Pollies need to stop referring people and just work … writes Matt Cunningham

Parliament is always a bit of a circus. But it was a three-ringed special this week and things hit a new low … writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

PARLIAMENT is always a bit of a circus. But it was a three-ringed special this week. Things reached a new low when the Labor government referred Barkly MLA Steve Edgington to the privileges committee over allegations he had falsely taken credit for houses built in remote parts of his electorate.

Mr Edgington’s alleged wrongdoing (and given the extra­ordinary powers of the privileges committee, “alleged wrongdoing” is not an exaggeration) was to deny he was a liar after Remote Housing Minister Chansey Paech levelled the allegation at him over a series of Facebook posts.

It’s hard to believe but this is the sort of thing our highly paid elected representatives occupy their time with in the ridiculously extravagant building that is our Parliament House.

Mr Edgington had claimed the houses were the result of the Barkly Regional Deal, which, in his former role as Barkly mayor he helped negotiate with the federal government.

MLA Steve Edgington. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

Mr Paech says he’s wrong and the houses were built by the NT government. Either way, it’s an argument in semantics given more than 70 per cent of the NT’s revenue comes directly from the ­commonwealth.

But Mr Paech believed this was important enough to refer the matter to privileges. The Attorney-General Selena Uibo spoke in support, describing the matter as “very serious”, and the Labor sheep fell in line and voted in support. It’s now likely days will be spent having a quasi-judicial body examine whether Mr Edgington was telling porkies. The only winners will be the lawyers hired to represent him, who will be paid for by the taxpayer. The matter will then be decided by the privileges committee, which is stacked 3-2 in Labor’s favour. On MIX FM on Friday the committee’s chair, Natasha Fyles, said she believed Mr Edgington had misled the parliament, which he no doubt ­vehemently denies.

Schapelle Corby probably had a better chance of being ­declared innocent.

But if exaggerations of the truth are now hanging offences, it may pay to look at some of the government’s efforts. Only this week Ms Fyles made this accusation of the CLP: “They scrapped the BDR overnight and the rivers of grog flowed and our community bore the harm of that.” In March 2014 the ABC fact-checked this claim and found it “does not present the full ­picture”.

Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps Chansey Paech. Picture: Che Chorley

Attorney-General Selena Uibo. Picture: Che Chorley

It actually found “the register did not stop the long-term increasing trend in alcohol-­related emergency presentations”. Anyone who’s been paying attention to the massive recent increases in alcohol-related harm would understand that the BDR has had almost no impact in reducing this harm. That didn’t stop Labor describing it as the “No. 1 tool” to address the problem before its reintroduction in 2017. Perhaps the privileges committee should examine these claims?

Also this week, Environment Minister Eva Lawler claimed the government’s 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 would save Territorians $30m each year. The government has an independent report – completed by economists at a cost of $220,000 – that literally tells them the opposite is true. Economists HoustonKemp found the extra cost would be between $25m and $29m.

Deputy Chief Minister and former treasurer Nicole Manison spent years telling the parliament our dire budget situation was because of GST “cuts” imposed by Canberra, even though our relative share of the GST pool has continued to increase. And only last month Chief Minister Michael Gunner was calling the CLP anti-vaxxers even though they’re all fully vaccinated.

It might pay our politicians to remember some wise words that were once ­spoken inside our parliament.

“As legislators we are here to tell the truth even when it is difficult and we do not want to have those conversations.

“It is not OK to lie; it is not OK to peddle lies. It is not OK to present misinformation and mistruths to Territorians, ­because they deserve better.”

Those words belong to Chansey Paech and Selena Uibo. And if they’re looking for examples of those standards being breached, perhaps they should start by looking at their own cabinet.