Page 95 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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windfall for the Labor Party. That is a fact. All of these ministers are sitting in cabinet and all of them essentially are endorsing Ms Burch as a minister. That really does come to the nub of this issue.
Let me continue with what Mr Stanhope has said about the fact that this is morally untenable:
Canberra Labor Club president Tony Luchetti hit back at Mr Stanhope on the idea last month, saying the club board was independent of the party and would not take instruction from it.
Mr Stanhope rejected Mr Luchetti’s position as technically correct but “absurd” and “nonsense”. If the party took a position that the clubs should be sold, that would be the result, he said.
The Labor Party “simply not should be associated with gambling”, Mr Stanhope said, also pointing to the conflict of interest in both owning and legislating for the club industry.
“The association with gambling and the conflict of interest, perceived or otherwise, are both morally and politically unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Stanhope is saying that the continued action of this party is morally untenable. Joy Burch is the minister, but she is being backed by the rest of them here in behaviour that has been described as morally untenable. If you want to sue me, first sue the Canberra Times that made the same point and then sue Jon Stanhope, who has made the same point. You are sensitive. You are all sensitive—the lot of you—because the behaviour has been disgraceful.
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR HANSON: They are interjecting to try to defend their behaviour, to try to somehow legitimise their behaviour. They think that it is okay to take that money from some of the most vulnerable people in Charnwood. They come in here and moralise and back their minister, the minister who tried to sneak this change through in the dead of night. I bet you, Madam Assistant Speaker, that if the media had not twigged on to that reg, they would have snuck it through. They would have been pretty happy with it. Andrew Barr was happy with it on the Monday, wasn’t he? He was backing it, this extra money that was going to flow into his coffers. But by Tuesday it had become politically untenable and he was trying to walk away from it. And then Mr Stanhope came out. We have had many differences, but at least Mr Stanhope has got the forthright honesty to stand up and call it for what it is—moral bankruptcy about what this mob are doing in accepting the money from the pokies to fund their election campaign. This lot come in here and try to moralise and sneer at the Liberal Party when they are morally bankrupt. If you want to sue me, you could probably try to sue me—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order, members. Mr Barr!
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