Michael Gunner says he has reinforced to caucus his values and the importance of honesty

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner’s statement in the ­Sunday Territorian today goes some way to ­clarifying the goings-on before his government’s ­biggest scandal so far

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner’s statement in the ­Sunday Territorian today goes some way to ­clarifying the goings-on before his government’s ­biggest scandal so far.

Mr Gunner, who is under siege from the public over his handling of the matter, has finally gone into some real detail to clarify the timeline of events prior to Blain MLA Mark Turner’s admission of an extramarital affair on Wednesday night. According to an angry Mr Gunner, both Mr Turner and the staffer who resigned had lied when first confronted with the allegations, that were dubbed “rumour and innuendo” at the time.

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There is no evidence that either of them engaged in criminal activity but given they were both part of the Gunner Government team, they clearly forgot their “open and transparent” mantra when confronted.

Whatever initial investigation took place by Labor staffers into the rumours, it is clear they should have dug deeper and they would have been ahead of this scandal, rather than making the entire government look incompetent.

There are many layers of blame for the way this scandal has played out for the government but the big lesson for everyone is that lying doesn’t pay.

Mr Gunner, in today’s statement, says he has reinforced to caucus his values and the importance of honesty.

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It is up to each and every one of his team of ministers and staffers to abide by this so Territorians have appropriate confidence in them to be our government.

So if anyone has anything to reveal that may or may not be related to the cocaine sex scandal, now is the time to speak up. Because if you don’t, you have seen how brutal the fallout can be when you’re running behind a scandal rather than in front of it.

Regardless of how this has played out, it has caused ­enormous damage to both the Labor Party and Gunner Government brands. Both entities have a long road ahead to gain back people’s trust.

They can only hope that trust isn’t lost forever.