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PRIME MINISTER PRESS STATEMENT NO. 532
17 July 1975
SENATE INTERROGATION
S three daTyhse hoapvpeo sibteeino n'dse plaocrtaibolnes. in Int hea n Seenxaetrec isoev ert hetyhe past
knew would achieve nothing they subjected senior and
respected public servants to an unnecessary and humiliating
experience. They tried to turn the Senate into a Star
Chamber. They made a mockery of proper parliamentary
practices. The Opposition knew on Tuesday that senior
public servants would be protected from harassment about
activities for which they bore no responsibility. Public
servants advise Ministers; Ministers alone are responsible
for the Government's actions.
Rlaying failed to persuade public.; servants to disobey
their instructions, the Opposition is now turning its might
on private citizens.
It has called Mr Karidis, an Adelaide builder, to
appear before it on Tuesday. Would it then call Mr Harris,
the Melbourne dentist? It seems unlikely, because Mr
Harris, has had dealings not only with Mr Lynch,
according to published affidavits, but also, whether the
Victorian Premier knows or admits it or not, with the
Chairman of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of
Works, Mr Croxford, and the head of the Melbourne
Underground Rail Loop Authority, Mr Roscoe.
The Opposition is hell-bent on finding evidence of
misconduct by the Government. The Government's opponents
have resorted to the use of confidence men, men with
histories of mental instability and crooks to uncover
evidence of Government misconduct but they have failed.
They bill find no evidence because the Government has done
nothing which is illegal or improper.
All relevant documents concerning the loans have been
tabled in Parliament. They don't suit the Opposition because
they do not support their innuendoes of impropriety. So
the opposition chooses to ignore the facts in its mindless
and desperate search for headlines. / 2
0 2.
The activities of the Senate, in the past three
days, have wasted the time of senior public servants
and produced nothing of value. They have already
delayed the Government's work on this year's Budget,
a Budget which will be one of the most important
to be brought down since the War. The Cabinet and its
Committees could not get on with the job of framing
the Budget while Senate Ministers and senior officials
were tied down in the Opposition's fruitless continuation
of the Senate sitting.
Although the Opposition was told repeatedly that
public servants had been ordered not to answer questions,
it proceeded with the farce of questioning them knowing
they would not answer. The Opposition's aim was clear:
0 it wanted to attack the Government by attacking the
public servants. As the Leader of the Opposition said
in one of his revealing asides to Government members,
" It's you fellows I want not them. And I'll get you".
But Senator Withers and his colleagues are not prepared
to attack the Government directly. They have asked many
questions in the Parliament, most of which have already
been answered, and the remainder of which will be.
They are not prepared to use proper parliamentary
forms. They have still not formulated any charges
against the Government.
CANBERRA, A. C. T.