Page 1166 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2012
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to the Assembly.” The Chief Minister did not say that she had canned any reforms. That is an entirely separate matter.
But what is perhaps more telling, of course, is what Mr Smyth asked me in almost exactly the same terms on 22 September last year. He asked me what was the status of my report in response to the Assembly’s motion of 29 June asking for certain information about the fire management unit. I said, in part:
No restructure of the fire management unit has yet occurred, and I intend to report to the Assembly before any such action is taken.
That is almost exactly the same answer that the Chief Minister gave earlier this week, but that, of course, has not stopped Mr Smyth from, once again, putting out one of his myths. I am pleased to bust it this evening.
I would also like to turn to a letter that appeared in the Canberra Times on 21 March this year from—I assume it is a woman—Robyn Coghlan, who is the convenor of the friends of Hawker village. In this letter, Ms Coghlan makes some claims and refutes assertions that the friends of Hawker village are affiliated with any political party.
What is particularly interesting about this letter is that it relates to comments made by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Seselja, on 21 February this year in an interview on Ross Solly’s breakfast program on ABC local radio. In that, Mr Seselja said: “I understand the friends of Hawker village were set up after a meeting which Alistair Coe organised in conjunction with people like Tio Faulkner and Vicki Dunne. He set up a meeting. He got this issue going. That group grew out of that.”
I really am now left wondering who to believe. In the letter to the Canberra Times of 21 March this year, Ms Coghlan writes:
The Friends of Hawker Village are concerned that recent suggestions in the media about a relationship with the ACT Liberal Party have left some members of the community questioning the motivation and independence of the Friends of Hawker Village. The Canberra Liberals are not, nor ever have been, “a driving force” behind the Friends of Hawker Village. The Friends has never had and never will have a political affiliation with any party or independent person; it is a community group not a political group.
Robyn Coghlan, Convenor, Friends of Hawker Village.
I have no reason to doubt Ms Coghlan’s claims in relation to that matter, but I think it throws very real doubt on the comments the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Seselja, made in his interview on ABC radio on 21 February this year where he said that the friends of Hawker village were set up after a meeting with Alistair Coe organised in conjunction with people like Tio Faulkner and Vicki Dunne. “He set up a meeting. He got this issue going.” It really raises further questions about this very murky matter.
University of Canberra—Japanese language program
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (4.45): On Tuesday this week a petition from 1,076 people was tabled in the Assembly by the manager of government business to
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