EXTENDED TRADING HOURS
Can the Treasurer please advise the house of the opposition’s latest position on extended trading hours?
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied:
I thank the member very much for the question. I was very interested when I noticed recently that the Leader of the Opposition said that the Liberal Party would review all its policies, including its position on retail trading hours. That is the position of the Leader of the Opposition. What about the position of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition? In September 2004, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition criticised the government’s move to extend retail trading hours. Interestingly, at that time he was pinged by a group called the Busselton Retailers Action Group, which was opposed to extended trading hours. It was a group that was in agreement with the position adopted at that time by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, but it accused him of hypocrisy. The group claimed that the member for Vasse had strongly supported seven-day-a-week trading in Busselton. In fact, he had opposed a review of retail trading hours in Busselton. He was a supporter of seven-day-a-week trading, he opposed the review and then criticised the government’s move to extend retail trading hours.
We need to develop this argument a little. I remind the house of the Busselton Independent Action Group. Does anyone remember the Busselton Independent Action Group? It featured fairly heavily in the recent Corruption and Crime Commission hearings because it was the conduit used by Canal Rocks in its campaign, with the assistance of the member for Vasse, to manipulate and stack the Shire of Busselton. That was the group that the member for Vasse was prepared to collaborate with and help to stack the Shire of Busselton. That group was the conduit for payments from Canal Rocks to the disgraced lobbyist and car park confidant of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Noel Crichton-Browne. The Busselton Independent Action Group organised the no vote campaign at the February 2005 referendum.
Several members interjected.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: Members opposite shout because they do not want to hear where this argument is going. The member for Vasse was the poster boy for the Busselton Independent Action Group’s no vote campaign. He featured in the advertising. The previous supporter of seven-day-a-week trading not only criticised the government’s efforts to extend trading hours, but also became the poster boy for the no campaign. I wonder who asked the member for Vasse to be part of the IAG campaign. Who approached the member for Vasse to be a member of the IAG campaign? He was full of interjections. Here is his chance. I will stay silent after I ask: who asked the member for Vasse to be part of the IAG campaign? I assert that it was disgraced lobbyist and paid consultant for Canal Rocks, Noel Crichton-Browne. Will the member for Vasse deny that?
Mr T. Buswell: Yes.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: That might be tested later. We know that IAG was used to fund the campaigns of candidates for the Busselton Shire Council. That was the group that Canal Rocks was trying to use in association with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to stack the shire council against his own publicly stated views - he was opposed to the Smiths Beach development - and against the wishes of his community. We know that Noel Crichton-Browne was organising those campaigns behind the scenes. I ask the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: what role did Noel Crichton-Browne play in his election campaign? We know he organised his preselection. What did he do in his election campaign? We know he owes his preselection to Noel Crichton-Browne. What about his campaign success? This was not a modest campaign for a traditional safe coalition seat. The Liberal Party spent in excess of $100 000 on this campaign. Where did the money come from?
Mr T. Buswell: A lot of it came from me.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: How much of it came from the member for Vasse?
Mr P.D. Omodei: Lots.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: The member for Vasse is on the record as having donated $100 000 to his campaign.
Mr T. Buswell: I didn’t say that.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: That is what the record shows. I ask the Deputy Leader of the Opposition whether he received any money from or through that IAG.
Mr P.D. Omodei: No.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: I do not think that will stand up, given the role of Mr Noel Crichton-Browne in these campaigns. This whole episode shows the lack of integrity of the Leader of the Opposition. He is a man with no standards. He will not take any action against his deputy for a car park meeting with a person of interest in a corruption inquiry. The Leader of the Opposition thinks that is okay. He does not ask his deputy any questions about that. He has no credibility on standards; none whatsoever.
Let us look at the pattern demonstrated by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. He secretly changed his approach to the Canal Rocks development. Publicly, he is opposed to the development. Secretly, he helped the developer stack the council. He changed his position on retail trading hours, probably at the instigation of Noel Crichton-Browne and the IAG. We all remember what he did to the member for Kalgoorlie. If I were the member for Kalgoorlie, I would be justifiably indignant at what I would regard as a last-minute betrayal. What would the member for Kalgoorlie think if it was not a last-minute betrayal? What if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was in on the plot from the beginning? What if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was deceiving the member for Kalgoorlie not just on the day but for weeks in advance? What if he was one of the organisers of the plot to down the member for Kalgoorlie? That is what people are telling us. I advise the member for Kalgoorlie to check with some people he might know in the Liberal Party and investigate just how thoroughly he was deceived by this man without moral scruple, the man who is temporarily the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.