ATTORNEY GENERAL —
GIFTS AND TRAVEL
561. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. If
the minister is not a minister when they leave this place, how does the Premier
expect to avoid any perceived or real
conflicts from members of his cabinet given the loophole this so clearly
creates?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
I
do not understand the point the member is trying to make and I suspect the
member does not either! As I said, and I
think I said it during one of the press conferences I went to, a minister is
required to adhere to the Ministerial Code of Conduct. If the member is referring to the Attorney General, he has
adhered to the code of conduct. The code of conduct is the same as it was when you were in government. It has not
changed. If someone wants to go to a birthday party with someone else and
they get a lift there, is that the issue the member is saying—that
someone goes to a birthday party? If the point is that someone went to a birthday
party, is it not a bigger deal that when in office, the then Leader of the
National Party, Brendon Grylls, flew around in a helicopter with Clive Palmer,
received a $260 000 donation and tried to support and assist Clive Palmer in
some of his dealings? Is that not a bigger deal than someone going to a birthday
party?
If the member for Roe's
point is that Crown has made political donations—I think it is, even
though he probably does not understand it—since the establishment of
the Bergin inquiry in New South Wales on 14 August 2019, Crown has made more
than $50 000 in donations to the Liberal and National Parties in Western Australia.
Is that the member for Roe's point, because that occurred? If the
member is so concerned about that, why does he not pay Crown back? I invite a further
question to understand this. If that is the member's concern, he can
answer that question. Otherwise, all he is doing is muckraking. Member for Roe,
I saw you—I do not blame you for going—at a whole range of AFL
grand final events. As we saw, the tickets had some cost to them. I went as
well. The grand final has been held in
Victoria for the last 140 years, and I suspect that every year the Victorian
Premier goes. As Gill McLachlan told
me, the Prime Minister always goes. It is expected that you go to these events.
As the Minister for Sport and Recreation said, the grand final here in
Perth the other weekend was a wonderful event. Do you know who else I saw
there? I saw the federal Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck; the Tasmanian
Minister for Sport and Recreation; Ken Wyatt; Michaelia Cash; Ben Morton; and
the Leader of the Opposition. I saw Colin Barnett, and I had a good chat with
him. I did not see Julie Bishop there, but I would not be surprised if she was.
I understand that former Liberal Premiers were there as well. I saw all these
people there. Is the member for Roe's point that that was wrong?
Ms A. Sanderson: He doesn't
know.
Mr
M. McGOWAN: No, because he does
not know what point he is trying to make. Someone writes these questions
for the member for Roe; he stands to read them, but he does not know what he is
reading. He is a political version of Brick Tamland.