Page 591 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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… notes that the Chief Minister of the ACT … and John Hargreaves have … apologised to the President of the Tuggeranong Community Council for the comments made by Mr Hargreaves …
I understand that there were phone calls. Well and good. But it was not just Mr Johnston as the president who was insulted by this. There has been a letter in the Canberra Times and I know there are emails going around between the members of the council who are, quite frankly, outraged that they would be spoken of in this way and incredibly disappointed that the Assembly is willing to leave a man who believes in that uncensured and in a position of authority in the Labor Party. He holds a position of authority responsible for discipline, but apparently the majority of members in this place think that that is okay.
What does this motion ask for? What this motion asks for, first and foremost, is that Mr Hargreaves apologise to the Assembly for the comments he made. They are just not true. Whether they are geriatric or not, it does not matter. They are not a self-help group; they are not a self-interest group. They are a group that the Chief Minister is about to meet, and meets with on a regular basis, because they are worthy of meeting with. They are a group whose meetings every group from Roads ACT to planning, Policing and any number of business groups have attended to seek their counsel and to disseminate information. On a regular basis, ACTPLA representatives or Roads ACT representatives are there to garner the opinions of those people on the council.
Either we do respect them or somebody is paying lip-service here. If the government do not respect them, if the members of the Greens and the Labor Party do not respect what goes on there, they should not vote for this motion. But it is appropriate that we get an apology and we get a correction so that those that read the Hansard in future know that we did not vote for those words, we do not believe those words and we do not endorse those words.
Those words are shameful. There was no call for it. If you want to present a cogent case, give us some examples of these things. If you have had problems with an individual or two on the council beforehand, that is your problem; go and sort it out. To slander the council in this way is scandalous. It dishonours us in this place because it uses privilege to put on the record things that simply are not true. It is reprehensible. It is appalling that we have to come back to this motion today to try and get an apology for the people of Tuggeranong and their representatives, the Tuggeranong Community Council.
This requires Mr Hargreaves to apologise to the Assembly for the comments he made. It then requests that Mr Hargreaves write to the members of the Tuggeranong Community Council—not just ring the president but write to the members and apologise.
If you quickly read the letter that the Chief Minister wrote, you would think it was an apology. But it is worth reading the letter that the Chief Minister wrote, which has been forwarded to all members of the Tuggeranong Community Council. It says:
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