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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1834 ..

They have said, “We’ll do a count. We’re going to lose this, so we’ll go with Ms Dundas.” Ms Dundas one; Liberal Party nil.

They do not have the courage of their convictions to stick with the content of their motion. They have not got the guts to go with their original motion. No, they will go with Ms Dundas’s watered down version. The Chief Minister does not have a case to answer on either count. He does not have a case to answer on any count. He has none.

Let us go back. What is Mr Stanhope being accused of in this motion?

Mr Pratt: Misleading.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Pratt says that he is being accused of misleading. Mr Pratt, welcome to the real world. You were here when the Chief Minister stood up and said so. Good on you. The Chief Minister said, “I have done this and I apologise profusely.” He gave all the details at the time—on the very day it occurred. As soon as he was able to get to this chamber he came forward and gave us the information. He could have shredded the stuff and tried to wing it. But he did not. He came in here and said so.

What they are really saying is that they want to run a no-confidence motion on the Chief Minister because he could not recall a phone call of 16 months ago or perhaps—as Ms Dundas is trying to say—because he did not refer to the records. He did not say, “Oh dear, perhaps there was something in my phone records I might have forgotten. I’d better go and check them all.” That is what he is on trial for today. This is what these people want to try the Chief Minister for today.

It is an appalling state of affairs that you want to move a motion of no confidence against the Chief Minister for doing that. I ask those members opposite: when was the last time you checked your phone records for the mobile phone in your possession? I bet it has not been checked in donkey’s ages. It has not been checked, because they do not routinely get—

Mr Pratt: I pay the bill every month.

MR HARGREAVES: Good on you, Mr Pratt. Go to the top of the class. Do not take your books though son, because you will not be there long enough. This is an appalling waste of our time. We have wasted the entire day. Mrs Dunne sits there and says, “If you’ve got the courage to stand up and defend the Chief Minister, do so.” I will defend the Chief Minister any day and anywhere. He has no case to answer here—absolutely none.

This is an appalling piece of work. And the lily-livered crowd over there have just folded like a deck of cards. Because they cannot walk out of here with their dignity intact, they have to support the watered-down version that Ms Dundas has put forward. I could not support either of them because the Chief Minister has no case to answer.

Mr Smyth: We’ll check your records. We’ll get them to check your records.

MR HARGREAVES: You can check as much as you like, Mr Smyth. You do not scare me at all, so go ahead and keep trying because it will not work. Mr Quinlan demolished

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