Mr BURKE - 2002-02-26
I refer to the tabled minutes of a meeting held between the minister for Justice and the Prison Officers Association.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I would be very careful referring to this document as a set of minutes. At the first look this is an itinerary or agenda taken by the prisoner officers to the meeting. These are not minutes. These are issues they wanted to raise with the minister. Have a look at it. Have a look at it, dill. If you are relying on him up the back I would be a bit careful because he has just misled the House.
Madam SPEAKER: Would you like to rephrase your question?
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I am sure the deputy ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister!
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I am sure the Deputy Chief Minister will have ample opportunity for a spirited defence of one of his ministerial colleagues.
In reference to the tabled document, if that is how they would like to refer to it, which points clearly in those officers’ opinion that an incident occurred, I ask the minister once again this - will you confirm or deny that you bypassed the Commissioner for Corrections and directly ordered his staff not to transfer a number of particular Aboriginal prisoners from Darwin Prison to Alice Springs Gaol even ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister has already answered this repetitious question. Standing order 114 is against repetition.
Madam SPEAKER: I believe this question is different from the previous ones. Continue.
Mr BURKE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am trying to get to the heart of a serious matter.
Minister, will you confirm or deny that you bypassed the Commissioner for Corrections and directly ordered his staff not to transfer a number of particular Aboriginal prisoners from Darwin Prison to Alice Springs Gaol even as the plane was waiting at Darwin Airport on the tarmac to transfer them? Were the prison staff given orders that only the Asians and whites were to be transferred and the Aboriginal prisoners were to stay in Darwin, and did you later confirm those direct orders when senior corrections officers protested against your decision?
ANSWER
Not at all, and let’s get something clear here. These are not the minutes, this is the agenda. So that is one thing I would like people who are listening to this broadcast to understand, especially the prison officers. And let’s also be clear: I thought your question, Leader of the Opposition, asked about my staff giving directions to the staff of Corrections at the gaol. Is that correct?
Mr Burke: Or you?
Mr AH KIT: Well, it definitely was not me and I did not give any instructions of that sort. So, I would like you to start giving us some names of who has given this stuff to you rather than approach the minister or myself because you do not want to do that.
What we have is a situation where you are accusing me of verifying an instruction to one of my staff to stop the plane and stop the Aboriginal prisoners getting on it. Well, that did not happen. That did not happen. I gave no instructions to any of my staff whatsoever.
Mr Reed: Did you do it personally?
Mr AH KIT: Well, here we go. The member for Katherine. He is trying to lecture us about good governance. Next it will be about financial responsibility. All the member for Katherine says is he did not do anything dishonest with the budget. He certainly lacked moral conviction.
But coming back to the question, and trying not to digress because of the interjections, I gave no instruction to any of my staff to hold up any plane whatsoever. I do not know who is feeding him this information, but I welcome the opportunity if you wish to go into a censure on this matter because I did not verify to any staff any instructions to stop that plane and stop putting Aboriginal prisoners on that, nor did I confirm after, as you say in your question, that that was to be the case. Totally incorrect and you are clutching at straws. So if this is the real issue that you want to pursue us on in terms of good governance and issues Territorians are really concerned about, you really deserve your time in opposition.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I would be very careful referring to this document as a set of minutes. At the first look this is an itinerary or agenda taken by the prisoner officers to the meeting. These are not minutes. These are issues they wanted to raise with the minister. Have a look at it. Have a look at it, dill. If you are relying on him up the back I would be a bit careful because he has just misled the House.
Madam SPEAKER: Would you like to rephrase your question?
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I am sure the deputy ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister!
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I am sure the Deputy Chief Minister will have ample opportunity for a spirited defence of one of his ministerial colleagues.
In reference to the tabled document, if that is how they would like to refer to it, which points clearly in those officers’ opinion that an incident occurred, I ask the minister once again this - will you confirm or deny that you bypassed the Commissioner for Corrections and directly ordered his staff not to transfer a number of particular Aboriginal prisoners from Darwin Prison to Alice Springs Gaol even ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister has already answered this repetitious question. Standing order 114 is against repetition.
Madam SPEAKER: I believe this question is different from the previous ones. Continue.
Mr BURKE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am trying to get to the heart of a serious matter.
Minister, will you confirm or deny that you bypassed the Commissioner for Corrections and directly ordered his staff not to transfer a number of particular Aboriginal prisoners from Darwin Prison to Alice Springs Gaol even as the plane was waiting at Darwin Airport on the tarmac to transfer them? Were the prison staff given orders that only the Asians and whites were to be transferred and the Aboriginal prisoners were to stay in Darwin, and did you later confirm those direct orders when senior corrections officers protested against your decision?
ANSWER
Not at all, and let’s get something clear here. These are not the minutes, this is the agenda. So that is one thing I would like people who are listening to this broadcast to understand, especially the prison officers. And let’s also be clear: I thought your question, Leader of the Opposition, asked about my staff giving directions to the staff of Corrections at the gaol. Is that correct?
Mr Burke: Or you?
Mr AH KIT: Well, it definitely was not me and I did not give any instructions of that sort. So, I would like you to start giving us some names of who has given this stuff to you rather than approach the minister or myself because you do not want to do that.
What we have is a situation where you are accusing me of verifying an instruction to one of my staff to stop the plane and stop the Aboriginal prisoners getting on it. Well, that did not happen. That did not happen. I gave no instructions to any of my staff whatsoever.
Mr Reed: Did you do it personally?
Mr AH KIT: Well, here we go. The member for Katherine. He is trying to lecture us about good governance. Next it will be about financial responsibility. All the member for Katherine says is he did not do anything dishonest with the budget. He certainly lacked moral conviction.
But coming back to the question, and trying not to digress because of the interjections, I gave no instruction to any of my staff to hold up any plane whatsoever. I do not know who is feeding him this information, but I welcome the opportunity if you wish to go into a censure on this matter because I did not verify to any staff any instructions to stop that plane and stop putting Aboriginal prisoners on that, nor did I confirm after, as you say in your question, that that was to be the case. Totally incorrect and you are clutching at straws. So if this is the real issue that you want to pursue us on in terms of good governance and issues Territorians are really concerned about, you really deserve your time in opposition.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016