Page 2237 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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MR STANHOPE: I have absolutely no intention of tabling that cabinet submission now or at any time, in relation to this or any other matter. Just to explore the continuing relevance of this issue and the game which the Liberal Party is playing, it is interesting to go back to claims which Mrs Dunne has made on the record, both within and outside the Assembly, so subject to parliamentary privilege and otherwise. Indeed, it is consistent with the position that she took last night, when she came into the Assembly and admitted that she had just misled it, and then said, “How silly of me, I just made a mistake; I’ll just correct the record now.” She did not apologise or take the attitude that public servants such as David Dawes have taken, when he realised that he had made an error, that he had made a mistake, that he had misread a document or misunderstood a question, and that he had made a mistake in his evidence to an estimates committee.
It is interesting, isn’t it? We had the example last night of Mrs Dunne, in the debate on the budget, making outrageous, unsubstantiated claims about sites and the location of sites. Interestingly, it was on the same subject—sites, pieces of land—but in that particular instance in relation to a possible solar power farm. We heard Mrs Dunne, in the Assembly, as recorded in Hansard, gaily misleading the Assembly in relation to that, and coming back an hour or so later, after somebody had drawn to her attention—
Mr Smyth: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: he has to withdraw that.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Withdraw that.
Mr Gentleman: She admitted it last night.
MR STANHOPE: She admitted she had misled. She came back to correct—
MR SPEAKER: Well, you can’t accuse—
MR STANHOPE: I withdraw the suggestion I made that she misled, and I will rephrase it: Mrs Dunne came into this place, admitted that she had misled the Assembly in her enthusiasm and then said, “I’d like to correct the record.” That is what David Dawes did. David Dawes made a mistake—
MR SPEAKER: You’re going to have to come back to the subject matter of the question.
MR STANHOPE: The subject matter is site selection and misleading statements.
MR SPEAKER: No, it is not.
MR STANHOPE: It is important and relevant.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The subject matter of the supplementary question was about whether you would provide the advice and, if not, why not.
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