jeff Kelland said: `Anyone who wants to go into the post office can buy a book, Fred, called The List of Lists, and you'd be surprised what information you can purchase'. I obtained The List of Lists. It is comprehensive, but it does not take you any further.
Mr Bailey: Read all of his quote - about the birth dates.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Page 1788
Mr STONE: Members opposite may make the claim that the electoral office does not operate in an independent way in the Northern Territory. I say to them that it does. What they want is to set up yet another bureaucracy. They want all the associated expense and all the associated infrastructure which, in a small community like ours ...
Mr Stirling: You want short reins held by a short, fat ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: At least I can lose weight, but you will always be ugly.
Mr Bailey: When Shane? You haven't done very well so far!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Finch: Fancy waking up next to that!
Mr STONE: Yes, I was just thinking that. Now I have lost my train of thought.
This provides a glimpse of the sort of government the Labor Party would run. It would go about creating extra bureaucracies with all the additional staff and infrastructure that involves.
I take the member for Stuart back to the first part of his question and ask whether he has read the AFP report. Does he have a copy? I ask because, from the way he framed the question, people listening to this broadcast will think that he has perhaps seen it or that he has it. I remind him again ...
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: If you have not seen it, do not get to your feet and make out that you have seen it, and attempt to speak in an authoritative way as though you are privy to what is in it, because you are obviously not.
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: I take the member for Stuart back to the letter from the Australian Electoral Commission. For the benefit of Territorians at home, listening to this broadcast, who may not have heard what ...
Mr Toyne: Read it all.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: The Australian Electoral Commissioner said:
Page 1789
The AEC does not accuse either you, your officers or anyone else of any illegality under Commonwealth or
Northern Territory law, Nor does the Australian Electoral Commission attempt to implicate any person in
any wrongdoing.
It could not be put any more clearly.
Mr Bailey: Read the whole letter.
Mr STONE: The member for Wanguri interjects: `Read the whole letter'. The letter was tabled. It is on the public record. It is there for all Territorians to see, including the fact that the Australian Electoral Commissioner claims that he contacted the NT News and The Australian and asked them to stop making the allegations they were making. That in itself was quite a revelation, particularly where he said, `to ensure that they did not continue to misrepresent the content of the AEC's statement'.
In an earlier interjection, someone called for an apology. Only one apology is due at this stage and it is due from the Leader of the Opposition to the Commissioner of Police. She should have the gumption to apologise to the Commissioner of Police and, if she will not do that, she needs to tell Territorians why she will not apologise to the Commissioner of Police for misrepresenting him, in the public forum, after receiving a confidential briefing.
Mrs Hickey: How do you know?
Mr STONE: I will tell you how I know. I watched the Channel 8 news.
Mr Bailey: Oh, the Channel 8 news! If they get it wrong, and it does not go well with your ideas ...
Mr SPEAKER: I advise the member for Wanguri again that he is going very close.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wanguri will settle down.
Mr STONE: I thought that vicious attack on Channel 8 was most unwarranted. It was disgraceful. I have every confidence that Channel 8 would not have reported `a furious Police Commissioner' if it were not true. If she will not apologise to the Commissioner of Police, she needs to tell Territorians why she will not. She should also be preparing to apologise to all the hardworking folk at the Department of the Chief Minister.
Page 1790
Page 1787
Territorians a truly independent electoral commission, as exists in every other mainland state and territory?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this question comes from a member of the Labor Party, the very same party whose electioneering workers left files on Territorians lying around in a pub in Katherine. This is from the party that, while it was in government federally, sold absolutely everything that it could in terms of lists. That is right. A person could walk into government departments and buy stuff across the counter because the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, was absolutely obsessed with his full-cost-recovery concept.
I obtained this book, The List of Lists, after reading about it in an article. It is a fascinating book. It indicates all the sorts of information that are obtainable in this country. There is even a list of retirees. `Description: A list of people approaching retirement or already retired. All records are 40 years or older. List size: 135 000. Address type: Personalised to home'. There is a retirement village residents list. It goes on: `Female executives and professionals' - 11 630 people appear on that list - and `Female executive database'. There are 32 000 on that list, most of them with personalised addresses to their workplace or to their home.
Members opposite come into this parliament and try to make up a story, pretending to Territorians that somehow, because a few birth dates ended up on a database, there has been a grave intrusion into the lives and privacy of Territorians. Members opposite really must think Territorians are stupid. Their own former campaign director, Jeff Kelland, conceded as much on the Morning Program on 8 November. He had this to say, at one stage - this is your man ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: Yes, he was. You disown him now. You do not want to know about him.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: Jeff Kelland will be very pleased to know that he has been disowned, particularly by the member for Nhulunbuy. Jeff Kelland said: `Anyone who wants to go into the post office can buy a book, Fred, called The List of Lists, and you'd be surprised what information you can purchase'. I obtained The List of Lists. It is comprehensive, but it does not take you any further.
Mr Bailey: Read all of his quote - about the birth dates.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Page 1788
Mr STONE: Members opposite may make the claim that the electoral office does not operate in an independent way in the Northern Territory. I say to them that it does. What they want is to set up yet another bureaucracy. They want all the associated expense and all the associated infrastructure which, in a small community like ours ...
Mr Stirling: You want short reins held by a short, fat ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: At least I can lose weight, but you will always be ugly.
Mr Bailey: When Shane? You haven't done very well so far!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Finch: Fancy waking up next to that!
Mr STONE: Yes, I was just thinking that. Now I have lost my train of thought.
This provides a glimpse of the sort of government the Labor Party would run. It would go about creating extra bureaucracies with all the additional staff and infrastructure that involves.
I take the member for Stuart back to the first part of his question and ask whether he has read the AFP report. Does he have a copy? I ask because, from the way he framed the question, people listening to this broadcast will think that he has perhaps seen it or that he has it. I remind him again ...
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: If you have not seen it, do not get to your feet and make out that you have seen it, and attempt to speak in an authoritative way as though you are privy to what is in it, because you are obviously not.
Mr Toyne interjecting.
Mr STONE: I take the member for Stuart back to the letter from the Australian Electoral Commission. For the benefit of Territorians at home, listening to this broadcast, who may not have heard what ...
Mr Toyne: Read it all.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: The Australian Electoral Commissioner said:
Page 1789
The AEC does not accuse either you, your officers or anyone else of any illegality under Commonwealth or
Northern Territory law, Nor does the Australian Electoral Commission attempt to implicate any person in
any wrongdoing.
It could not be put any more clearly.
Mr Bailey: Read the whole letter.
Mr STONE: The member for Wanguri interjects: `Read the whole letter'. The letter was tabled. It is on the public record. It is there for all Territorians to see, including the fact that the Australian Electoral Commissioner claims that he contacted the NT News and The Australian and asked them to stop making the allegations they were making. That in itself was quite a revelation, particularly where he said, `to ensure that they did not continue to misrepresent the content of the AEC's statement'.
In an earlier interjection, someone called for an apology. Only one apology is due at this stage and it is due from the Leader of the Opposition to the Commissioner of Police. She should have the gumption to apologise to the Commissioner of Police and, if she will not do that, she needs to tell Territorians why she will not apologise to the Commissioner of Police for misrepresenting him, in the public forum, after receiving a confidential briefing.
Mrs Hickey: How do you know?
Mr STONE: I will tell you how I know. I watched the Channel 8 news.
Mr Bailey: Oh, the Channel 8 news! If they get it wrong, and it does not go well with your ideas ...
Mr SPEAKER: I advise the member for Wanguri again that he is going very close.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wanguri will settle down.
Mr STONE: I thought that vicious attack on Channel 8 was most unwarranted. It was disgraceful. I have every confidence that Channel 8 would not have reported `a furious Police Commissioner' if it were not true. If she will not apologise to the Commissioner of Police, she needs to tell Territorians why she will not. She should also be preparing to apologise to all the hardworking folk at the Department of the Chief Minister.
Page 1790
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016