Page 1077 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 6 May 2014
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of persistently and wilfully misleading the Assembly on a number of occasions, and add today, you have got this minister done to rights. It was deliberate, it was reckless and it was misleading.
We know that Mr Corbell thinks this is trivia, the truth is trivia. That he thinks the truth is trivia is, in itself, an indication of the calibre of this minister. We know he is the longest-serving minister in this place. We know he is the manager of government business. We know he is the man who is responsible for coordinating activity on that side. And he knows these things. When he said it, he knew that it was not true. “What did I say,” he said. He read what he said. He claims that nobody told him or nobody gave him the minutes. How did he know? If Mr Gentleman had said, “This is the case,” why did you not simply say Mr Gentleman said so? You did not. You immediately mislead this place.
My understanding is that the document that you quoted from, minister, was not even distributed at the time you spoke.
Ms Gallagher: It was.
MR SMYTH: If I am wrong, then I am willing to say I am wrong. But when we read it, we know that there is no indication whatsoever that the minutes were included. Your lie that compounds the lie has found to have another hole in it because it simply says “submissions and transcripts of proceedings from the two public hearings held are available on the website”.
This minister was not pressured. This minister was not forced. This minister chose to mislead the house, to cover up that somebody had given him the minutes. His immediate answer—and there was no hesitation—was not, “I had better fix things up.” It was, “It’s a lie.” He knew what he was doing when he was doing it.
As Mr Hanson has already pointed out, there was already a stink about this bill and the way the government was trying to ramrod it through the Assembly. The stink becomes a stench when the minister is willing to mislead the Assembly to have his way so that he can have this bill that covers up the ineptitude and the failings of him as planning minister in particular, and this government in general, in delivering good and timely planning outcomes for the people of the ACT.
Madam Speaker, this minister does not always tell the truth. He has been found lacking, and you have been here on previous occasions when this Assembly has held him to account.
MADAM SPEAKER: Could you stop the clock, please, Clerk. Mr Smyth, there have been a number of occasions on which you have used the words “lie” or “not told the truth”. Even in a substantive motion about misleading the Assembly, that is disorderly, and I would ask you to withdraw those comments.
MR SMYTH: I withdraw. This minister has, on numerous occasions, misled the Assembly and he has been brought to task on numerous occasions when he has been found either to be in contempt of the Assembly or censured for persistently and
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