Page 4004 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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But in the context of the comment and the answer that Ms Burch gave and which the Liberal Party complained about, she mentioned that the houses would be handed over in October. She gave a time frame, which actually was open to that interpretation.
Mr Smyth: No, it’s not. Have you read the Hansard?
MR STANHOPE: Yes. It states:
The first site in Macquarie, with some 13 homes, is completed and is currently being allocated. Applications for the second site … are currently being assessed. The homes will … be handed over from October …
“The homes will be handed over from October.” She says she meant to say that the assessments have been completed. She missed out a word in relation to the Macquarie development which she included in relation to Curtin, and you believe that a missing word—which the minister has been quite prepared today to stand and openly admit should have been included for the sake of completeness but was not included—is worthy of a censure on executive members’ day. That is just nonsense.
The challenge for Liberal Party in relation to this is for you to think of the number of times that each of you every sitting day stand and make statements that are not exactly or explicitly true in this same way, with one word missing. One word was missing, the word “assessment”, and you believe it is worthy of a censure. I would challenge or invite each of you to reflect on comments which you make every day and then stand there and swear that you have not, even yesterday, made statements in this place in speeches and contributions to debate that were 100 per cent true. Because let me tell you now, you have not.
Mr Coe: If you bring it to our attention and we know about, then we will do it.
MR STANHOPE: So that is the rule? I might just take up and accept that challenge, Mr Coe, in relation to each of you—that you will then willingly subject yourself to an apology or to a censure, and we will decide which. That is a nonsense. That is an absolute nonsense. This matter should never have got to this stage. The minister was quite prepared—
Mrs Dunne: Yes, you’re right. She should have fixed the record when it was first brought to her attention.
MR STANHOPE: This morning the minister had typed out a statement subsequent to a letter which she received at 9.45 this morning. She received the letter at quarter to 10 this morning asking that she make a statement this morning. She agreed to do it, and she typed out a statement to that effect. You did not wait, because you were not interested, actually, in her making the statement. You wanted your weekly censure, which you have just moved.
This censure has absolutely no merit. The minister has done the right and appropriate thing. She has stood and clarified her comments. She accepts that they did have the capacity to mislead or to be misunderstood, and she has now clarified that. This is an absurd waste of this chamber’s time.
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