Page 438 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 2010
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MR SPEAKER: Thank you. Mr Corbell has the floor.
Mrs Dunne: Just settle, Jon. Take a powder and make a speech.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell has the floor.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.22): The government will not be supporting this proposal today. We have just seen the spectacle of Mrs Dunne give a 15-minute speech where it took her until the last 10 seconds of her speech to even mention the name of the Treasurer and why the Treasurer should be included in this motion today.
This failure by Mrs Dunne to make any case as to why the Treasurer, Ms Gallagher, should be in any way involved in this inquiry and the fact that she gave it scant and passing mention in her speech today shows what a politically based exercise this motion is. Here we have serious claims being made by Mrs Dunne, and where is the case against the Treasurer? Where is the evidence to back up Mrs Dunne’s claims that the Treasurer should be sent before a privileges committee of this place?
Mr Stanhope: None.
MR CORBELL: There is none. She had none and she gave it all of 10 seconds in her 15-minute speech. Let us be quite clear about what this exercise is today. It is a political exercise; it is a stunt, and it is an attempt by Mrs Dunne once again to besmirch the name of a good and effective minister in this place with no evidence whatsoever and, further, to besmirch the good name of an effective and reputable public servant, the head of a territory-owned corporation, responsible for important projects that serve all in our community.
Having dealt quite quickly and fortunately with the absolute lack of claim that there is in relation to the Treasurer, let us deal with the issue of the claims Mrs Dunne makes against Mr Sullivan. Mrs Dunne asserts that Mr Sullivan knowingly and deliberately misled the estimates committee. She asserts that. She should know that Mr Sullivan said no such thing. He made no such admission.
Mrs Dunne, in her media statement released after the committee hearings last week, said that he had admitted to knowingly misleading the committee. Mr Sullivan said no such thing. For Mrs Dunne to come into this place and, under the cover of privilege, accuse a senior public servant of lying and deliberately misleading this place through its committee is an outrage. It is an outrage. Mr Sullivan made no such admission.
Of course, Mrs Dunne is good at putting words into people’s mouths. Mrs Dunne made assertions at the committee hearing that the total out-turn cost of the Murrumbidgee to Googong project was in the order of $149.8 million. Mrs Dunne got it wrong. That is not the case. As Mr Sullivan has so clearly pointed out this morning in his correspondence to you, Mr Speaker, and I think to other members in this place as well, the total out-turn costs are, in fact, $116.7 million.
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