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Other Parliamentary SpeechesThis page is dedicated to Peter's speeches during parliament that do not fall under Questions or Questions without notice. They range from debating legislation, reporting on events or issues in his seat of Southport and his Ministerial Statements.
Queensland Liberal Party, Electoral Allowances |
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| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Mar 13 2007 |
| Other Speeches >> |
Hansard Thursday, 8 March 2007
QUEENSLAND LIBERAL PARTY, ELECTORAL ALLOWANCES
Mr LAWLOR (Southport-ALP) (10.24 am):
Ever since the first details of Printgate became public knowledge on Monday, two people have been running interference trying to mislead the media and the community. The Liberal Party state director, Geoff Greene, and the ever helpful member for Moreton, Gary Hardgrave, have a common and vested interest in misleading the media into believing, firstly, it is only a trivial matter and, secondly, there is only one MP involved, and that is the member for Bowman. Mr Hardgrave went on 4BC on Tuesday and said that his involvement, including the Federal Police executing search warrants on his electoral office, was 'just incidental'. He has been peddling the line as fast as he can that the whole rort just involves Andrew Laming.
As the Australian revealed this morning, the warrant served on Hardgrave accuses him of being involved in fraud against the Commonwealth with regard to the employment of electoral staff. He knew precisely what the allegations were against him. Despite that, he called a press conference on Tuesday and then went on 4BC and told deliberate lies, and he did so to protect his own hide and that of the Liberal Party state director, Geoff Greene. But his efforts have failed and the spotlight today is not only on the member for Bowman but also on Hardgrave, Greene, the member for Bonner, Ross Vasta, and also the member for Dickson, Peter Dutton. But the person who has most to answer and most to hide is Geoff Greene, who is well and unfavourably known to most state members and Liberal candidates-he got the campaign printing done for nothing and he is now trying to recover what should have been paid from these suckers over here.
Mr ACTING SPEAKER: Order! That is unparliamentary.
Mr LAWLOR: I said 'suckers', Mr Acting Speaker.
Mr ACTING SPEAKER: Order! That is unparliamentary. Please withdraw.
Mr LAWLOR: I withdraw. The 'won't pays' over here won't pay for
Willprint. Greene has been telling the media publicly and backgrounding the media that Printgate involves only the member for Bowman. That is a lie and he knows it is a lie. The reason that Greene has been holding up diversion signs all week is that he has been the architect and manager of Printgate and he controls the ordering of printing and schedules it not according to members' needs but according to the Liberal Party needs. Not only do the taxpayers fund the Liberal Party through the public funding arrangements; they fund it through the scam orchestrated by Geoff Greene and the Liberal Party office.
The member for Moggill needs to muster whatever courage he has and demand that Greene stand aside. It is outrageous that the official at the centre of the whole scam is demanding that Laming resign and
is still putting pressure on Liberal members in this House to pay for the last state election printing bill- printing that cost the Liberal Party nothing! Another Liberal Party identity who has some serious explaining to do is Santo Santoro.
Time expired. Last changed: [PUBLISHED_DATE] at 1:06 PM
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