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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 762 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, perhaps most significantly, it ought to be noted that the Liberal Party has received over $100,000 - I think $120,000 in two years - from the 250 Club for their political campaigns. I challenge Mr Humphries to go to his friend Tony Hedley and get Tony Hedley to tell us who is in the 250 Club and who made the donations. If he wants to play this conflict of interest game he is going to have to ensure that all members of the Assembly know who those disguised donors, through the 250 Club, were, so that we can judge whether they have a conflict of interest.

Mr Moore: You could have done that if you had supported my amendments to the Electoral Act.

MR WHITECROSS: Not retrospectively, Michael. Mr Speaker, the fact is they have got over $100,000 in donations and we do not know where from; yet these people have the gall to come in here and start lecturing us about conflict of interest. They have got secret donations amounting to $120,000 from business interests in Canberra. We do not know who they are and we are not in a position to judge on conflict of interest; yet they want to lecture us.

Mr Speaker, the Labor Party's position is clear and transparent. There are no mysterious donors on the Labor Party list. They are all obvious and aboveboard. There are no secret 250 clubs on our donations list. We have not been trying to disguise who has been giving money to us, as you and your friend Tony Hedley have. Mr Speaker, let us be clear; the Labor Party has nothing to hide. Anybody who goes to the Labor Club knows that the Labor Club is associated with the Labor Party and donates to the Labor Party. Anyone who votes for the Labor Party knows that the Labor Party receives political contributions from the Labor Club. It is all open. It is all transparent. (Extension of time granted)

Mr Speaker, anyone who votes for the Labor Party knows that we receive contributions from the Labor Club. It is all open and aboveboard. The reason why we have declarations of financial contributions to political campaigns is precisely so that everybody knows where everyone stands. Unlike the Liberal Party, the Labor Party has never tried to get around those laws. It has never tried to disguise its donations. It is all out in the open with the Labor Party, Mr Speaker. Everybody knows where we stand. I do not mind being judged on whether or not my policies are affected by my political contributions. That is a matter for people to decide. But, Mr Speaker, when people in this place start arguing that certain people should be excluded from the debate and certain people should be included, that is not good enough.

The other person who has been contributing to this debate is Mr Moore. Mr Moore has been arguing that poker machines should be extended to hotels and to taverns in Canberra. He has introduced legislation to say so. In conjunction with introducing that legislation, Mr Moore has been engaging in a smear campaign on the Labor Party about our contributions from clubs, designed to intimidate the Labor Party into supporting his extension of gaming machines to hotels or designed to intimidate the Labor Party out of opposing his extension. Mr Speaker, we are not going to be intimidated because he is on a campaign to get poker machines for hotels. We are not going to be intimidated out of participating in the debate and trying to have fully informed public debate.

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