Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Late on Friday, the Darwin Turf Club issued a statement
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: saying that there's set to hold a special General meeting
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: on Monday, August nine for a spell of all positions
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: following the resignation of the majority of the Darwin Turf
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Club Board. This will set in motion a process for
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: members to elect a new Darwin Turf Club Board. Now,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: the announcement follows a member's petition arising from the ICAK
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: report into the grant for the Grandstand, and the statement says,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: as a circuit breaker from the fallout of the ICAK report,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the former Chairman of the NT Racing Commission, the NT
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Licensing Commission and former Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Richard O'Sullivan
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: has been co opted to the board and is currently
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: acting chairman.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Studio to talk further about this is the opposition leader,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Leah Fanocchiaro.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Good.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Morning Kadian to your listeners.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Now, Leah, there's no doubt the issues around the Grandstand
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: run deep. The Northern Territories and Anti Corruption Watchdog made
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: findings of improper conduct against the Chief Minister's former chief
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: of staff as well as three members of the Darwin
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Turf Club and a company director over that twelve million
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: dollar government grant for the new grandstand. Do you think
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: that this announcement by the Darwin Turf Club goes far
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: enough from their perspective.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Look, and ultimately, the Darwin Turf Club is a member
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: based organization, so the members are going to come together
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: and have to deal with this situation from their perspective
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: head on, and I believe that's happening sometime in early August.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: But what I will say, Katie, is that none of
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: this would have happened if the Gunner government didn't make
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: the decision to grant the twelve million dollars in the
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: first place. And I think that's the critical point here.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Brett Dixon and the Turf Club didn't give themselves twelve
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: million dollars. Al F Leonardi didn't give away twelve million
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: dollars of taxpayers dollars. This was Michael Gunner and his cabinet.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: They're the ones who made this decision. They're the ones
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: who wanted to have something shiny for the August election
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: last year, and they're the ones who are responsible to
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Territorians for that expenditure.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is you know I said it right from
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the get go. This decision stunk. It's stunk right from
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the start. I cannot understand why the government.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Ever thought that it was a good idea.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: But interestingly, two existing board members, mister Dale Baschino and
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: also mister Damian Moriarty, they're going to stay on the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: dar and Turf Club board now. Mister O'Sullivan has said
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: that it was necessary to have a core functioning board
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: leading up to the August nine Special General Meeting and
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: through the Darwin Cup Carnival. But my understanding is that
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: while mister Bachino wasn't on the board when the development
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: process happened, mister Damian Moriarty was and will remain on
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the board despite a finding of improper conduct by the EYEKAK.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Do you think it's appropriate that he's stay on the
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: board taking that into account.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Well, I guess mister O'Sullivan is the one guiding this
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: all now, and if he's determined that there needs to
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: be continuity to get through this racing season, then you
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: know that's entirely a matter for them. Ultimately, on the
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: ninth of August, I think it is the membership will
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: come together and determine what happens to those individuals who
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: want to continue to run and participate at that high
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: level or what they're going to do going forward, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: I think that's going to be a critical pivotal time
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: for the Turf Club going forward.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Now we know the Chief Minister had said though that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: he would change legislation if the board didn't resign. Do
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: you think that that legislation still needs change at this
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: point or is that a bit.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Of I think it's garbage, Katie. I think it's grandstanding,
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: absolute garbage. I think the Chief Minister is up to
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: his neck in this. He's throwing anyone he can under
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: the bus. He's ducking and weaving and just being an
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: unbelievable coward.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: And that his performance when.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: The IK report was dropped around I'm going to change
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: the law so that I can sack the board is
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: just absolute total garbage.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Now, I did ask the Chief Minister last week.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: We had a pretty extensive interview with him last week,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: and I certainly asked him who was responsible for taking
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: that submission to cabinet?
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Now here is listen to what he.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Had to say, who took that proposal to cabinet?
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: I'm the Chief Miness on the chair of Cabinet. I'm
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: responsible for everything in.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Cabinet, so you took it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: I'm the cabinet I'm responsible for everything.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: But very specifically, I'm asking who took the proposal to cabinet?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Was it you?
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: And I'm saying I'm responsive for everything in cabinet, So
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: you were the minister that took it to cabinet. I'm
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: responsible for everything in cabinet.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Was it a situation though, where it was something that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you know that you took in.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: I'm saying to you, I'm the Chief Minister, I'm the
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: chair of the Cabinet. I'm responsible for everything in cabinet.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: This was a cabinet decision based off a twelve month
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: process that's now been shown by the IYACAC to have
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: been a process that essentially there was deceit and misconduct
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: occurred over a period of twelve months that led to
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: bad information going to the cabinet room, and as the
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: Chief Minister and Chair of Cabinet, I take responsibility for that.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Leah, do you think that that is acceptable? And where
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to from here?
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: I think the Chief Minister has a lot to answer for.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: This is how I view what has happened. When you
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: look at the k report and all the other evidence
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: that's coming out. The Chief Minister wanted to open something
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: shiny at a time when we had the worst before
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: me economy the nation. We were looking at a thirty
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: eight point seven billion dollar debt. Everything was going wrong
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: in the territory on his watch. He wanted something shiny
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: in his election to open for August. The process was
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: going too slow for him. He wanted to take it
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: out of other people's hands, as is being reported, and
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: turned around to the turf Club and said, I need
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: something for cabinet tomorrow. Get it to me, and he
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: took it under the arm without any of the proper
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: scrutiny that a cabinet submission would ordinarily have to take,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: took it into cabinet and made his cabinet colleagues agree
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: to it. I mean, it is just it is not
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: possible for him not to have known. I mean, he
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: was on a different radio station last week Katie's saying
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: that he didn't know that the processes hadn't been followed.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: It's not possible.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: He's the chair of Cabinet, he's self professed to be
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: responsible for it, and yet he would have known that
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: that had not been circulated to all departments, it would
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: not have been handled by the Cabinet Office and put
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: into the Cabinet book.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Well in advance of that cabinet meeting.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: We were talking about less than a twenty four hour
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: period of the creation of this document and Cabinet sitting
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: to consider it. And every single minister is absolutely culpable
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: in this because they should have been the ones doing
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: their job and saying, hang on, Chief Minister, you can't
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: walk in here with this. My department hasn't given me
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: advice on how this impacts the territory.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I guess the difficulty we've got at this point is
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: we've got the Chief Minister and we've also got the
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Racing Minister saying that they haven't lied and that they
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: haven't done anything wrong, but we're not able to actually
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: look into this cabinet decision. I mean, is that a
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: shortfalling here of the Kak.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Well, I think there's a lot more to this than
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: the cabinet decision itself. I mean, we know from the
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Kak report that this was not received by government until
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: one six pm the day before cabinet, which means it
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: was not subject to Cabinet until that point at the
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: very earliest or at least until the next morning, So
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: everything that led up to that point is public now.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: The k report very clearly says that there was no
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: analysis of the Turf Club submission by the whole Northern
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Territory government before two pm the day before that caabinet meeting.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: So either there was some miraculous quick work happening of
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: analysis between two pm and four to twenty one on
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: the day before cabinet or this is shonky as anything.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: There is no way in the world that the Chief
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Minister and his cabinet team did not know that this
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: did not follow the proper cabinet processes, that it had
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: not been vetted. I would love to know what Treasury
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: would have said about this, Katie, and if he wants
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: to clear the air, he should be coming out of
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: providing Treasury submission if apparently this has followed the proper process.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I reckon that's what needs to happen next is he
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: needs to come out and show Treasury's submission in terms
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of this decision and the financials behind it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: If he disagrees with the IKAC dank, which at paragraphs
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: three hundred and fifty eight for those listening at home,
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: go and flip it open. It's written as Plainer's day.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: If the Chief Minister disagrees with paragraph three five eight
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: of the report, then he needs to sump up some
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: evidence that this followed the normal cabinet process and by
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: walking something under the arm that wasn't properly vetted does
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: not amount to that. I mean, literally, he is blaming
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: the very people that he asked to provide the submission.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, in my view, the Chief Minister said, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: want this done. Times running out, I've got cabinet to murray,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: get me something, all right.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to what he said to us last
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: week in terms of how and why that decision was made.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: You know, the week that this.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Announcement was made, many of us were questioning whether we
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: were going to end up in a situation where twelve
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: million dollars had been announced for the turf club and
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: that the chairman's company was going to get that tender.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: And the chairman's company shouldn't have got the tender.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So all of us in the public could see that
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: right from the word go. That's why I guess plenty
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: of us can't understand how we've ended up in this
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: situation where the government thought it was a good idea
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: to hand over twelve million dollars to the Turf Club.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: We've genuinely supported the idea of expanding the Cup carnival
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: and creating jobs. We obviously at that point in time
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: had a significant body of work in around trying to
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: territory jobs were obviously coming off the back of the
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: Impacts construction cliff, so different set of circumstances now where
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: the economy is currently positioned, But at that point in
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: time we were very interested in investing in direct short
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: term construction jobs and that would hopefully have a long
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: term economic impact, which the Grandstand would do. We felt
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: there'd been a felt thought, there'd been a twelve month
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: process where it's been worked on extensively. It turns out,
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: and the archaic report goes into this in great detail,
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: that there essentially being a bit of misconduct and deceit
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: that it occurred and that is a result of ministers
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: having a stand aside. We now fixed that so the
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: ministers do not stand aside during market leed proposal processes.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Would you still do this again?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Would you still give the Darwin Turf Club that twelve
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: million dollar grant.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: No, we've got like Cack report that I think shows
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: that it was a decision made off bad information.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, Leah, I'm not one hundred percent or where
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: to go to from here, because we've now got a
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: chief Finister saying, well, they didn't do anything wrong. However,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: you know, we've wound up in a situation where even
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: he concedes that he wouldn't make this decision. Again, from
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: the opposition's perspective, what needs to happen from here?
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: The Chief Minister is trying to save his skin and
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: quite frankly, it's disgusting and everyone sees through it. He
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: is lying to territorians about how this got into cabinet.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Nothing would have happened if cabinet had have voted it down.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: He wanted this done and it did not follow the
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: proper process full stop. The k report says that the
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: process was affected by political donations. We've had the Gunner
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: government scurrying around for two weeks trying to say make
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: some tenuous allegation that the report actually clears their government,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: when very clearly the Ikak report says that it did
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: not consider the cabinet in confidence. So what needs to
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: happen now is the Chief Minister needs to be the
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: leader he's been elected to be. Stand forward, Stop with
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: the rhetoric around I'm responsible for cabinet, I'm the chief minister.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: At rest with me.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: If you truly understand the words of responsibility, Chief Minister,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: then you need to stand in front of your peers,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: the very territorians who elected and you need to provide
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: proof that this followed the proper cabinet processes.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: And if you don't, then shame on you.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: You are the worst chief Minister the territory has ever
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: had to endure, and it is to the detriment of
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: every man, woman and child in this jurisdiction.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: So, Leah, at this point in time, you feel that
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister realistically needs to put up or stand aside.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: He needs to show proof that it did follow the
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: appropriate process and if it didn't, and if he cannot
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: show that proof, you think he needs to step down
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: without question.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: It is not possible for him to have received that
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: loosely termed cabinet submission and just accept it on face value.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: That is not how cabinet works.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: And if that is how this cabinet works, then my gosh, Katie,
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: we are in a world of hurt. I mean, let's
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: not forget the context around this decision. Was a thirty
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: eight point seven billion dollar debt looming in just ten years,
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: a hospital in c crisis with bed block, terrible things
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: happening out at URDH through no fault of the staff.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Might I add we.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Had the government then giving principles pay freezes, and then
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: out of nowhere they give away twelve million dollars with
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: something that was created the day before a cabinet meeting.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: It doesn't pass any test. It is not even something
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: you can allude to. The IKAK has been explicitly clear
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: that there was no Northern Territory government scrutiny of it
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: prior to two pm the day before cabinet and quite frankly,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: the IKAK report basically says that the entire market led proposal,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: you know process was a farce. This was always going
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: to be a grant and government just needed to find
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: a transparent, in inverted commas vehicle to get the money
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: out the door.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Well, Lea Frocchiara, we are going to have to wrap up.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I do want to ask you just very quickly though
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: it's been announced that Territory Days going to happen on
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: August twenty nine. Fires and others are questioning the decision
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: in terms of the high fire danger.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: What is your what your thoughts on this day?
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: I think it's ridiculous.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, we've obviously had to postpone Territory Day for
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: obvious reasons. People understand that the territory's back open. Why
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: wasn't it this week? Why isn't in the net net
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: next week? We have firework suppliers with their fireworks, with
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: their advertising, with all of their stuff ready to go.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: We have territorians primed and ready, and.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: We know that we long the longer we leave it
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: into the end of the dry seats and the high
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: that fire danger is. So why the government have chosen
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: to kick this can down the road to the end
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: of August is absolutely beyond me Kati, But it's another
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: stupid decision by an incompetent government.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Well Leafanokiaro, I'll tell you what you're firing on all
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: pistons this morning.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Take care everyone.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you