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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1886 ..
MR HARGREAVES
(continuing):those recommendations, which were not supported by Ms MacDonald or by me, have been absolutely compromised by that leak. I was outraged by that, and I remain outraged.
Mrs Cross
: Can we check phone records?MR HARGREAVES
: Mrs Cross asks whether we can check phone records. I would love to see that. In fact, maybe we ought to consider the propriety of those people behind this leak. I find it absolutely amazing that people across the other side of the chamber should be promoting the creation of a privileges committee inquiry as I believe that either someone from that side of the chamber or their support staff was actually responsible for this leak. I do not give a tinker's damn about their motives and I do not give a tinker's damn about their politics. This is nothing short of a breach of privilege, Mr Speaker, and it needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. I do that today. This is not the first time that I have done so, more's the pity.Mrs Dunne
: Next time, just try to be a little less obvious, Mr Hargreaves.MR HARGREAVES
: Mr Speaker, I take that interjection from Mrs Dunne as accusing me of leaking it. I reckon she reckons I did it. Put your money where your mouth is.Mrs Cross
: Did you leak it, John?MR HARGREAVES
: I did not, for the record, speak to anybody about this issue.MR SPEAKER
: Order! Direct your comments through the chair, please.MR HARGREAVES
: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I reject that and I expect an apology from Mrs Dunne for implying that I might have spoken to a member of the media about this report. I expect one but, of course, I will not get it, because we are talking about integrity and those members of the committee have not yet been introduced to integrity, Mr Speaker. They do not know each other; they pass like ships in the night. Integrity and the members over there pass like ships in the night.Throughout the first parts of this budget process there were instances of unsubstantiated comment and conclusions-there are still some in there-which were speculative at best, overly and unnecessarily political at times, and misleading at worst. Mr Speaker, I have to address one issue of the process. I hope that Mr Smyth alluded to it. After he dribbled on about the other stuff, I just went to sleep, so I apologise to Mr Smyth for missing the best part of his speech. There were 90 hours of hearings, if I remember correctly.
Mrs Cross
: That's a bit insulting, John. That was insulting.MR HARGREAVES
: That's hard luck, Mrs Cross. If the muck fits, wear it. There were 90 hours of hearings. I pay credit to the members of the committee, because they actually did put in a lot more hours than other members have on other committees that I have sat on. I pay credit to those members. We had 90 hours of hearings, Mr Speaker. What was missing, members? All members, Mrs Cross; do not feel-Mrs Cross
: Why don't you demand that the phone records be checked?
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