Page 378 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 10 February 2021
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see from a tripartisan point of view that all the members for Yerrabi want to see the town centre continue to flourish and grow.
How we get there is a bit, I think, debatable. But I think we are on the right path in bringing everyone together. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the ministry, on the backbench and in opposition to make sure that we are doing everything we can for our town centre now and into the future.
Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.
Sitting suspended from 12.01 to 2.00 pm.
Questions without notice
ACT public service—integrity
MS LEE: My question is to the Chief Minister. I refer to the ACT Integrity Commission’s 2019-20 annual report, which identified “conflicts of interest”, “records management” and “undeclared relationships and associations” as potential corruption trends within the ACT public service. The report found that public servants involved in major procurement decisions were “rarely required” to declare that they did not have a conflict of interest, and that conflicts of interest were “poorly understood and regularly mismanaged”. Chief Minister, to combat these potential corruption trends, will you order your directorate and agencies to make conflict of interest declarations a mandatory component of any key decision-making process?
MR BARR: I have no problem with that in principle. There is already a process within the ACT public service, and obviously part of the role of the Integrity Commission that we all supported was an educative process. I am pleased that the commission has drawn this matter to the attention of the Assembly and I have no problem with the direction of action that it outlined. I believe it is already largely in place, but if we need to do more, I am happy to do so.
MS LEE: Chief Minister, what action will you take to ensure that conflicts of interest are no longer “poorly understood and regularly mismanaged”?
MR BARR: We put in place the Integrity Commission, voted for it, provided resources for it and continue a process of it supporting agencies to undertake their tasks on behalf of the people of Canberra with the utmost integrity. Every member of this place is obliged by personal leadership to focus on integrity. We have members of this place who are on the committee that provides oversight. We have standards. We have a very extensive process. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for raising it. We are very happy to do what more we can to stamp out any corruption in the ACT public sector.
MRS JONES: Chief Minister, what exactly was missing that created the situation in which conflicts of interest under your watch have been “poorly understood and regularly mismanaged”?
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