John Thorpe abuses Frank Sartor

In an interesting anecdote from hansard from the NSW Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, NSW Planning and Arts Minister Frank Sartor relates how John Thorpe AM from the NSW AHA abused him when the NSW Government were moving to introduce smoking bans in NSW Plubs (Plub = pub/club horrible carpet casino type vibe):

"Let me give two other examples. I have already spoken about how the Australian Hotels Association funds both political parties, yet when I was Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer) the Government introduced the smoking bans in pubs and clubs. I had a meeting with John Thorpe, who yelled at me for an hour. I said, "You yell at me longer than Harry Triguboff." Being the fragile, retiring person I am, I was very shocked by this attack from John Thorpe. We introduced smoking bans in this House because the public interest is much more important than this notion of funding for political parties. And we did it without fear or favour".

The Hansard makes for very interesting and amusing reading, as the feisty NSW Planning Minister gives opposition Planning spokesman Brad Hazzard a complete shellacking, including a very amusing anecdote about how the Liberal member for Tweed was to bring in one of their lobbyists to Sartors office, whose staffers then did their homework before the meeting, and found the Liberal party lobbyist had been mentioned by ICAC.