Page 1078 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
wilfully misleading the Assembly. And he has done it again today. He knows he gets away with it because he knows that the casting ballot in this place does not have the nerve to hold him to account.
We all heard what happened. We have had two fumbles at correction. Each fumble at correction, I think, has just mired the minister deeper in his misleads. I simply remind members that he has been found guilty before of persistently and wilfully misleading the Assembly. Unless we hold him to account today, he will be emboldened and he will do it again and again, because that is the nature of this minister.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (3.03), by leave: It is unusual for me to seek leave to speak again, but I thank members because on this occasion I think some things need to be said.
Mr Smyth, for as long as I have known him in this place, has always been keen to put the boot in. And we expect that as part of politics. We expect that as part of the give and take in this place. Yes, Mr Smyth, it is true that in June 2004 I was censured by this place for deliberately and wilfully misleading the Assembly.
Mr Smyth: And persistently.
MR CORBELL: And persistently. But let us be very clear about the circumstances of that matter. Two months later—indeed, actually less than that, a couple of weeks later I was diagnosed with clinical depression and it relied on me to take three months off work, with the support of my colleagues, to recover.
I was not in a fit state to do my job when that censure happened, but I accept responsibility for it. The problem that Mr Smyth has is that he takes advantage in a gross, despicable and disgusting way when he reiterates that claim. I take responsibility for what occurred and I also feel it is incumbent on me to explain why it occurred. But I will never, never accept the vitriol and disgusting approach adopted by Mr Smyth when he rakes over those coals for his base, crass, political advantage.
I have sat here year after year after year and heard him use those terms without any human recognition of what was occurring to me at that time. I think it is about time that he understood how those comments that he makes repeatedly in this place should be viewed by everybody.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (3.06): Today we have heard that the minister indicated or allowed the Assembly to believe that he had seen the minutes. Whether that was an accurate reflection or not can be debated. Of course, he came into this place later on and provided a point of clarification. But there is a very, very important fact here that has not yet been raised. That is that Mr Corbell said:
I understand from a review of the minutes that it would appear that the opposition members of this committee have supported each and every one of the paragraphs proposed by Mr Gentleman in his draft chair’s report but have then chosen not to support the committee report as a whole—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video