Mr BURKE - 2002-10-08
Madam Speaker, I remind the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General and listeners that, in the last answer, the Chief Minister said the accounting firm was appointed in April and that government did not wind up the club. Minister, yesterday on ABC radio you said:
With things like the Arafura Bowling Club, by the time the judicial manager was put in there, the thing was really beyond
help, and all we were doing was to wind things up.
Today, minister, you said in a ministerial statement:
By the end of August the club was no longer trading profitably and its position was unsustainable.
Minister, I give you another opportunity to tell the truth. Was it April when you decided to wind the club up, or was it in August, as you said today? Which version of the truth would you like to tell us?
ANSWER
I will give you a very short answer to that: I did not decide to wind the club up at all because it is not my role to wind the club up. The Registrar for Associations, working in conjunction with the Supreme Court, will carry through a process which potentially will take a trading body such as the Arafura Club to that conclusion.
What I did was seek regular briefings from the Registrar on what intervention was being carried out according to the set procedures, and the stage at which decisions had to be subsequently made by Cabinet insomuch as the recommendations involved the issue of the land and facilities of the club. Those matters had to be presented to Cabinet. That was my role in it. My understanding of the initial time at which the club and the Registrar joined company to assess the situation and take whatever action was necessary was sought by the club. You should ask them.
With things like the Arafura Bowling Club, by the time the judicial manager was put in there, the thing was really beyond
help, and all we were doing was to wind things up.
Today, minister, you said in a ministerial statement:
By the end of August the club was no longer trading profitably and its position was unsustainable.
Minister, I give you another opportunity to tell the truth. Was it April when you decided to wind the club up, or was it in August, as you said today? Which version of the truth would you like to tell us?
ANSWER
I will give you a very short answer to that: I did not decide to wind the club up at all because it is not my role to wind the club up. The Registrar for Associations, working in conjunction with the Supreme Court, will carry through a process which potentially will take a trading body such as the Arafura Club to that conclusion.
What I did was seek regular briefings from the Registrar on what intervention was being carried out according to the set procedures, and the stage at which decisions had to be subsequently made by Cabinet insomuch as the recommendations involved the issue of the land and facilities of the club. Those matters had to be presented to Cabinet. That was my role in it. My understanding of the initial time at which the club and the Registrar joined company to assess the situation and take whatever action was necessary was sought by the club. You should ask them.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016