Page 3446 - Week 09 - Thursday, 20 August 2009
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no stage have I breached or come close to breaching any law. That is a full answer to the question. I have not breached the ministerial code of conduct.
I ask that if you have any evidence to suggest that I have, you table that evidence. If you have any evidence that suggests that I have in any way infringed against any law of the territory or Australia, I invite you—in fact, I ask you—to provide that information to the Australian Federal Police.
There is an issue of principle here in relation to the private activities of members, particularly in relation to their activities as members of political parties. Everybody in this Assembly—each of us, the 17 of us—belongs to a political party. We belong to those political parties in our private capacity. They are private organisations. We belong to political parties in our private capacity. We attend meetings of our political parties in our private capacity. We engage in conversations and discussions at meetings of our political parties in our private capacity. And the conversations and discussions we have within our political parties are private discussions.
I think that in relation to issues around our public lives and public responsibilities and our private lives and our private responsibilities we always need to maintain some perspective. I think it is appropriate. The standing orders go to this, and we have seen it reflected in rulings that the Speaker has made through this week. I am happy to respond to any question that is asked of me in my capacity as Chief Minister or a minister of the territory. I have done that. I am happy to answer, and have answered fully, your question. This is the ministerial code of conduct; this is what it says.
The response to that is “have you breached it in any way?” The answer to that is clearly, emphatically and absolutely no. Have I breached any law of the territory? The answer is emphatically and absolutely no.
Have I engaged in private discussions as a member of a private organisation in a private capacity? Yes, I have—as have you and as has every member of this Assembly.
If we want to go down this path, there is a whole range of interesting discussions, conversations and resolutions moved by the Liberals at party meetings that I would be deeply interested in. Similarly, there are decisions and discussions that the Greens have engaged in in a private capacity in the private meetings of their party that would no doubt at least have some passing interest.
Each of us from time to time hear of the private activities of members of this Assembly conducted in their private lives in which we would have a passing interest as politicians. But of course we have developed an essential code in relation to the private activities and private lives of each of us which I think it is important that we understand and respect.
If the Liberal Party want to go down this path, there is a whole range of responses that other political parties, at least, in this Assembly would be interested in pursuing—for instance, the public interest in knowing the identity of all of the members of the 250 Club and whether or not the donations made by all of the members of the 250 Club were fully declared to the Electoral Commissioner by those 250 members. Here is
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