Page 770 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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Hedley's letter to the Assembly where he said that he had been advised by his agents, Jones Lang Wootton, that the real increase was 27.5 per cent or thereabouts.
There is a profound difference in fact between Mr Hedley's letter and the letter put forward by the proprietor of Thetis Court. That raises other issues going to credibility and the rest, as any of us trained in the law understand. I say no more, other than to indicate that I have provided irrefutable evidence that my statement in the house about the 80 per cent rise in Thetis Court was an understatement. I seek to hear from the mover of this motion as to what his complaint is about that statement.
The proposals that the Rally wishes to make about section 19 have been aired from time to time. They are of acute concern to the Rally, and it is only proper that, if the Rally comes across information which it grades as reliable concerning Mr Whalan and his associate - an associate saying that he has got the casino contract - we raise it. I remind members that casinos are used for laundering drug moneys. Why is the casino being pushed so hard in this Territory? Who is behind it?
We now have the unresolved Verducci allegations. Verducci is a so-called supergrass whom the police used to discover a major drug ring here in Canberra. Verducci alleged that millions of dollars of drug money were being sent to the Labor Party funds. We have not got to the bottom of that yet. We had the royal commission of Mr Costigan; we got close to naming the Mr Bigs and identifying corrupt figures in the Labor Party branches in Sydney; and his inquiry was promptly terminated. The National Crime Authority has attempted to follow it further but appears to be running into the sands - which, as my friend Mr Wood said the other day, include the unwitting collaboration by the public in allowing values to be subverted in our society.
The real problem in Queensland was that the public took it as fair cop. The real problem in the Territory at the moment is that this Federal Labor Government allowed Mr Hedley, firstly, to declare the changes in his financial interest - that is, the erection of a large building in Northbourne Avenue purchased off two ground rents, the purchase for $3.2m of Thetis Court in Manuka, and a number of other commercial enterprises - which clearly conflicted with his functions of being an objective proponent of the public service values and traditional values.
I challenge any traditional senior public servant in this Territory - the marvellous, honest men and women who established this Territory - to deny the words I just used. Why do those great people across the lake - people such as Sir John Overall; people who developed the National Capital Development Commission; people who put their lives into this town; Sir Harold White, a member of the Residents Rally; people such as that who are moving in droves away from the Liberal Party to the Rally - have doubts that we
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