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Speaker 1: Sky News this morning reporting that Labor MP Marion Scrimjaw's

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Speaker 1: announced that she's going to be seeking legal advice over

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Speaker 1: what she's described as outrageous corruption claims leveled against her

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Speaker 1: by Independent Senator Lydia Thorpe earlier this month. On June seven,

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Speaker 1: Senator Thorpe used an estimates hearing to grill members of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Land Council, of which Marion Scrimjaw was formerly CEO,

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Speaker 1: of allegations that COVID stimulus grants were misused to benefit

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Speaker 1: the Member for Lingiari. Now, amongst some of these claims

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Speaker 1: put forward by the Senator under parliamentary privilege was that

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Speaker 1: the NLC had provided advice to Miss Scrimjaw about using

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Speaker 1: grants to garner support and all sorts of things. According Well,

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Speaker 1: this was what Senator Lydia Thorpe had claimed. Now Marion Scrimjaw,

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Speaker 1: the Federal Member Felingiari, joins me on the line.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Marion.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Jadie.

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Speaker 2: How are you not too bad? Now?

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Speaker 1: What these comments made by Senator Thorpe are pro see wild?

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Speaker 1: What was your reaction when she used a parliamentary privilege

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Speaker 1: to start making them?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I look pretty outraged, Katie, to say quietly, I was.

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Speaker 3: I was, you know, absolutely stunned. But you know, to

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Speaker 3: have accusations leveled at you for corruption, not in this job,

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Speaker 3: but a previous job which I had left two years

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Speaker 3: before that to say that I had used my position

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Speaker 3: to benefit particularly members of my family, now that couldn't

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Speaker 3: be further from the truth. I made it clear. I

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Speaker 3: issued a statement, a full statement. I did a short

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Speaker 3: statement in Parliament on Monday which had flagged a legal

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Speaker 3: response that I would be doing. Senator thought now if

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Speaker 3: she'd have stayed within the confines of parliamentary privilege, that

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Speaker 3: was that would have been the only recourse I would

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Speaker 3: have had was to stand up and to provide an

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Speaker 3: explanation of parliament. And then, you know, have my reputation

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Speaker 3: absolutely tarnished and trashed both through the media but out

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Speaker 3: in the broader community. The malicious gossip and accusations is

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Speaker 3: something that you know has has certainly been distressing. I

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Speaker 3: did this short statement on Monday, and I've released a

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Speaker 3: more detailed statement now. In that more detailed statement, Katie,

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Speaker 3: and something I've never denied is that the area that

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Speaker 3: she's talking about my children are traditional owners of that country.

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Speaker 3: I have no absolutely no connection to that country. It

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Speaker 3: is not my country. It is you know, that's part

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Speaker 3: of a relationship that I had in the early nineties. Yep,

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Speaker 3: that relationship came to an end. I moved on, I remarried,

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Speaker 3: and I have for the last thirty two years worked

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Speaker 3: hard to try and you know, get and make things

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Speaker 3: better for Abriginal people on the ground. So it's been

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Speaker 3: a bit disheartening that I thought that the Land Council

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Speaker 3: would respond in a better way than what they've had,

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Speaker 3: but I'll leave that to them to respond. When I

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Speaker 3: went to the Land Council two years ago, the land

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Speaker 3: Council was done it to meet and I spent two

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Speaker 3: years fixing what was what people thought was going to

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Speaker 3: be irreparable, but reinstated good governance and clients and risk

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Speaker 3: frameworks in that place because I think that the land

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Speaker 3: councils are too important to fault. Now having said that,

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Speaker 3: now I will I have engaged lawyers. It's not whether

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Speaker 3: I'm considering it, Katie. I have engaged lawyers and a

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Speaker 3: concerned letter will be issued to Lydia's thought by the

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Speaker 3: end of this week outlining the allegations. Now she's taken

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Speaker 3: some of those posts down from social media, but we've

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Speaker 3: got copies of what she said. It's a little bit

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Speaker 3: too late. And look, I'm not going to say I

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Speaker 3: thought the last interview, i'd deal with you, because I

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Speaker 3: you know, I've always had a lot of time and

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Speaker 3: things for you, Katie. I thought, both you and Matt Cunningham,

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Speaker 3: I'll do those interviews and then I won't be talking

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Speaker 3: about any further about this because it will end up

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Speaker 3: in a legal process and it's probably better not to

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Speaker 3: say anything further about that because she'll once she gets

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Speaker 3: a concern that she'll have, it'll then be you know,

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Speaker 3: the book will be in her court to respond back.

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Speaker 1: I mean some of what she's said, though, Marian Like,

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Speaker 1: it is, like I said, right from the get go,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty wild. She seems to get away with saying,

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Speaker 1: like making a lot of accusations about other people and

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Speaker 1: and not really facing consequence for making those accusations.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, she.

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Speaker 2: Never has Katie.

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Speaker 3: And most people might giggle and laugh and think that

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Speaker 3: it's you know, she's amusing's a she's a wildfire. She's

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Speaker 3: a wild brand, you know people. But I'm sorry this

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Speaker 3: is this is my livelihood and I've worked too long

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Speaker 3: in half to be brought down by trashy gossip and

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Speaker 3: rumormongering because someone has a b for me. Now, I

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Speaker 3: didn't get to the point in my life without knowing

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Speaker 3: that I've annoyed and I've pissed people off along the way, Katie.

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Speaker 3: I know that I've done that and I haven't. You know,

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Speaker 3: whilst I have a lot of you know, colleagues and

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Speaker 3: friends and people I've developed professional relationships with, I know

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Speaker 3: that there are people that I've fallen out with along

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Speaker 3: the way. But these are issues that the Northern lank

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Speaker 3: Council will need to address themselves. You know what happened

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Speaker 3: and how did that information get lead? What's this process?

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Speaker 3: Because when I left the Northern Lane Council, that was

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Speaker 3: everything was in place, there were a and AO audits

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Speaker 3: and self done. I left the Land Council feeling pretty

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Speaker 3: proud of my time in the Land Council. To have

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Speaker 3: corruption and abuse labeled. You know that this is what

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Speaker 3: I did, including not just building a holiday home Katie,

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Speaker 3: for you know, for my family that's the k home

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Speaker 3: is on the t wee. My home's on the TI

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Speaker 3: we Island. It's certainly not on this twenty Hiels station.

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Speaker 3: The second thing is I've never denied that my children

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Speaker 3: don't have an interest in that country. Now, whatever they do,

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Speaker 3: they're all in their forties, they're not little kids. That's

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Speaker 3: the life and what they choose to do. It's got

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Speaker 3: nothing to do with me. Now, I've asked the Northern

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Speaker 3: Lane Council so very clearly and categorically, I have ruled

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Speaker 3: out that I had anything to do with signing any

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Speaker 3: documents or approval. Katie. Now you know that will be

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Speaker 3: pursued through this legal process, and you know, I think

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Speaker 3: that needs to hurry up and proceed because I'm not

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Speaker 3: going to fight this issue through the media because, as

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Speaker 3: I said in my statement to Parliament, mudsticks. Once someone

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Speaker 3: puts it out there, it is really hard to come

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Speaker 3: back and to try and clarify for people, because if

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Speaker 3: people don't know you, then you know, the stories and

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Speaker 3: the you know, the gossip, you know, thing continue and

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Speaker 3: it's quite hurtful, but it's damaging to my kids as well,

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Speaker 3: who don't deserve I'm a public figure. They're not I

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Speaker 3: you know, I all stand for scrutiny, but they don't have.

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Speaker 1: To hey, Marian in terms of, like, obviously the legal

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Speaker 1: action being taken, could you lodge a defamation case against her?

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Speaker 2: Or what are your plans at this point?

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Speaker 3: So the concerns notice is the start of that, Katie.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 3: So the concerns notice will go through what she had

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Speaker 3: public on various social media sites where she took that

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Speaker 3: footage from within Senate estimates and then added commentary on

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Speaker 3: that on those social media sites. Now people should say, oh, well,

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Speaker 3: you're a politician, you should put up with it. I've

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Speaker 3: never been accused of corruption or mal administration, Katie, and

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Speaker 3: I take that quite seriously. I worked hard for the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory and that's what I'll continue to do.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like you've got some concerns there as well,

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Speaker 1: with the NLC not sort of coming out with some

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Speaker 1: clarifying statements.

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Speaker 2: Is that right?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Look, I think that even the NLC was probably caught

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Speaker 3: on the back foot. They do have an interim CEO

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Speaker 3: who needed that time, and I think she's taking that

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Speaker 3: time to look through those you know, what had happened

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Speaker 3: during that time, and you know that's their prerogative and

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Speaker 3: I'll leave that to them to go through and I'll

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Speaker 3: continue to pursue this other avenue because this is a

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Speaker 3: and I don't care what Lydia thought. Says Katie. She

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Speaker 3: is a senator for Victoria. She should stick to her

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Speaker 3: own patch. And while she says she's an independent senator

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Speaker 3: and she can do what she likes, she doesn't respect

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Speaker 3: the Institution of Australia. She is, but she likes using

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Speaker 3: this system to throw grenades and to absolutely do character assassinations.

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Speaker 3: Just not not only on me. She's done it to

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Speaker 3: Melandery McCarthy, She's done it to Linda Bernie. And it's funny.

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Speaker 3: So she seems to just target the Aboriginal women in

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Speaker 3: this Parliament to no one else.

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Speaker 2: Well, I was actually going to ask you.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she has taken aim at both you and

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Speaker 1: MELANDERI McCarthy in the past, obviously, as you've said, they're

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Speaker 1: Linda Bernie.

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Speaker 2: I mean, what do you think the issue is.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, I'm not gonna you know, I'm not going

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Speaker 3: to go into the the you know, what you know,

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Speaker 3: sen of the thoughts, mental state or what she thinks

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Speaker 3: and how she thinks. I think you know, that's up

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Speaker 3: for her to answer. I'm focused on you. Know, getting

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Speaker 3: the concerns letter, you know, working with my lawyers to

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Speaker 3: get the concerns letter to her. I'm hoping that we'll

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Speaker 3: be finalized by the end of this week and that'll

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Speaker 3: get served on her on Monday. Yep, if not, hopefully

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Speaker 3: by the end of this week, Katie. And that's that's

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Speaker 3: that's the process that it's happening. It's not that I'm

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Speaker 3: considering it. It will happen.

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Speaker 1: You're doing it well, remember Filingiari, Marion Scrimjaw, I always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time. I've got an email here from Peter

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Speaker 1: that's just come through. He said, hello again Katie and Crystal.

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Speaker 1: Having worked with Marion scrimdaw out in Kakadou and West

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Speaker 1: Aarnham in two thousand and three two thousand and four,

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Speaker 1: I can say she's probably the most genuine, honest and

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Speaker 1: caring politician the Northern Territory's got. So that one's just

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Speaker 1: come through from Pete and look, Marion, I always appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time. I thank you for coming on this morning

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Speaker 1: and talking us through this. And yeah we'll wait and

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Speaker 1: wait and see where to from here. No worries, thank you,

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Speaker 1: no worries.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much,