Mrs HICKEY - 1996-11-19
On 29 February 1996, when questioned by both Channel 8 and ABC television about the use of dates of birth by the Country Liberal Party, the Chief Minister told Territorians: `I can give you a categorical assurance, and that is that it is not coming from government departments'. This was a repeat of similar comments made by the Chief Minister to this Assembly earlier that week. The federal police have now shown that the Chief Minister's categorical assurance is not true. On this basis, the Australian Electoral Commission concludes that Territorians' private and confidential information was transferred by a person or persons unknown in the Chief Minister's own department. Will the Chief Minister explain to Territorians why he misled them on 29 February?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, all I can say about the Leader of the Opposition is that she is absolutely appalling in the sense that she knows that there is an ongoing police inquiry and she is endeavouring to pre-empt the findings of that inquiry. She has been doing it by going to the media and continuing to make unsubstantiated allegations in the hope of being able to translate those unsubstantiated allegations into fact - to turn fiction into fact. In this Chamber, I told Territorians that, based on the advice that I had received - and she was very careful not to read that out in the context of the question that she has asked this morning - I could give that categorical advice. Let me read from the letter that has been sent subsequently to the Secretary of the Department of the Chief Minister by none other than Bill Gray of the Australian Electoral Commission. The letter is dated 11 November. I quote:
The AEC does not accuse either you, your officers or anyone else of any illegality under Commonwealth or
Northern Territory law. Nor does the AEC attempt to implicate any person in any wrongdoing.
Mr Bell: Did you apologise to him?
Mr STONE: I realise that the member for MacDonnell does not want this read into the public record. He is very keen to ensure that the truth does not come out, thereby enabling the opposition to continue casting allegations about. That letter continues:
With regard to your request that I contact the media to clarify my press statement of 6 November, I can advise
that contact was made with both the NT News and The Australian to ensure that they did not continue to
misrepresent the content of the AEC statement.
Perhaps Bill Gray would have done well to contact the Leader of the Opposition and tell her to stop misquoting the AEC because, as has been made very clear in this letter, it makes no allegations of any impropriety or wrongdoing against either the Secretary of the Department of the Chief Minister or any of the hardworking public servants in that department. However, that has not stopped the Leader of the Opposition from making allegations against good,
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hardworking folk who feel they have all been tarred with the same brush because of these unsubstantiated allegations.
It is a little like the briefing from the Commissioner of Police. The Leader of the Opposition asked to be briefed on her own. She did not want any officers present from the Department of the Chief Minister or from my office. I agreed to that. In fact, I agreed to it on the Friday, but she ran around telling people that she had been denied that briefing. That is not true! In fact, it was a matter of public record on the ABC on the Friday that she would be given the briefing.
What did she do? The Leader of the Opposition verballed the Commissioner of Police. It was reported on Channel 8 that the Commissioner of Police was furious. I can understand him being furious. Who verballed whom - or was it the fault of Channel 8? Was she misunderstood by the media? She may try as hard as she wants to get these allegations up, but the facts are that, until that police inquiry is completed, they are nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations. The Leader of the Opposition should have the decency to await the outcome of that report instead of pre-empting it and compromising it by continuing to cast aspersions on good, hardworking folk in the Department of the Chief Minister.
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I ask that the document from which the Chief Minister was quoting be tabled.
Mr STONE: Mr Speaker, I table that document.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, all I can say about the Leader of the Opposition is that she is absolutely appalling in the sense that she knows that there is an ongoing police inquiry and she is endeavouring to pre-empt the findings of that inquiry. She has been doing it by going to the media and continuing to make unsubstantiated allegations in the hope of being able to translate those unsubstantiated allegations into fact - to turn fiction into fact. In this Chamber, I told Territorians that, based on the advice that I had received - and she was very careful not to read that out in the context of the question that she has asked this morning - I could give that categorical advice. Let me read from the letter that has been sent subsequently to the Secretary of the Department of the Chief Minister by none other than Bill Gray of the Australian Electoral Commission. The letter is dated 11 November. I quote:
The AEC does not accuse either you, your officers or anyone else of any illegality under Commonwealth or
Northern Territory law. Nor does the AEC attempt to implicate any person in any wrongdoing.
Mr Bell: Did you apologise to him?
Mr STONE: I realise that the member for MacDonnell does not want this read into the public record. He is very keen to ensure that the truth does not come out, thereby enabling the opposition to continue casting allegations about. That letter continues:
With regard to your request that I contact the media to clarify my press statement of 6 November, I can advise
that contact was made with both the NT News and The Australian to ensure that they did not continue to
misrepresent the content of the AEC statement.
Perhaps Bill Gray would have done well to contact the Leader of the Opposition and tell her to stop misquoting the AEC because, as has been made very clear in this letter, it makes no allegations of any impropriety or wrongdoing against either the Secretary of the Department of the Chief Minister or any of the hardworking public servants in that department. However, that has not stopped the Leader of the Opposition from making allegations against good,
Page 1756
hardworking folk who feel they have all been tarred with the same brush because of these unsubstantiated allegations.
It is a little like the briefing from the Commissioner of Police. The Leader of the Opposition asked to be briefed on her own. She did not want any officers present from the Department of the Chief Minister or from my office. I agreed to that. In fact, I agreed to it on the Friday, but she ran around telling people that she had been denied that briefing. That is not true! In fact, it was a matter of public record on the ABC on the Friday that she would be given the briefing.
What did she do? The Leader of the Opposition verballed the Commissioner of Police. It was reported on Channel 8 that the Commissioner of Police was furious. I can understand him being furious. Who verballed whom - or was it the fault of Channel 8? Was she misunderstood by the media? She may try as hard as she wants to get these allegations up, but the facts are that, until that police inquiry is completed, they are nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations. The Leader of the Opposition should have the decency to await the outcome of that report instead of pre-empting it and compromising it by continuing to cast aspersions on good, hardworking folk in the Department of the Chief Minister.
Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I ask that the document from which the Chief Minister was quoting be tabled.
Mr STONE: Mr Speaker, I table that document.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016