Page 21 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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We throw a slur on all people who want to be involved in the political process when we start down this track. You have started down this track, Chief Minister, you and your gleeful smile on Friday and your hyperbole where you went out with your outrageous allegations, none of which I see are backed up today. So we have made some allegations, now let us go and see if we cannot go on a little bit of a fishing trip here and find some facts.
I remind people again of the ministerial code of conduct:
Ministers should take reasonable steps to ensure the factual content of statements they make in the Assembly …
But, no, what does Ms Gallagher say? “There are some rumours, so I will just act on the basis of these rumours and we will go on a bit of a trawl through the Leader of the Opposition’s records.” Well, let us look at all of our records. There you go. We are moving a motion that will put all of our records on the table. I am sure in the new era of—what was it she said?—openness and accountability, the Chief Minister will not have any problem whatsoever with widening the reach of the net that she has just cast.
Let us face it: she did not have the nerve here to stand up herself and cast the net. She got Mr Hargreaves to do the dirty work. She does not have the convictions of her beliefs, because her beliefs are based on rumours. She will come a cropper moving on rumours. She did not have the courage to stand up like the Leader of the Opposition to put his case, which he did with dignity and calmness. No, she just uses rumours.
So let us broaden the reach of the net and see how happy people are. I expect the full support of the Greens. At the end of the day, this motion is a slur on the office of the Speaker, it is a slur on the office of the Clerk and it is a slur on the Secretariat. The Secretariat has done this work and, according to the Speaker—I think he said it a couple of times on Friday—“Matter resolved. Matter closed.” Ms Hunter this morning said: “Matter closed. Oh, until the politics gets into it.” Well, that is okay. We are politicians. We understand that.
But those who throw stones should be very careful, particularly when you have had the president of your political party working in your office, particularly when people who are related to you work in this building and particularly when people who might be related to any of us work in the public service. Where does the line stop? Where do you want to draw this to? Everyone has a right to participate in the political process, and good luck to those that do it actively. I often say I welcome people who join any political party because they are having their say.
If we are going to go down this slippery slope, let us all go down together. Let us see how happy you are to go down this slope together. I suspect there will not be support for this. I suspect I will not have four Greens and seven Labor members stand up, hand on heart, and say, “Nothing untoward ever happened in my office for the term of this Assembly.” I suspect I will not get support for the amendments.
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