Isabel Hayes
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has lied to the public about her intentions to shut down parliament, Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell says.
Comments made by Treasurer Eric Roozendaal proved Ms Keneally lied when she denied her decision to prorogue parliament was an attempt to kill off the upper house inquiry into the $5.3 billion electricity sale, Mr O’Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
“Like some character out of the Griswolds’ Family Christmas, Eric Roozendaal’s arrived back in town just to destroy the premier’s claim that parliament wasn’t shut down to stop this parliamentary inquiry,” Mr O’Farrell said, referring to the National Lampoon film.
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News Ltd reported on Friday that Mr Roozendaal had admitted parliament had been closed early to scuttle the inquiry.
“It has been prorogued early, it has been prorogued later (before past elections) but at the end of the day we have got to work in the interests of the people of NSW,” Mr Roozendaal was reported as saying.
Mr O’Farrell said Mr Roozendaal’s comments proved Ms Keneally had lied to the public.
“This is just a new low that Kristina Keneally has sunk to,” he said.
“First, a power sale where she refuses to divulge the details; secondly, rejecting a judicial inquiry; thirdly, trying to close the parliament down and fourthly, lying about the reasons for that closure.”
“There are meant to be some standards that are attached to the office of premier and I have to say Kristina Keneally has failed them overnight and that has been confirmed by Eric Roozendaal, her most senior supporter.”
The state government was accused this week of trying to derail the upper house inquiry into the part-privatisation of publicly owned electricity assets, after Governor Marie Bashir prorogued parliament two months earlier than expected.
Ms Keneally said on Thursday that the inquiry would be illegal and witnesses would not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
As a result, three Labor MPs boycotted a parliamentary committee meeting that day to draft the terms of reference for the inquiry into the contentious partial privatisation.
However, the government’s attempts to kill off the inquiry backfired after the clerk of the upper house, Lynn Lovelock, advised the committee’s chair – Christian Democrat Fred Nile – there was nothing to stop the inquiry going ahead.
Source: www.smh.com.au
