House debates Personal Explanations

Monday, 27 March 2006 House of Representatives

Alex Somlyay

Alex Somlyay Fairfax, Liberal Party

4:11 pm

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Harry Jenkins

Harry Jenkins Scullin, Australian Labor Party

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Alex Somlyay

Alex Somlyay Fairfax, Liberal Party

I do.

Harry Jenkins

Harry Jenkins Scullin, Australian Labor Party

Please proceed.

Alex Somlyay

Alex Somlyay Fairfax, Liberal Party

On Wednesday, 15 March the Minister for Health and Ageing held a press conference in my electorate, where a Channel 7 reporter, Samille Muirhead, asked the minister and me why the government had cut the funding for the Sunshine Coast Hear and Say Centre. The minister and I denied any knowledge of such funding cuts. The journalist obviously got the question wrong, because the Channel 7 news broadcast that evening fraudulently changed the question to read ‘the Sunshine Coast Children’s Therapy Centre’, not ‘the Hear and Say Centre’. There have been no funding cuts for either the Sunshine Coast Hear and Say Centre or the Sunshine Coast Children’s Therapy Centre. I intend to pursue this fraudulent behaviour by Channel 7 with the appropriate broadcasting regulator.