Page 870 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
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The allegation that Mr Collaery levelled at Mr Whalan of receiving $100,000 proved to be unsubstantiated in this case; but the penalty paid by Miss Libby Daly, who had worked incredibly hard to support Mr Collaery in the election and in many other ways, reflects his concern for himself and not for protection of the sources of his information. Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the Canberra Times of 9 July 1989, which contains a picture of Miss Daly and an article headed "Woman forced out of quest over allegations". That was the result of Miss Daly being prepared to make that statutory declaration and to have it tabled.
I certainly have a far greater concern for my sources. Considering that Miss Daly's attempts to raise funds for the Miss Australia Quest were brought to a halt by the publicity she received following the statutory declaration, and the difficulties she suffered, I have no intention of putting my sources through the same difficulties.
However, I will point out one thing: The allegations that I have raised are very different from those raised by Mr Collaery. Mr Collaery raised allegations about the then Deputy Chief Minister receiving bribes of $100,000. The allegations I have raised are of a very different nature indeed. The Alliance Government chose to follow the Labor move in making the casino tendering process an arm's length one. That system certainly made sense, and would have made more sense had the process lasted some two or three months. But here we are, the best part of 18 months later, only now having got some kind of result. At what point, the question has been asked in the community on many occasions, should the Government have said, "This is not working", and walked in and changed it? That question still remains to be answered. It has to do with the overall concept of the competence of this Government. Quite clearly, this Government, in almost everything it does, is incompetent.
However, the allegations I have raised are about broken promises. They are about the notion that the Chief Minister promised the people of Canberra that the Executive would remain at arm's length from the process. If this is a broken promise, and if that allegation is correct, then it is just a matter of another broken promise of the Alliance. Why have they taken it so seriously?
In my question in question time yesterday I expected to see the result that I got from Mr Humphries and Mr Kaine: Basically, a fairly nondescript answer that went right over their heads because they did not take the matter seriously. That is what we got from them. But Mr Collaery and Mr Duby were running around like inflated balloons allowed to freely expel their air, trying to work out what was going on. Now, if ever there was a question of guilt, then their own conduct has indicated that they have some guilt.
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