House debates
Monday, 22 May 2006
Personal Explanations
3:09 pm
Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I refer to an article in the Sunday Telegraph of 21 May on pages 1 and 4. Page 1 had a caption under my photograph which read ‘UNBELIEVABLE: Federal MP Danna Vale, caught speeding past a Sydney school, fights the paltry $75 fine’. The heading on page 4 read ‘MP caught speeding will fight fine’.
Mr Speaker, I wish to correct a number of factually incorrect statements in this article. No. 1, the article on pages 1 and 4 states that I am fighting the $75 fine. This is completely incorrect. The matter was finalised over seven weeks ago. My cheque in payment of this fine was dated 3 April and was posted very soon thereafter.
No. 2, on page 4 the article states that the incident occurred in Gymea, where, tragically, a little eight-year-old girl was killed. It later mentions Gymea Bay Road. This is incorrect with regard to my incident. The incident for which I incurred the fine occurred on President Avenue, travelling west, near Koorabel Avenue. President Avenue is a major artery of Sutherland shire, and on President Avenue there are no entrances to the school. The school is fenced off from President Avenue by a very high steel fence.
No. 3, I consider this article not only to contain deliberate distortions and falsification of the facts; I consider it to be defamatory. It is the latest salvo of personal vilification against me by the Telegraph, and I have placed this matter in the hands of my lawyers.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member will not debate the issue.
3:11 pm
Duncan Kerr (Denison, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Duncan Kerr (Denison, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Today in question time the Acting Prime Minister, perhaps unsettled by the excitement at the Prime Minister’s incipient return, referred to me as the member for the Northern Territory. I am not; I am the member for Denison. I live in Tasmania, my electorate is very far from the Northern Territory and my electorate deserves to know that the Acting Prime Minister is aware of where parliamentarians—
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member has made his point. The member will resume his seat.
Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Yes.
Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I claim to have been misrepresented by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in question time today, the same misrepresentation he made of the Leader of the Opposition Thursday week ago and again today and repeated by the Acting Prime Minister in question time today. The minister referred to a transcript of a doorstop interview that I did this morning. What he did not quote was the following:
It’s prohibited content and unlawful for a union to seek to include in an agreement with an employer leave arrangements for occupational health and safety training. The prohibited content clearly makes it unlawful for a union to seek to agree with an employer to make occupational health and safety training part of leave arrangements.
That is a clear reference to regulation 8.5(1)(C), which says:
As prohibited content, employees bound by any agreement receiving leave to attend training by a trade union.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member will not debate the point. The member will resume his seat.