Page 1080 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 6 May 2014
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Of course, it goes to this broader issue of the fact that this whole consultation on this bill has been a sham.
Ms Gallagher interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr Coe! Chief Minister, I call you to order. I have called Mr Hanson to order. I called Mr Smyth to order. I really mean it. I do not want to have to boot somebody in such an important debate. I am putting you all on notice that the next person who substantially interjects will be named.
MR COE: It goes to the story of this bill, which was presented on 20 March, which nobody in the community knew about. Maybe the Heritage Council knew about it. The government’s own advisory arm on heritage issues knew about this bill. On 8 April, they tried to ram it through and a committee was established. The committee was established to try and give input to the minister. As it turned out, the minister was in cahoots in this whole process.
Let me reiterate the point which I believe confirms that Mr Corbell was privy to information which he should not have been. It is this. He said:
I understand from a review of the minutes that it would appear that the opposition members of this committee have supported each and every one of the paragraphs proposed by Mr Gentleman in his draft chair’s report but have then chosen not to support the committee report as a whole and I find that quite extraordinary …
That information had not been said in the Assembly and it had not been published by the committee. Therefore, Mr Corbell had information which he was not privy to.
And he did not shy away from that comment. He did not retract it a couple of hours later. A couple of hours later, he in fact reiterated it. He said:
I indicated I understood that the opposition members had not voted against the chair’s draft report in the committee’s clause by clause consideration …
He reiterated that he knew it. That is the concern we have, and that is definitely cause for us to then go and ask the question. This defence that he has had all afternoon is questionable as well. Has he in fact misled the Assembly in his defence of the mislead? That is another serious question, and I put that to the Assembly for consideration.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (3.13): I rise to speak to the motion, to support the comments made by Minister Corbell earlier in the debate and address the more ridiculous elements of some of the allegations that have been put by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Smyth and Mr Coe to date.
This is a ridiculous motion. The Leader of the Opposition would have us believe that this is the most important issue that the Assembly needs to debate, that of all the issues in the territory, this comment made by Mr Corbell this morning is the most important critical issue for us to debate.
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