Mr EDE - 1996-02-29
I refer the Chief Minister to complaints from elderly Territorians that their privacy has been invaded by the Country Liberal Party federal candidate, Mr Nick Dondas. Elderly residents complain that they have received letters and phone calls from Mr Dondas, in the course of his campaign, targeting them as senior citizens. These people are not identified on any electoral roll as being senior citizens.
Last night, on ABC television news, the Chief Minister told Territorians that the Country Liberal Party had obtained information on the age of Territorians from dates of birth provided on the electoral roll. The Australian Electoral Commission, which maintains the NT electoral roll, is specifically prohibited by law from providing that information to political parties.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy of the enrolment form that every Territorian voter fills out, which makes that point very clear.
Leave granted.
Mr EDE: How did the Country Liberal Party find out that Mr Jim Burke, and other Territorians who have contacted us, were pensioners when they were not listed as such on the roll, were never polled by the Country Liberal Party and did not provide that information to any other source except Northern Territory government departments such as Health Services? The Chief Minister obviously has investigated this matter. I ask him to make a categorical statement as to whether any department of the CLP government or any government instrumentality has ever provided any departmental information to the Country Liberal Party?
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I will deal with that issue first. I can give a categorical undertaking that my advice is that no such departmental information has ever been made available to the Country Liberal Party.
Mr Ede: How did it obtain it?
Mr STONE: For the Leader of the Opposition to stand up in this Chamber and say that the Electoral Act precludes the provision of information other than the constituent's name and address ...
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! He cannot stand in here and tell outright lies. I made no such allegation.
Mr Stone: You held up the enrolment form. You said it was prohibited by law.
Mr EDE: Provision of the date of birth.
Mr Stone: I am about to demonstrate this. Why not sit down and listen?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! As I understand it, the Chief Minister is making the point that the information that you provided is incorrect.
Mr STONE: In fact, I am sure the Leader of the Opposition has picked up the Electoral Act and looked at section 91. I am sure he has found subsection (9): `Except as otherwise provided by this act, the Electoral Commission shall not provide any person with any information which discloses particulars of the occupation, sex or dates of birth of electors'. However, he knows that, when he picks up his electoral roll, details including occupation and sex are provided by the Electoral Commission under an agreement between the states, the territories and the AEC. He knows how it works. He also knows that, if he takes Feedback or Poll Data ...
Mr Bailey: No date of birth in it.
Mr STONE: Are you on Poll Data, as provided by the ALP?
Mr Ede: No.
Mr STONE: None of you? I do not believe you. I know for a fact that the federal ALP secretariat makes that information available to all ALP members.
Mr Ede: Not date of birth.
Mr STONE: You went on the morning program today and you referred to the shell that has been devised for all members of the Legislative Assembly You said it was fine, didn't you?
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Mr Bailey: What we are saying is that we are not provided with the date of birth.
Mr STONE: The software shell, as you referred to it, is software that is provided by the Country Liberal Party government to all members of parliament. I will table it so that it is in the public record. It has a date of birth.
Mr Bailey: The information is not provided.
Mr STONE: You can come in here and you can try to pretend that you do not have this information on your databases ...
Mr Bailey: We don't!
Mr STONE: ... when I know for a fact that you worked with Information Systems in the Department of the Legislative Assembly to work up this shell so that you could elicit that type of information.
Mr Ede: Wrong!
Mr STONE: I look at my electoral roll and I find there names, addresses, occupation, sex, electoral number and some of them have dates of birth. That is the package that I buy. I am assured that that is information provided by the AEC.
Mr Bailey: Not date of birth.
Mr Ede: Wrong!
Mr STONE: You can say it is wrong, but that is the package that I receive. You may well ask how I can get the telephone numbers. Anyone who is up to date with Paul Keating's superhighway would know that you can walk into Telstra and purchase the CD-ROM that has the telephone numbers of everyone in Australia. My package is one that I purchase and it has some of that information on it. You really do have a major credibility problem.
Mr Bailey: Do you get the date of birth on yours? I don't.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Wanguri that he is on a warning.
Mr STONE: I can understand why the Leader of the Opposition was stunned yesterday by the revelations of documents left lying around in a pub, disclosing a range of information about people. I can understand his acute embarrassment at that. However, he should not come in here and say that he himself does not elicit this information.
Mr Speaker, I table this letter from Hon Warren Snowdon that was sent out to Territorians. It asked them a range of questions, including their date of birth and the issues they are interested in. That is dated 16 October. This is all part of the building up of a dossier on Territorians. I will also table a letter from the Leader of the Opposition, dated 15 September 1995, in which he seeks similar information.
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Mr Ede: No.
Mr STONE: This is how you are putting your database together.
Mr Ede: It is voluntary.
Mr STONE: You get up in here and talk about elderly Territorians. The Nick Dondas letter asked: `Can I help you?' I never thought I would hear anyone complain about receiving a letter that simply said: `Can I help you?' Anyone who believes that is intrusive is really very sensitive. Do not come in here saying, `poor old Mr Burke'. Mr Burke is a member of the Labor Party. You had him all teed up yesterday - the member for Fannie Bay can smile, but she knows it is true - for interviews that were an attempt to embarrass us. You were blown out of the water yesterday morning for providing information over and above anything that people would expect to find, including whether or not someone is a member of the Labor Party. You are compiling lists of people based on their political affiliation, and you stand condemned for that.
Here is the latest circular letter from the ALP: `Saturday's election is about credibility'.
Mr Ede: Yes, and you have none.
Mr STONE: He says yes. I will table one of the letters. This one is addressed to a Mr J.E. Taylor. That is actually Jon Taylor, one of the ministerial press secretaries. It is addressed to the GPO box of the Chief Minister! `This election is about credibility'. That is how smart you lot are. You are incompetent, you are lazy, you are intrusive and you are building dossiers on Territorians.
Yesterday, I tabled some of the secret documents that the ALP left lying around in a pub in Katherine after, I am told, they had got stuck into it that night. No wonder it was left lying around! Here is some additional information that was left lying in the pub. It is Labor's mobile polling schedule, complete with all the names of who was going where to do what. Obviously they were not interested in Top Springs because they gave it a miss. I think they also gave Tipperary a miss. They know who was in the pub that night and who left this material lying around. The Leader of the Opposition goes to the media and demands a police investigation. I would love to see him stand up in this parliament, hand on heart, and say that he does not know the truth of where this came from.
Mr Ede: Do you want me to do it now?
Mr STONE: You can do it at the end of Question Time. I do not believe for one moment that, when you walked out wringing your hands about how this happened and who the campaign workers were ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: We have an allegation now from the Leader of the Opposition that Shane Stone is a cat burglar. Shane Stone has been out there with his jemmy, breaking into ALP offices. Or even better, I am some sort of computer hacker. I know how to turn a
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computer on and off, but I do not have a jemmy. The Labor lot left this lying around in a pub. It details whether or not Territorians are members of a political party.
Mr Speaker, I table this information that was left in the pub after a drunken binge by the ALP campaign workers.
Mr Ede: You are a laugh.
Mr STONE: You are the laugh. You are the one who stands in here and says that this election is about competency. We have heard about the forger. This is the man that you have the close working relationship with. You ...
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is a clear implication by the Chief Minister that the federal Treasurer forged that letter. He referred to my relationship with `the forger'. He will withdraw that. It is outrageous that a man of the calibre of Ralph Willis ...
Mr STONE: Mr Speaker, I will withdraw that. But this is the man who used forged documents and tried to pass them off. He could not get out there fast enough. We should bear in mind that this is the very same man who let it slip that Australians were in for tax increases. They then put him on the witness protection program. They let him back out again, and what did he do? He turned up with forged documents.
The Leader of the Opposition knows what information is in Labor's electoral files, and I know what is in ours. At least I am not sending letters to members of his staff at his GPO box number. This campaign is about credibility - and he does not have any.
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Last night, on ABC television news, the Chief Minister told Territorians that the Country Liberal Party had obtained information on the age of Territorians from dates of birth provided on the electoral roll. The Australian Electoral Commission, which maintains the NT electoral roll, is specifically prohibited by law from providing that information to political parties.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy of the enrolment form that every Territorian voter fills out, which makes that point very clear.
Leave granted.
Mr EDE: How did the Country Liberal Party find out that Mr Jim Burke, and other Territorians who have contacted us, were pensioners when they were not listed as such on the roll, were never polled by the Country Liberal Party and did not provide that information to any other source except Northern Territory government departments such as Health Services? The Chief Minister obviously has investigated this matter. I ask him to make a categorical statement as to whether any department of the CLP government or any government instrumentality has ever provided any departmental information to the Country Liberal Party?
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I will deal with that issue first. I can give a categorical undertaking that my advice is that no such departmental information has ever been made available to the Country Liberal Party.
Mr Ede: How did it obtain it?
Mr STONE: For the Leader of the Opposition to stand up in this Chamber and say that the Electoral Act precludes the provision of information other than the constituent's name and address ...
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! He cannot stand in here and tell outright lies. I made no such allegation.
Mr Stone: You held up the enrolment form. You said it was prohibited by law.
Mr EDE: Provision of the date of birth.
Mr Stone: I am about to demonstrate this. Why not sit down and listen?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! As I understand it, the Chief Minister is making the point that the information that you provided is incorrect.
Mr STONE: In fact, I am sure the Leader of the Opposition has picked up the Electoral Act and looked at section 91. I am sure he has found subsection (9): `Except as otherwise provided by this act, the Electoral Commission shall not provide any person with any information which discloses particulars of the occupation, sex or dates of birth of electors'. However, he knows that, when he picks up his electoral roll, details including occupation and sex are provided by the Electoral Commission under an agreement between the states, the territories and the AEC. He knows how it works. He also knows that, if he takes Feedback or Poll Data ...
Mr Bailey: No date of birth in it.
Mr STONE: Are you on Poll Data, as provided by the ALP?
Mr Ede: No.
Mr STONE: None of you? I do not believe you. I know for a fact that the federal ALP secretariat makes that information available to all ALP members.
Mr Ede: Not date of birth.
Mr STONE: You went on the morning program today and you referred to the shell that has been devised for all members of the Legislative Assembly You said it was fine, didn't you?
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Mr Bailey: What we are saying is that we are not provided with the date of birth.
Mr STONE: The software shell, as you referred to it, is software that is provided by the Country Liberal Party government to all members of parliament. I will table it so that it is in the public record. It has a date of birth.
Mr Bailey: The information is not provided.
Mr STONE: You can come in here and you can try to pretend that you do not have this information on your databases ...
Mr Bailey: We don't!
Mr STONE: ... when I know for a fact that you worked with Information Systems in the Department of the Legislative Assembly to work up this shell so that you could elicit that type of information.
Mr Ede: Wrong!
Mr STONE: I look at my electoral roll and I find there names, addresses, occupation, sex, electoral number and some of them have dates of birth. That is the package that I buy. I am assured that that is information provided by the AEC.
Mr Bailey: Not date of birth.
Mr Ede: Wrong!
Mr STONE: You can say it is wrong, but that is the package that I receive. You may well ask how I can get the telephone numbers. Anyone who is up to date with Paul Keating's superhighway would know that you can walk into Telstra and purchase the CD-ROM that has the telephone numbers of everyone in Australia. My package is one that I purchase and it has some of that information on it. You really do have a major credibility problem.
Mr Bailey: Do you get the date of birth on yours? I don't.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Wanguri that he is on a warning.
Mr STONE: I can understand why the Leader of the Opposition was stunned yesterday by the revelations of documents left lying around in a pub, disclosing a range of information about people. I can understand his acute embarrassment at that. However, he should not come in here and say that he himself does not elicit this information.
Mr Speaker, I table this letter from Hon Warren Snowdon that was sent out to Territorians. It asked them a range of questions, including their date of birth and the issues they are interested in. That is dated 16 October. This is all part of the building up of a dossier on Territorians. I will also table a letter from the Leader of the Opposition, dated 15 September 1995, in which he seeks similar information.
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Mr Ede: No.
Mr STONE: This is how you are putting your database together.
Mr Ede: It is voluntary.
Mr STONE: You get up in here and talk about elderly Territorians. The Nick Dondas letter asked: `Can I help you?' I never thought I would hear anyone complain about receiving a letter that simply said: `Can I help you?' Anyone who believes that is intrusive is really very sensitive. Do not come in here saying, `poor old Mr Burke'. Mr Burke is a member of the Labor Party. You had him all teed up yesterday - the member for Fannie Bay can smile, but she knows it is true - for interviews that were an attempt to embarrass us. You were blown out of the water yesterday morning for providing information over and above anything that people would expect to find, including whether or not someone is a member of the Labor Party. You are compiling lists of people based on their political affiliation, and you stand condemned for that.
Here is the latest circular letter from the ALP: `Saturday's election is about credibility'.
Mr Ede: Yes, and you have none.
Mr STONE: He says yes. I will table one of the letters. This one is addressed to a Mr J.E. Taylor. That is actually Jon Taylor, one of the ministerial press secretaries. It is addressed to the GPO box of the Chief Minister! `This election is about credibility'. That is how smart you lot are. You are incompetent, you are lazy, you are intrusive and you are building dossiers on Territorians.
Yesterday, I tabled some of the secret documents that the ALP left lying around in a pub in Katherine after, I am told, they had got stuck into it that night. No wonder it was left lying around! Here is some additional information that was left lying in the pub. It is Labor's mobile polling schedule, complete with all the names of who was going where to do what. Obviously they were not interested in Top Springs because they gave it a miss. I think they also gave Tipperary a miss. They know who was in the pub that night and who left this material lying around. The Leader of the Opposition goes to the media and demands a police investigation. I would love to see him stand up in this parliament, hand on heart, and say that he does not know the truth of where this came from.
Mr Ede: Do you want me to do it now?
Mr STONE: You can do it at the end of Question Time. I do not believe for one moment that, when you walked out wringing your hands about how this happened and who the campaign workers were ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: We have an allegation now from the Leader of the Opposition that Shane Stone is a cat burglar. Shane Stone has been out there with his jemmy, breaking into ALP offices. Or even better, I am some sort of computer hacker. I know how to turn a
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computer on and off, but I do not have a jemmy. The Labor lot left this lying around in a pub. It details whether or not Territorians are members of a political party.
Mr Speaker, I table this information that was left in the pub after a drunken binge by the ALP campaign workers.
Mr Ede: You are a laugh.
Mr STONE: You are the laugh. You are the one who stands in here and says that this election is about competency. We have heard about the forger. This is the man that you have the close working relationship with. You ...
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is a clear implication by the Chief Minister that the federal Treasurer forged that letter. He referred to my relationship with `the forger'. He will withdraw that. It is outrageous that a man of the calibre of Ralph Willis ...
Mr STONE: Mr Speaker, I will withdraw that. But this is the man who used forged documents and tried to pass them off. He could not get out there fast enough. We should bear in mind that this is the very same man who let it slip that Australians were in for tax increases. They then put him on the witness protection program. They let him back out again, and what did he do? He turned up with forged documents.
The Leader of the Opposition knows what information is in Labor's electoral files, and I know what is in ours. At least I am not sending letters to members of his staff at his GPO box number. This campaign is about credibility - and he does not have any.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016