Page 1304 - Week 04 - Thursday, 10 April 2008

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MR SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, order!

Mrs Burke: You’re in denial.

MR HARGREAVES: Not one skerrick of fact.

Mrs Burke: You go down there.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Burke, you ignore my pleas for order at your peril. I warn you.

MR HARGREAVES: These folks opposite are very good at bringing something into this chamber which (1) is not within the responsibility of Housing and (2) has no substantiation to it. All Mr Pratt has done is put down an email about an alleged offence which he then says he took off to the police, and I congratulate him on that, and that is where the matter should rest. The police will do their job. Again, I will tell Mr Pratt to get with the program. I have not been minister for police for 18 months.

MR PRATT: Thank you, minister, for that very colourful and very interesting response. Minister, if you have said, correctly, that anybody with information about criminal activity must pass it on to the police, have you not failed to adjust the system by not passing on to police reports of criminality passed on numerous occasions about prostitution in government housing in Theodore?

MR HARGREAVES: No, I have not. In every single case where I have got the slightest bit of suspicion that something is able to be substantiated, I have passed the matter on through my office. We have a memorandum of understanding in place with the AFP. We have that arrangement with Housing ACT and ACT Policing whereby all these matters are brought to their attention. We work with them.

Mr Pratt: You said you have received no reports.

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Pratt.

MR HARGREAVES: When Mr Pratt sends me information, I treat it usually with the contempt that it is due, because he is known to fabricate things; he is known to exaggerate things.

Mrs Dunne: On a point of order: this answer is entirely outside the standing orders. There was a question about why the minister had not passed on information. It is not an opportunity to make aspersions about another member of this place and accuse him of lying. That needs to be withdrawn. He accused Mr Pratt, essentially, of lying by accusing him of fabricating things.

MR SPEAKER: I will check the Hansard, but I did not hear him accuse Mr Pratt of lying.

MR HARGREAVES: I did not.


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