Page 772 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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MR SPEAKER: Please proceed, Mr Collaery, but be closer to the point.
MR COLLAERY: My friend Dr Kinloch has reminded me that Top Silk is on in town. Mr Speaker, I do not aspire to that, but it is going to be interesting to see what the judgment of the people is about this crafty, tactical move to put me on my feet on an issue that I am more than happy to speak about.
I want to summarise it again. I have refuted utterly the suggestions that we said anything improper or unfounded about Mr Hedley. We have managed to indicate that one of his statements is clearly wrong, and the witness lies in a letter from one of his own tenants. The other issues relate to Mr Whalan's concern about being named in this house - by himself, mind you - as knowing Mr Geoff Da Deppo.
I do not raise Mr Da Deppo up to any profound or horrific consequence. He is simply a person in this Territory. He may well be, and he probably is, a reputable person, but he has said, according to reliable information - and the Rally has taken, as I said, the precaution of ensuring that a statutory declaration can be secured - that he has got the casino, he has got the job at section 19, and he has said a few other things that I do not propose to raise in this chamber at the present time.
Mrs Grassby: Why not?
MR COLLAERY: Mrs Grassby will challenge me on that at the peril of her Government.
Mrs Grassby: I wish you would raise it. We have got nothing to hide.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR COLLAERY: I do not believe that unsubstantiated allegations should be raised in this chamber. The irony is that my friend Mr Kaine believes that, by saying that, one should muzzle this democratic process and not raise concerns. In his statement that unsubstantiated allegations should not be raised, does my friend Mr Kaine - who tabled the letter from Mr Hedley with alacrity in this chamber, the letter that is wrong - say that the words "unsubstantiated allegations" mean that I cannot in this chamber, Mr Speaker, under your capable guidance, raise reasonably questions that clearly are going to have some implication or innuendo? They are clearly going to stick and they are clearly, as we have seen, going to hurt where they land, but that is the process of democracy.
Mr Kaine: Perhaps unfairly, Mr Collaery, and the problem is that they do stick.
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