Page 646 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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We have an obligation to speak from fact—and the words used the other night are not factual. It is not a council that is self-serving. It is not full of geriatrics; it is full of decent people who have a view on their community and have a right to be defended by this place. I think it is unfortunate that the apology was very clear. I have spoken to Mr Johnston several times over the last couple of days and I am not going to reveal our conversations. But I have got no hesitation in going to the council when it next meets and I will explain what I have done and what I intend to do in the future. I will have no hesitation in saying what I have done.
The problem for us here is that Mr Hargreaves is an office holder of this place. He is a whip. That is a position of the parliament. He is the whip for the Labor Party. He is responsible for discipline. He is responsible for organisation. He gets paid for it and he has a responsibility to deliver on that payment. But he has not, and that is the problem here: he is not being held to account by his Chief Minister, he is not being held to account by his party and he is not being held to account by the people in this place.
Ms Bresnan said that the Chief Minister has apologised. I suggest you read the letter that went to the community council. I assume you are a member like I am and you got the email that went out with this particular letter. It does not mention the word “apology”. If you can point out to me where it says “I apologise” or “I am sorry”, I will be very happy. But they do not exist in this letter. I will read it again; perhaps you did not hear me this morning:
Thank you for your letter of 16 January 2012 and taking my calls regarding comments made by Mr Hargreaves MLA in the Legislative Assembly on 15 February 2012.
I understand your disappointment and the concerns that you have expressed on behalf of the Council. The ACT Government does not share the views expressed by Mr Hargreaves and I have spoken to him this morning and told him so.
I understand that Mr Hargreaves has also rung you to explain his comments about the Council earlier today.
As I said to you and in the Assembly this morning, I value both your personal commitment and the Council’s active role in the Tuggeranong valley and on matters of interest across the ACT. We have developed a strong relationship over the past few years and I know that you also work well with other MLAs as well as the local Federal member, Gai Brodtmann.
I look forward to continuing our working together on issues around Tuggeranong and its residents, and I look forward to our meeting on 1 March 2012.
The word “apology” does not appear in that letter. The word “regret” does not appear in that letter. Let us not dance around it: an apology is an apology. If you think that is an apology, I think you need either to go back to English class or to buy a dictionary. There has been no apology. I give Mr Hargreaves credit for using the word “apology” this morning; I will check what he actually said.
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