Page 1305 - Week 04 - Thursday, 10 April 2008
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Mrs Dunne: He did not directly accuse him of lying; he accused him of fabrication, which is an accusation of lying.
MR SPEAKER: That might be the way you constructed it. I did not read it that way. I will look at the Hansard. Come to the subject matter.
MR HARGREAVES: I am. The subject matter is: Mr Pratt says that because he has sent me some information and I have not passed it on instantly to the police I have misled the community. He then says that because somebody sends me something and I do not pass it on to the police then I have misled the community.
What happens in every single case when somebody from the community sends me an email is that I respond to them. I probably respond about 80 per cent of the time personally. Then we pass the matter on to the department where there are processes. Those processes are: where there are accusations of illegal behaviour, they are investigated and referred to the police. That is the process that we undertake. That is the process that has been undertaken from time immemorial.
However, it needs to be put on the record that Mr Pratt is known to exaggerate an issue, to blow it up out of proportion, for a sensational headline. He is only exceeded in his ability to do this by Mrs Burke, who has the ability to take the truth—
MR SPEAKER: Come back to the subject matter of the question.
MR HARGREAVES: I am.
MR SPEAKER: It is not about Mrs Burke.
MR HARGREAVES: I am coming back at the rate of knots.
MR SPEAKER: Otherwise you can sit down.
MR HARGREAVES: Okay.
Olympic torch relay
DR FOSKEY: My question is to the Chief Minister. It is about the Olympic torch relay. At a public hearing of the public accounts committee in November last year, the Chief Minister indicated that it was a federal government decision to hold the major torch relay event in Canberra. The Chief Minister advised the committee that he would seek a commonwealth contribution to that cost. Since then, with the international protest movement taking off, it has become very clear that the cost of the torch relay will skyrocket.
Could the Chief Minister advise the Assembly how much the commonwealth will be contributing to the event? Will the commonwealth be providing extra finance to cover the substantially increased cost of policing and the installation of barriers—mentioned in today’s Canberra Times—which the expected protest will require? Will the
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