Mrs HICKEY - 1997-04-23
In November, the Chief Minister said that, if the Australian Federal Police did not immediately give him the report into the Country Liberal Party's privacy invasions, all hell would break loose. I can now give the Chief Minister that police report. It was obtained by the Territory Labor Party through the Commonwealth's Freedom of Information Act. I make a copy available to the Chief Minister for his perusal, if he does not have one already. In November, when I asked for a copy of the Northern Territory police report on the same topic, the Chief Minister refused to make it available. Does the Chief Minister accept that this shows that freedom of information legislation must be introduced to the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am told that we were provided subsequently with a copy. I can hand this back to the Leader of the Opposition. I will be very interested to read the report because it has been a long time coming. Here we go! I have not actually read it, but I can see lots of passages have been blanked out in this copy. It reminds me of a letter that we tried to obtain once, under FOI legislation, that Paul Keating wrote to Lois O'Donoghue. It began `Dear Lois' and then the whole of the letter was blanked out, until `Love, Paul'. Do not come in here and try to put it to me that this is some sort of goody that the CLP government should be embracing. This copy has many passages blanked out and plenty of exclusions. I look forward to reading it with a great deal of interest.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am told that we were provided subsequently with a copy. I can hand this back to the Leader of the Opposition. I will be very interested to read the report because it has been a long time coming. Here we go! I have not actually read it, but I can see lots of passages have been blanked out in this copy. It reminds me of a letter that we tried to obtain once, under FOI legislation, that Paul Keating wrote to Lois O'Donoghue. It began `Dear Lois' and then the whole of the letter was blanked out, until `Love, Paul'. Do not come in here and try to put it to me that this is some sort of goody that the CLP government should be embracing. This copy has many passages blanked out and plenty of exclusions. I look forward to reading it with a great deal of interest.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016