Comment for cash is hard work
Thursday 24th of September was a busy day for Rev Fred Nile. He really had to work hard for the special $29,900 pa the Labor Government pays him that no other Parliamentarian gets. Comment for cash can be hard work. You can read what transpired in that day’s Hansard on the Internet.
It started with the Greens telling the Crossbench that they intended to bring up a number of matters concerning developer donations to the ALP who later received special consideration in approvals given that netted the developers millions of dollars. One of the Crossbench informed the Government of their intentions for Thursday. Apparently some plans were hatched to prevent the Greens from raising the issues.
As the day started, Rev Fred Nile tried to block any Green plans, by discussing in a very long and rambling speech the issue of the possession of knives in public places. He was reading aloud newspaper accounts of various stabbings over the years. Members were obviously bored, and wandered in and out of the chamber, or stood in groups talking. Government members feigned interest in Fred’s speech and kept interrupting on Points of Order to request the President to silence the Opposition, which then led to Opposition members arguing about the Points of Order.
Ms Sylvia Hale said: “I wish I had been talking because I have no desire to listen to the salacious details of every stabbing that has occurred in Sydney over the last 10 years.”
More Points of Order until Dr John Kaye said: “To the point of order: The Government Whip is perfectly correct: I was talking while Reverend Fred Nile was recounting his sixth or seventh case of knife-related violence.” Meanwhile the minutes ticked by.
Then Dr John Kaye said, “Point of order: Madam Deputy-President, I draw your attention to Standing Order 94 (1), which states: ‘The President or Chair of Committees may call the attention of the House or the committee to continued irrelevance or tedious repetition of a matter already presented in debate, and may direct a member to cease speaking.’ “I ask you to exercise Standing Order 94 (1) because, by my calculation, Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile is relating the eighth repetitious case of knife-related violence. The member is not adding anything to the debate and it therefore falls under the category of tedious repetition of a matter already presented in debate.”
Eventually after long discussion the issue was closed. The Greens had their chance to raise the issues of donations by developers and the subsequent approvals. This was the part of the business the Government was dreading. The journalists were salivating anticipating tomorrow’s lead story in the newspapers.
Sylvia Hale presented a call for papers regarding a Government Planning Minister’s overriding of a development proposal in Double Bay. Fred Nile and Government heavyweights spoke against the need for a call for papers, even though these requests are frequently passed without dissent. But the Government had over-ruled the Council and Town Planning decisions in favour of a developer who, through another company, had made very large donations to the ALP.
Ms Hale continued, “This highly controversial development proposal exceeds the limits contained in the local development control plan by a considerable margin. The council officer’s report refers to “gross non-compliances” with local floor space and height controls, with the floor space ratio control exceeded by over 80 per cent and the height control exceeded by over 200 per cent. If approved, this development will have serious negative consequences for local amenity, and significant flow-on implications for the rest of Double Bay. This is not a tourist development; it is a commercial and residential development masquerading as a tourism development so it can be dealt with by a State government whose election campaigns are funded by the property development industry rather than by a local council that might reflect the views of its residents.”
She continued after numerous points of order tried to silence her, “While the development company behind the project, Ashington, has claimed that neither it nor any of its directors has made political donations to the Labor Party, it has come to light that Wizard Mortgage Corporation has been a significant donor. The Wizard company was owned at the time of many of these donations by Mr Mark Bouris, who recently resigned as director but who is still a current shareholder in Ashington. So, despite the denial of donations by Ashington, we now know that at the time this project was called in, a company associated with one of its directors had made significant donations to the New South Wales Australian Labor Party.”
This was obviously a very serious issue. Then the big guns of the Government came out speaking at length trying to stop any further revelations. At 3:26pm Amanda Fazio spoke at length, then Lynda Voltz, then Fred Nile, then Greg Donnelly, then Penny Sharpe, while the Opposition and other Government members called for many points of order to stop the interruption to proceedings.
Time was ticking away. All debate on such matters had to end at 5pm sharp. The Greens had more to raise so a division was called, and the Opposition and Crossbench voted that the papers concerning this development had to be produced.
But the Greens had more they wanted to discuss that was potentially explosive. The Government was in consternation mode. Senior members gathered at the head of the Chamber and Fred Nile was called over. The Government did not want more bad press. The huge Ku-ring-gai protest was going to be held with thousands of angry citizens present. An important Inquiry was to start the next day with some of the property developers mentioned in the McGurk murder. The Head of the Planning Department, developers, lobbyists and others who had been profiled in the newspapers were to be questioned under oath. No further comment about fresh allegations was needed by a Government under the hammer.
As members got up after the vote to return to their seats, Rev Fred Nile, exploded out of his seat, pushed roughly past three members moving slowly to their seats and at the top of his voice called out “Mr Speaker”, who acknowledged him. That meant Fred had the floor for as long as he wanted.
He indicated he wanted to discuss his motion on Child Protection urgently, which had lain dormant on the agenda since 2007 without any attempt being made to discuss the issue. The President asked if approval was given. Obviously none in the Opposition or Cross Bench thought it was urgent, as the Government had just toughened regulations concerning Child Protection following the Dennis Ferguson affair in housing him in Ryde.
The Opposition was caught. At 4:33pm the leaders of the Opposition said to me, “We will have to vote to let him speak on Child Protection otherwise tonight he will put out one of his notorious and pernicious Press Releases saying the Opposition refused to support a call to toughen punishment against paedophiles and we don’t want that publicity at this time.
But I decided to vote with the Greens to oppose discussing this issue that had been dormant since 2007, without him once seeking approval to discuss the matter, as it obviously wasn’t urgent. We should not be sidetracked from the important issues of corruption of Government officials.
So at 4:35pm Fred started on a hesitant and ponderous speech on Child Protection for which he was not prepared. Leafing through an old file as he spoke, he kept reading bits and pieces from old newspaper cuttings of how in 1974 John David Lewthwaite, a child sex-offender, had murdered a five year old girl.
His speech was slow and stumbling, but all Fred was required to do was to stay on his feet and keep talking until 5pm. No one could stop him. He slowly rambled on as the clock counted down. It was 5pm; now no one could further attack the Government. The President announced the time, the Government Leader of the House announced we would adjourn for 26 days, and Parliament closed down.
In twenty-six days, the Government hopes the issue might have gone away.
Fred earnt his extra money this week. But his work was not yet over. Back to the office he went to release one of his notorious and pernicious Press Releases. At 8:19pm it was sent out to all the media and his CDP supporters, headed “Greens Attempt to Block Anti-Paedophilia Bill.” It stated, as was prophesised by the leader of the Coalition, “The Rev Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has expressed disappointment with the NSW Green Party and Rev Gordon Moyes after they voted to block discussion on the ‘Child Protection (Nicole’s Law) Bill 2009’ in the NSW Upper House today. I’m extremely disappointed but unfortunately not surprised that the Green Party put political gain before the best interests of children in this State when they tried to prevent discussion on the ‘Child Protection (Nicole’s Law) Bill 2009’.”
It was never about child protection. It was all about Government protection from allegations of corruption, political donations, improper influence and all of the unseemly issues involving the assassination of Mr McGurk.
Two days later, on Saturday at 1:34am, Fred sent out a longer press release giving more details of his talk. Journalists throw out his press releases but, as Fred once explained to me, that didn’t matter as CDP supporters believed them.
Fred’s self-obsession and fundamental dishonesty is so predictable. But all the same, comment for cash is hard work.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC