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

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  Speaker 1: Scandal's plagued the Gunner government for more than a week.
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  Speaker 1: The Opposition now says the failure of the Gunner government
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  Speaker 1: to refer for investigation allegations of threat and intimidation by
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  Speaker 1: a labor staffer towards the Member for Braitlank, Joshua Burgoyne,
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  Speaker 1: is further proof of a toxic culture in the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister's office. Now joining me online is the Opposition leader Leafanocchiariro.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Katie, and to your listener Leah.
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  Speaker 1: What happened outside parliament?
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  Speaker 2: So yesterday the Member for Braitlan moved a very serious
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  Speaker 2: motion to refer a member of the Chief Minister or
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  Speaker 2: the Attorney General's staff to the Privileges Committee of the Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: And that was for what the Member for Braitlin says
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  Speaker 2: is that a member of the Chief Minister's staff on
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  Speaker 2: the fifth floor went past him and said was to
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  Speaker 2: the effect of your that f josh Burgoyne, you better
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  Speaker 2: watch your language, watch what you say now. That is
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  Speaker 2: a very very serious matter that needed to be dealt
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  Speaker 2: with by the Privileges Committee. Of course, members of Parliament
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  Speaker 2: need to be able to speak freely and fiercely in
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  Speaker 2: their representation of territories in the Parliament. We've got to
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  Speaker 2: be able to robustly debate and say what needs to
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  Speaker 2: be said without fear of reprisal and repercussion. And someone
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  Speaker 2: in the Chief Minister's office should absolutely know better than
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  Speaker 2: to say things like that to a member of Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: And of course, instead of having this matter investigated properly
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  Speaker 2: by the Privileges Committee, that the Chief Minister and his
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  Speaker 2: government just shut it down like they do everything.
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  Speaker 1: Leah, why is this so serious and not just a
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  Speaker 1: bit of arjibargi. Some people listening might be thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 1: come on, Josh, you know, if you can't handle that,
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  Speaker 1: then how can you handle what happens inside parliament.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's one hundreds and hundreds year old standing in
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  Speaker 2: the Parliament that the Parliament must be upheld the integrity
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  Speaker 2: of that parliament. It is a serious parliamentary offense, but
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  Speaker 2: also potentially a criminal offfenir to intimidate or threaten a
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  Speaker 2: member of Parliament to try and make them behave differently
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  Speaker 2: or do a different outcome. It's very very serious, it's
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  Speaker 2: very great. So it's not about you know, not being
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  Speaker 2: able to take it. Of course, you know, people you know,
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  Speaker 2: we get a wide range of comments and that's fine,
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  Speaker 2: but this was specifically in relation threatening and intimidation. It's
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  Speaker 2: specifically in relation to something that the Member for Brakley
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  Speaker 2: was talking about in the Parliament and so for the
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  Speaker 2: government to shut this down really just reinforced for us
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  Speaker 2: the type of toxic culture they have in their offices.
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  Speaker 2: And of course for the last two weeks we've seen
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  Speaker 2: a government plagued by scandal and them being unable to
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  Speaker 2: deal with what's going on on the fifth floor. And Katie,
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  Speaker 2: I can tell you categorically if a member of my
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  Speaker 2: staff threatened or intimidated any member of Parliament I would
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  Speaker 2: absolutely sack them immediately. It is not acceptable. And for
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  Speaker 2: this behavior to be condoned and not even referred for investigation,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the really, that's the arrogant clincher to this, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: is that the government didn't even refer it for investigation.
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  Speaker 1: My understanding is that obviously a formal warning has been given.
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  Speaker 1: How is that not far enough as far as you're concerned.
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  Speaker 2: No, this certainly raises a matter of privilege and it
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  Speaker 2: needed to be dealt with by the Privileges Committee. It
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  Speaker 2: just shows how far the government is willing to go
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  Speaker 2: to shut down any scrutiny or any bad news that
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  Speaker 2: might be coming their way about the actions of themselves
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  Speaker 2: as ministers or of course of their staff. So another
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  Speaker 2: very bad day for the Gunner government and again just
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  Speaker 2: showing the extent of their arrogance and their willingness to
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  Speaker 2: break from convention to avoid issues.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So Leah, today or late yesterday, the Anti Independent
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  Speaker 1: has revealed the other man at the center of the scandal.
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  Speaker 1: Now I'm not going to name the man as a
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  Speaker 1: legal precaution, we know that he is allowed labor power broker, Leah,
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  Speaker 1: what do you think that this is about the state
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  Speaker 1: of the Gunner government right now?
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  Speaker 2: Exactly? We have another situation where staff are involved in well,
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  Speaker 2: you know when we saw from the information published in
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  Speaker 2: the Anti Independent yesterday around illegal drug use inappropriate relationships,
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  Speaker 2: and yet the Chief Minister has still not called an investigation.
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  Speaker 2: It's ludicrous that the Chief Minister can call people like
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  Speaker 2: the Member for Blade and this staff as being dishonest,
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  Speaker 2: but then he accepts their views when it comes to
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  Speaker 2: other matters. And that's why this has been handled so badly.
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  Speaker 2: It requires an investigation. We asked the Chief Minister a
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  Speaker 2: number of questions in Parliament yesterday around whether he had
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  Speaker 2: made any proper inquiries, whether he was aware or had
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  Speaker 2: taken steps to look at the broader issues around drug
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  Speaker 2: use amongst his staff, and of course we were met
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  Speaker 2: with the same carefully scripted answers as territories have been
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  Speaker 2: receiving all week. But you know this isn't going away
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  Speaker 2: for the government, and the Chief Minister has suffered serious damage.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, of course we even had young Labor come
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  Speaker 2: out yesterday and say that the Chief Minister didn't have
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  Speaker 2: a backbone. So it just shows how fractured their party
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  Speaker 2: is right now and their parliamentary team.
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  Speaker 1: Leah, the Government does certainly seem to be standing firm
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  Speaker 1: though on their handling of this scandal. I mean, is
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  Speaker 1: it time to let it go or do you think
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  Speaker 1: that there are still questions which remain unanswered here?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we are six or seven questions in Parliament yesterday,
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  Speaker 2: Katie that went completely inadequately unanswered. The Chief Minister has
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  Speaker 2: got serious questions around his integrity. Territorians are really concerned
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  Speaker 2: about the way in which he's turned a blind eye
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  Speaker 2: to this scandal and not investigated it. Of course, he's
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  Speaker 2: sent an appalling message to every Territorian around what a
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  Speaker 2: leader should do in a situation when faced with serious allegations.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't pass any standard of community test. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: they've had to boot the Member for Blaine out of
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  Speaker 2: their team, yet they're shielding him and not calling on
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  Speaker 2: him to resign. And now we've seen more cover ups
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  Speaker 2: of a toxic culture in the Chief Minister's office and
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  Speaker 2: further arrogance in the Parliament with the way they dealt
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  Speaker 2: with the privileged motion. But also let's not forget yesterday
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  Speaker 2: they shrunked the Public Accounts Committee down and made it
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  Speaker 2: less representation for non government members to be able to
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  Speaker 2: scrutinize the government on government spending.
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  Speaker 1: Lea, I want to ask you about this motion that
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  Speaker 1: you are moving to make random drug testing fort MLA's
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  Speaker 1: and staff as compulsory. You've doubled down on that stance
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  Speaker 1: that you do think that random drug testing should come
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  Speaker 1: into play in parliament. How would this work and what
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  Speaker 1: exactly can we expect throughout this motion today in parliament.
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  Speaker 2: So we gave notice or I gave notice yesterday of
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  Speaker 2: emotion calling on the Chief Minister to do everything necessary
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  Speaker 2: to implement random drug testing of members of Parliament and
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  Speaker 2: staff who work in the Parliament House building and isolating
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  Speaker 2: it to this area as a way to increase integrity
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  Speaker 2: and restore integrity, because of course the last two weeks
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  Speaker 2: have shown, you know, there's been a very dark cloud
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  Speaker 2: hanging over this place and the Chief Minister has not
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  Speaker 2: filled people with confidence on his handling of this issue.
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  Speaker 2: We can't understand why the Chief Minister is continue and
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  Speaker 2: the Health Minister Natasha Vials are continuing to reject calls
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  Speaker 2: for random drug testing of members of Parliament and their start.
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  Speaker 1: They're so leah. They're saying at the moment that it's
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  Speaker 1: a contractual thing I believe and that obviously you know,
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  Speaker 1: people who've been employed on the fifth floor, you know
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  Speaker 1: they've got their contracts workwise and their conditions. But they're
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  Speaker 1: also saying that you know that they do not deem
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  Speaker 1: that it would be something that you know that needs
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  Speaker 1: to happen because they do not believe that there is
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  Speaker 1: an issue with drugs inside Parliament House. What would you
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  Speaker 1: say to.
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  Speaker 2: That, I would say, what better way than clear that
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  Speaker 2: question up than having random drug testing. The fact that
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  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister is trying to obfuscate his argument by
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  Speaker 2: saying it's not in people's contracts, or I even heard
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  Speaker 2: him say it would be too expensive. I mean, this
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  Speaker 2: is the same Chief Minister who's racked up eight point
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  Speaker 2: four billion dollars of debt and Territorians have nothing to
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  Speaker 2: show for it. Do you have any idea you're going
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  Speaker 2: to break the bank?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea how much it would cost?
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  Speaker 2: Well, my understanding is you can pop down to the
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  Speaker 2: chemists and purchase one, Katie. So I've seen a number
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  Speaker 2: of figures floating around from the twenty dollars mark right
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  Speaker 2: through two hundreds of dollars. So you know that's really
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  Speaker 2: not going to break the bank. But if it restores
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  Speaker 2: integrity and gives Territorians confidence, then I think it's worked doing.
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  Speaker 2: And it's just so hypocritical coming from people who've created
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  Speaker 2: an eight point four billion dollar debt.
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  Speaker 1: LEA, would you you and your team be prepared to
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  Speaker 1: get a drug test tomorrow?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie. We have nothing to hide. We can't understand
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  Speaker 2: what the Chief Minister's got to hide on this issue.
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  Speaker 2: We think his arguments don't stack up and it's just
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  Speaker 2: another way for him to run and hide and hope
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  Speaker 2: that this goes away.
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  Speaker 1: I made it sound like I've got those drug tests, don't,
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  Speaker 1: But I'm just saying hypothetically, would you.
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  Speaker 2: Well you of course we would, of course we would.
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  Speaker 2: We challenged the Chief Minessy yesterday, implement it, will be
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  Speaker 2: the first to line up. It's not a problem on
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  Speaker 2: our end. What has he got to hide?
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  Speaker 1: LEA. Realistically, though, you know this motion that you are
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  Speaker 1: moving in Parliament, I mean you're not going to have
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  Speaker 1: the numbers to be able to actually have this implemented,
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  Speaker 1: are you.
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  Speaker 2: Well? That remains a question for members of the government.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, it's very important as an opposition to put
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  Speaker 2: forward all manner of things for debate. We do it
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  Speaker 2: on crime, we do it on our economy, we do
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  Speaker 2: it on important, specific pressing issues, and this is another
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  Speaker 2: one of those issues. And we won't stop in anything
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  Speaker 2: to raise the matters that are important to territorians. If
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  Speaker 2: the Government wants to throw its weight around and use
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  Speaker 2: its numbers to try and crush everything we do, then
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  Speaker 2: that's entirely a matter for them. But we will stop
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  Speaker 2: it nothing to ensure that we are keeping the government
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  Speaker 2: to account, that we are listening to Territorians and raising
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  Speaker 2: their concerns in the Parliament and doing our job as
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  Speaker 2: an opposition.
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  Speaker 1: Well, someone's just text through and said it's thirteen dollars
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  Speaker 1: for a basic cannabis test. Apparently, there you go, Leahanocchiaro,
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  Speaker 1: we better leave it there. We appreciate your time. Have
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  Speaker 1: I got you in on Friday for the week that was?
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  Speaker 2: I think that's locked in, Katie, I'll see you then.
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  Speaker 1: Excellent, thank you. That's Leaf and Occhiaro. They're the opposition leader.