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Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro on should their be random drug testing in Parliament House · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main Darwin
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  Speaker 1: homes own Stuart Highway, Berrima. We have just heard from
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  Speaker 1: the Health Minister Attasha Files and asked if Mark Turner
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  Speaker 1: should remain the Member for Blaine or stand down following
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  Speaker 1: those revelations over the last week. Now, the ALP yesterday
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  Speaker 1: issued that statement saying that well that they have received
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  Speaker 1: a letter from the Chief Minister requesting that consideration be
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  Speaker 1: given to removing the Member for full Blaine from the party.
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  Speaker 1: The statement says considering action to expel any party member
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  Speaker 1: is complex and must be done with the party's democratic
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  Speaker 1: processes and follow the rules of the branch. Opposition leader
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  Speaker 1: Lea Fanocchiaro joins me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Leah, Good morning Katie, and good
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  Speaker 2: morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Does the Member for Blaine need to be expelled from
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  Speaker 1: the Labor Party?
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  Speaker 2: I would think the Labor Party has no other choice.
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  Speaker 2: But in the meantime, while they take a couple of
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  Speaker 2: weeks to decide the member for Blaine fate, what we've
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  Speaker 2: had is Minister Files and the Chief Minister come out
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  Speaker 2: and fob this issue off show week leadership when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to what needs to happen with the Member for Blaine,
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  Speaker 2: and both of them have failed to call for him
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  Speaker 2: to resign. These are the same people who contemned the
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  Speaker 2: Member for Blaine in twenty sixteen, and to use the
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  Speaker 2: Chief Minister's own words, he said his behavior is an
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  Speaker 2: unforgivable breach of parliamentary standard and he should resign immediately.
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  Speaker 2: So we're seeing again the week leadership from the Chief
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  Speaker 2: Minister and now Minister Files is jumping on that bandwagon. Lea.
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  Speaker 1: There will be some people listening this morning who will
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  Speaker 1: be thinking, well, you know, what has happened is a
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  Speaker 1: personal issue and it's one which Mark Turner is going
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  Speaker 1: to have to work through himself with his family. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you know, does he really need to lose his job
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  Speaker 1: as well?
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  Speaker 2: Look, there's no question that this must be a very
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  Speaker 2: difficult time for his family. But ultimately, the Member for Blaine,
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  Speaker 2: if he doesn't want public scrutiny, he shouldn't hold public office.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, we've learnt through the media around the inappropriate
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  Speaker 2: relationships him knowing about drug use and the text messages
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  Speaker 2: we've seen printed in the paper. This is a person
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  Speaker 2: who campaigned to the people of Blaine on family and
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  Speaker 2: religious values. He's a former police officer, and of course
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  Speaker 2: last week we saw the spectacular and insincere political statement
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  Speaker 2: which showed no remorse for his actions and of course,
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  Speaker 2: as we learned yesterday, spectacularly the Chief Minister helped him
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  Speaker 2: write it. So it's a fundamental breach of community and
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  Speaker 2: parliamentary standard and the people of Blaine deserve to go
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  Speaker 2: back to the polls and elect someone that shares their values.
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  Speaker 1: Well and lea. Obviously, the Chief Minister did reveal on
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  Speaker 1: the show yesterday that he did help the Member for
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  Speaker 1: Blaine craft that speech before Parliament last Wednesday. Bart He
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  Speaker 1: says that changes were made. The Health Minister said the
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  Speaker 1: same thing this morning, that changes were made before it
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  Speaker 1: was delivered. Has the Member for Blaine mislead Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, the Chief Minister himself has said the
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  Speaker 2: Member for Blaine has been dishonest, and again that goes
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  Speaker 2: to the core of parliamentary values and the values of
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  Speaker 2: the community hold their members of Parliament to that very
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  Speaker 2: very high standard, which is why I just can't understand
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  Speaker 2: why the Chief Minister and now Minister Files are not
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  Speaker 2: calling for the Member for Blaine to stand down. I
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  Speaker 2: can only assume it's because they're hoping that to continue
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy his vote on the floor of the Parliament,
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  Speaker 2: which is a disgraceful, self serving reason to not make
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  Speaker 2: the call that you need to make as a leader.
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is not a situation anyone wanted to see.
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  Speaker 2: But here we are, weeks and weeks later with the
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  Speaker 2: government completely entangled in this scandal, and it's simply not
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  Speaker 2: good enough. They've lost the trust of territories over their
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  Speaker 2: mishandling of this scandal.
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  Speaker 1: I mainly lots of people listening this morning would think, well,
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  Speaker 1: they expect you to say exactly what you've just seed,
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  Speaker 1: and expect you to call for a by election, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, presume that you'd be then hoping that the
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  Speaker 1: COLP is able to take that seat from the Labor Party.
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  Speaker 1: But in reality, here I mean, is that really the
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  Speaker 1: best moves this is?
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  Speaker 2: This is you know, if there's a by election, of
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  Speaker 2: course the Country Liberal Party will run a candidate and
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  Speaker 2: we will put to the people of Blaine that we're
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  Speaker 2: the best people to represent them. But ultimately this is
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  Speaker 2: about the people who live in Bellamite, the people who
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  Speaker 2: live in Woodrip Rosby and that small section of Malden.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they have had someone make representations to them
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  Speaker 2: that clearly aren't true. And to have that now come
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  Speaker 2: out to campaign on that platform of family values and
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  Speaker 2: all the other values I talked about before and to
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  Speaker 2: be something else is not acceptable. It breaches that community standard, TESSI,
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  Speaker 2: breaches that parliamentary test and so ultimately the Member for
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  Speaker 2: Blaine has some big decisions to make. But I'm most
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  Speaker 2: appalled by the fact that the Chief Minister and Minister
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  Speaker 2: Files can see him fit to get him out of
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  Speaker 2: the caucus, and Labor will look at whether or not
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  Speaker 2: his membership can continue, but they won't go so far
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  Speaker 2: to say he should resign. But needless to say, there
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  Speaker 2: are still many questions regarding this entire scandal, Katie, and
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  Speaker 2: you know this government has just failed the people of
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  Speaker 2: the Northern territory.
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  Speaker 1: Lea, I do want to ask you the same question
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  Speaker 1: that I asked the Chief Minister yesterday and the Health
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  Speaker 1: Minister earlier this morning. Should there be random drug testing
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  Speaker 1: in Parliament House?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? And I can't understand what the Chief Minister and
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  Speaker 2: Natasha Files have got to hide if they don't support this.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, we call on the government to introduce drug testing.
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  Speaker 2: We are very happy to have our team, our staff
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  Speaker 2: subjected to random drug testing. It's just inconceivable why the
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  Speaker 2: Chief Minister is all of a sudden taking some sort
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  Speaker 2: of fiscal responsible, you know, responsibly fiscal view on this
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  Speaker 2: issue when he's happy to waste multiple millions of dollars
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  Speaker 2: on other pet projects, including the grand Stand. You know,
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  Speaker 2: this is just endemic of their general soft on crime approach,
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  Speaker 2: and of course crime being the biggest issue facing Territorians
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  Speaker 2: is something we should be talking about in the Parliament
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  Speaker 2: and you know that's what people expect us to be
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  Speaker 2: raising on their behalf. And yet last week we saw
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  Speaker 2: the Gunner government gag the opposition and stop us from
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  Speaker 2: speaking about emotion about crime and safety in our community.
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  Speaker 1: Look, i'd have to say that on the tech side
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  Speaker 1: this morning, people really are supportive of there being some
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  Speaker 1: random drug testing within the workplace, particularly you know when
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  Speaker 1: we're talking specifically about Parliament House. You know, I have
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  Speaker 1: said it earlier this morning, and I'll say it again.
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  Speaker 1: Perception is everything in politics, and the perception right now
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  Speaker 1: is that the government is resisting this for some obscure reason.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not one hundred percent sure why, but I think
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  Speaker 1: that realistically they're going to have to take a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a stand here and maybe look at whether it
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  Speaker 1: would be something that they're able to do.
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  Speaker 2: It's something that's got to happen, and Katie, we would
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  Speaker 2: all be happy to walk right out the front of
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  Speaker 2: Parliament House today with our tests and show territory and
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  Speaker 2: what the results were. But for the Chief Minister to
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  Speaker 2: now have you know, said no, we're not doing drug
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  Speaker 2: test testing twice Minister Files has now backed that up.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's clear this government has no commitment to
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  Speaker 2: clearing the air on this issue. They're still not conducting
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  Speaker 2: an investigation into the allegations that are floating around. They're
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  Speaker 2: still bearing their head in the stand, acting arrogantly and
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  Speaker 2: you know, again it's this soft on crime approach we've
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  Speaker 2: seen that they take to every other issue affecting Territorians
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  Speaker 2: and they're doing it in their own backyard.
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  Speaker 1: Leah, what is the COLP going to be focusing on
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  Speaker 1: today in Parliament?
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  Speaker 2: So certainly we've got a number of more questions relating
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  Speaker 2: to the scandal, but also we want to get back
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  Speaker 2: on track with crime. It's something that we tried very
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  Speaker 2: hard to debate in parliament last week that the Gunner
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  Speaker 2: government shockingly just gagged us on. I could not believe
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  Speaker 2: the arrogant move to just stop and start for the
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  Speaker 2: debate right from the start. So we're certainly going to
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  Speaker 2: be trying to get matters around crime back up for
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  Speaker 2: debate front and center in the Parliament this week, Leah.
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  Speaker 1: Last night there was this full Corners report that traditional
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  Speaker 1: owners of Kakadoo National Park at loggerheads with Parks Australia
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  Speaker 1: and are threatening to close the World Heritage site amid
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  Speaker 1: claims the agency's mismanaged it. What are your thoughts on this,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, are you concerned that we've got a situation
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  Speaker 1: here where where Kackadoo is going to become Kacadant.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we certainly don't want to see kakado close. It's
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  Speaker 2: just such a wonderful, beautiful, iconic destination. But clearly there
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  Speaker 2: are issues on foot that need to be resolved and
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  Speaker 2: that's going to take leadership on all signs to ensure
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  Speaker 2: that people are back at the table and working through
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  Speaker 2: some of the issues that have obviously come to light
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  Speaker 2: over a period of time now. But also last night, all.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Leah, fan Occhiara, we are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: leave it there. Thank you very much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning ahead of parliament.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you take care of me.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.