❓ Question regarding alleged pressure from the Minister's office for the WAFIC chair to resign, and the Minister's subsequent phone call to address the issue. The Minister denies direct involvement and apologises if offence was taken.
AnsweredQoN 993Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
JOHN NEWBY — Western Australian FISHING INDUSTRY COUNCIL
I refer to the claim by Mr Newby, the soon-to-be former chair of the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council, that the minister’s chief of staff had left a message on his phone that suggested that the minister wanted him to resign from his position in WAFIC. (1) Did the minister ring the WAFIC chairman, John Newby, today? (2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE
I refer to the claim by Mr Newby, the soon-to-be former chair of the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council, that the minister’s chief of staff had left a message on his phone that suggested that the minister wanted him to resign from his position in WAFIC. (1) Did the minister ring the WAFIC chairman, John Newby, today? (2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(1) Did the minister ring the WAFIC chairman, John Newby, today? (2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(1) Did the minister ring the WAFIC chairman, John Newby, today? (2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(2) If yes to (1), why has the minister left it until today to talk to Mr Newby? (3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(3) If no to (1), why has the minister not phoned Mr Newby? Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon NORMAN MOORE replied: I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
I thank the member for the question. A question was asked yesterday by the member’s colleague, in very similar terms to this. Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon Sue Ellery : No; it was different. Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
Hon NORMAN MOORE : Well, congratulations! (1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
(1)-(3) I rang Mr Newby today. I have to say that Mr Newby has made the public allegation that he has made calls to my office and they have not been returned. I have made a thorough check of that, and he has not called my office. Mr Newby has made his own judgements about his own future. I rang Mr Newby—having for the first time learnt from the media, not from him, of this so-called message being left on his phone—to explain to him the version that I have had explained to me in respect of that particular message. I have said to Mr Newby that if he has taken offence and believes that somehow or other my chief of staff thinks that he should be relinquishing his role as chair of WAFIC, I apologise on behalf of my office. But that is not my position. Indeed, Mr Newby is the chair of WAFIC. It is a decision of WAFIC as to whether he remains the chair and is re-elected at its annual general meeting. I do not know why the member is asking this question about who made phone calls to whom. I would have thought that this house has more important things to do than discuss who rang who on what day, but I guess that is an understandable state of affairs. I made a statement to the house yesterday about the circumstances surrounding WAFIC. I do not resile from the fact that the government wants WAFIC to lift its game. The WAFIC board has been told by me that if it wants the government to continue to collect money from fishermen compulsorily to give to WAFIC so that it can spend that money on its representative role, it really does need to do a better job. There are some very serious issues that WAFIC needs to be looking at. Those issues relate to the whole fishing industry, not just the component parts that currently dominate the discussions of WAFIC. The people on WAFIC spend half their lives arguing with each other about where the money should go and to which particular sector. I am saying to WAFIC, “You can have all the money, provided you work out how to represent the industry better than you are doing now.” Mr Newby understands that and probably agrees—in fact does agree—as do many other people in the fishing industry. I would have thought that instead of going to the puerile level of asking who rang who today, and why or why not, the member might have lifted his game a bit and started talking about the bigger issues.
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