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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 3025 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

But you need to go back to the fundamental point here: what was the purpose, what was to be achieved, in declaring a state of emergency? We created a Territory Controller and we suggested to the people of Canberra that it certainly was a very dramatic and alarming circumstance that we faced. At the heart of it and the nub of it within the terms of the advice I received, I think the one and only significant point that was put to me on the day to justify a declaration of a state of emergency was the issue of ensuring that the ACT police had the full range of eviction powers they sought.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mrs Cross?

MRS CROSS: Yes, thank you, Mr Speaker. I nearly fell asleep with that. Chief Minister, do you understand the significance of a state of emergency? If so, what is the real reason you did not make the decision to call a state of emergency at 9.00 am, giving residents an opportunity to prepare for the imminent Armageddon? I say that given the flippant comment in the way you started answering the first part of the question.

Mrs Dunne: Because he was having coffee.

MR STANHOPE: Mrs Dunne interjects that I did not declare a state of emergency because I was having a cup of coffee.

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne's interjection was disorderly.

MR STANHOPE: It was more than disorderly, actually. It was extremely ventilative, it was nasty, it was vicious and it was typical of what we expect from Mrs Dunne.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Responding to it is disorderly as well. Just deal with the supplementary question asked of you.

MR STANHOPE: I will, Mr Speaker. I cannot answer that question. Why did I not declare a state of emergency at 9.00 am? Why did I not declare one at 10.00 am? Why did I not declare one at midnight of the 17th?

Mrs Cross: You were advised in the morning. Why didn't you do it in the morning?

MR STANHOPE: I was not advised-

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Cross!

MR STANHOPE: Let's clear up this myth. A few months ago, the ABC broadcast on its news that I had received advice, I think they said, late in the morning to declare a state of emergency and I had rejected the suggestion. I rang the manager, or my staff did, of the ABC and suggested that if they did not broadcast a retraction I would sue them, because that was an outrageous defamation and I will sue anybody now that says it. The ABC, acknowledging that it was an outrageous defamation, did broadcast at the start of the news next day their retraction.

I know that this was an issue of some interest to Stateline-I think it was Stateline, essentially; it was ABC news and Stateline. ABC news picked it up and ran it. It is false;

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