PRM EA NVUI S 73 ER
PRESS STATEINENT NO. 574
14 October 1975
MR CONNOR
Today I advised the Governor-General to accept
the resignation of Rex Connor as Minister for Minerals
and Energy. I took this course in order to uphold a precise
and fundamental principle of parliamentary government.
The principle is that the Parliament must be able to
accept assurances given to it by a minister, and if
those assurances prove to be misleading, the minister.
concerned must be held responsible.
Last Thursday, in answer to a question from the
Deputy Leader of the Opposition, I gave a written reply:
" I am assured by the Minister for Minerals and Energy
that all coiminications of substance between him and
Mr Khemlani were tabled by him on 9 July 1.975."
Yesterday I received from solicitors in Melbourne
a copy of a statutory declaration signed by Mr Khemlani
and copies of a number of telex messages between Mr Khemlani's
office in London and the office of the Minister for Minerals
and Energy. In my judgment these messages did constitute
" communications of substance" between the Minister and
Mr Kheiulani. I was therefore driven to conclude that I had been
misled by Mr Connor and that, in consequence, my own
answer to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition had been
misleading. It was in these circumstances that I advised
the Governor-General to accept M4r Connor' s resignation.
I have made it clear throughout the life of this
Government that there is one standard which, if departed
from, must carry the heaviest penalty. It is a principle
on which the integrity of Parliament itself depends.
There was, I believe, a departure from that principle.
I want to make the clearest possible distinction
between the conduct of Rex Connor in his capacity as
Minister, the manner in which he fulfilled his duties,
including all his involvement in overseas loan raisings
and this one precise principle. It is not the contents
of those telex messages . which constitutes-any . breach
of'propriety. It . was his failureto tell me about them.
It is because that failure led to a-breach of parliamentary
standards last week that I accepted the resignation of
! the Minister. At no time has there been any allegation of
improper conduct, of dishonest conduct, of reprehensible
conduct,-of illegal or corrupt conduct by any member
of the Government. No such allegation or charges were
made at the special sitting to discuss this matter on
-9 July. ' No such charges were made in the Senate for all
the Senate's abuse of Parliamentary privilege.
No such charges are made now. My own painful duty in this
matter has been twice to defend and preserve a great
and fundamental-parliamentary convention. It is
because of my insistence on preserving . such standards and
conventions that a great minister . and a close . friend
and colleague has fallen.
CANBERRA, A. C. T.