Page 759 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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question of the Chief Minister was: Would she be prepared to look into the matter and provide a statement to the house on it? The Chief Minister had the opportunity to contact any relevant parties including the National Crime Authority, through her crown law office and ascertain whether there was any substance to that question and to ascertain whether she could report to the Assembly that she had the full confidence in her Minister.
To date the Chief Minister has not answered the question. The Minister, Mrs Grassby, has answered an antecedent issue that the Rally was not interested in. The Rally has no interest in the loan. The Rally wants to know whether a Minister responsible for housing, a Minister with day-to-day contact with the Commissioner for Housing, is properly appointed, properly placed, appropriately placed in a position as head of a department when there may well be a situation where documents under her control have been or are the subject of investigations.
The very fact that they are the subject of investigations can raise questions of morale, questions of concern, among her own staff, for all she knows. They may be concerns that have no basis, they may be concerns that are overreactive, but the fact of the matter is that that is a very proper question to raise. If one looks through the Hansard of the other house, one will see a myriad of questions of this nature directed to Ministers, and directed to Prime Ministers, asking whether they are aware of certain matters that might affect their confidence in their Ministers. Are we to have here some emasculated chamber that does not have the willpower, the fearlessness, to ask questions? Is it proposed that the Rally be muzzled? There is clearly a highly personalised response by parties in this chamber towards the issues raised by the Rally. It falls on my shoulders to raise those issues and it is only proper that I be capable of shouldering your response. I do that, and I say that there are issues in this city, there are current issues where there will be clearly a concern - - -
Mrs Grassby: You really are struggling, Bernard.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I do not think anyone can ever accuse me of being lost for words; it depends on the physical capacity to deliver them. But I am well-trained in this regard because I have spent a good part of my career defending people in courts of law, and I well understand the concerns raised by Minister Grassby about her perceived harassment by matters. Mr Speaker, I read to you a minute paper of the Australian Federal Police dated 16 August 1988. The heading is "Operation Angler, Final Report". It reads as follows:
As you are aware, discussions with Chief Superintendent Mills and Detective Superintendent
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