Page 768 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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Mrs Grassby: Read her answer. Tell her and she will find out for you. What do you want to know?
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Jensen: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Government has given Mr Collaery an opportunity to speak on this particular issue. All they are seeking to do now is to disrupt the debate. I would respectfully request, Mr Speaker, that Mr Collaery be allowed to speak uninterrupted.
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed, Mr Collaery. I ask members not to interrupt.
Dr Kinloch: On a point of order; it is Mr Berry who raised this motion and he obviously wants to hear Mr Collaery. He is not here.
MR SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. Please proceed, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, the concerns raised - and I will summarise them again for those who wish it - were firstly a concern about Mr Tony Hedley. I have answered those matters. Mr Hedley in his response confirmed that he kept his Government informed of all the steps he took. That raises the most profound concerns for the Rally. It raises the question whether the Australian Labor Party in government has a proper perception of conflict of interest situations and a proper idea of the community interest, and in particular the development of a building in Northbourne Avenue during vexed community discussion about the encroachment of high-rise development in residential suburbs.
We indicated also the concerns about Mr Hedley's membership of the business leases review body at the same time as he was a Canberra landlord. That probably was declared to the Government and, as I have said, the recommendations of that report are probably acceptable to the retail tenants of this Territory by and large, with some updating. The fact is the recommendations were not implemented themselves, and we are concerned to know why. We do not imply that Mr Hedley was the sole reason for that, but clearly here is an Australian Labor Party without the resolve to ensure that its Government is beyond reproach.
The second issue raised by Mr Hedley concerned rents at Thetis Court. I read from a letter signed by Ross Gengos, Abels Records, Bougainville Street, Manuka. It is dated 30 June 1989. This is the letter that I foreshadowed earlier. The letter is as follows, and I believe it has been sent to each of the party leaders in this house. Did they come forward with it, Mr Speaker? I do not know. It reads:
I am writing about the proposed introduction of legislation to regulate business leases.
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