House debates
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Personal Explanations
3:46 pm
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Yes.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
In question time today the Prime Minister claimed that as health minister I had neglected cancer services in the Northern Territory and he big-noted himself for recently opening a new cancer service in the Northern Territory. I inform the House that on 29 March 2007 the Territory health minister and I announced the investment in cancer care in the Territory and the service that the Prime Minister opened the other day, and I seek leave to table the relevant press release.
Leave not granted.
3:47 pm
Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
This is my first opportunity to address this matter. On 19 August, as part of a question on ceiling batt insulation, I tabled papers outlining 14 rorts and doubtful practices as conveyed to me freely by the office manager of AllSafe, a reputable franchise ceiling installer in Bundaberg. On 16 September, three days after I had left for the UN in New York, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, quoting David Jordan, the franchisor of AllSafe, from a letter the minister had been holding for 3½ weeks, accused me—
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member will not debate his personal explanation.
Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
of having misrepresented the comments from AllSafe’s Bundaberg franchisee. I was accused of making incorrect statements, point-scoring and having hurt the stimulus factor of the package. Nowhere did the minister or his correspondent—that is, the correspondent that was being quoted—detail where I was incorrect or how I had misled. In fact, the content of the 14 items given freely in writing to me and tabled openly in this House was not disputed. They dealt with, amongst other things, the nonprovision of quotes prior to fitting, forged signatures, overstating metreage and so on. I am just illustrating what was in them. I will not delay the House with a point-by-point analysis of the accusations—
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
No, the member must explain where he has been misrepresented.
Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
That is what I am saying. I am not going to try to debate the 14 items—
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
No, because you are not allowed to.
Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
other than to say that the 14 points and countless instances since made by me have proved to be accurate and subsequently confirmed by admissions by the government and its minister, even to the point of the involvement of the Auditor-General and potential police involvement.
3:49 pm
Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
In an article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 27 February it was claimed that I had made only two speeches in this parliament in the previous year. A check of the Hansard records clearly shows that in fact I made 26 speeches last year, which goes to show you cannot believe everything you read in the Daily Telegraph.