Page 4908 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017
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MR PETTERSSON: I knew you would be looking forward to this, Mark. You are excited over that side today. It is good to see. There are some standing orders and conventions I am not entirely familiar with, but every single one of us knows the gravity of a motion of no confidence in the Chief Minister. That is why we are all sitting here today watching, apart from some of our comrades.
Mr Wall: In your darkest hour, they are not there.
MR PETTERSSON: Shane is at the back, so it could be worse. I will be honest: my heart skipped a beat when I first heard about this motion. My thoughts immediately went to wondering: “What could this be about? What justification does Mr Coe have for moving such a serious motion?”
I can reassure you, Madam Speaker, that any nervousness I had quickly turned to amusement when I saw in the Canberra Times their terrible media release: no evidence, no facts, just a list of dot points. That is right: dot points, all of their crazy conspiracy theories in dot point form. When I was in high school, which was not that long ago, I had a teacher who told me, “If you’re ever running out of time in an exam, put your key points down in dot points.” I think it says a lot. Mr Coe has run out of time. He has resorted to dot points.
Now as we all know, corruption is a very serious claim that needs serious evidence. Mr Coe appeared on ABC Radio last week. I do not think he was prepared for it. It was a bit crackly over the radio.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR PETTERSSON: I made an exception. I do not normally listen to ABC Radio, but for this I wanted to listen. Alistair Coe was asked directly, “If you have evidence, why not take that to the police? Is that not the most direct way to prove corruption?” Mr Coe responded, “Well, we certainly we have forwarded the information to the police.” When asked to elaborate on what information he had forwarded, Mr Coe refused to say, remarking, “Well, that is subject to a police inquiry.” Those are very serious words, Mr Coe.
We later found out that this was all smoke and mirrors. There has been no police referral. He even confirmed this to Fairfax, saying that he had not forwarded any further evidence to the police other than the matter of the FOI, which was previously reported upon. It was an interesting turn of events. So maybe Mr Coe has a secret stash of documents that he is refusing to share with anyone—not the media, not the members of this chamber and not even the police. Alternatively, he has nothing and this is a political stunt. Both are concerning, but with this opposition we know it is most definitely the latter: a pure political stunt.
I did notice something strange while reading that press release with the weird dot points, the one I was talking about before. There were six dot points. That number stood out to me. Does it stand out to anyone else? I am hearing silence. In Mr Coe’s
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