Page 2350 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, on the point of order; Mr Stevenson is not adhering to your ruling.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you. I recognise that he was concluding the last few words of that statement, Mr Humphries. Please proceed, Mr Stevenson.
MR STEVENSON: Indeed, the other matter that was said to be sub judice is not sub judice either - and that is the matter of the Merit Protection and Review Agency. It is not a judicial - - -
Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. I think that your ruling has clearly established that we are not debating issues of sub judice; we are debating the substantive matters outlined in the matter of public importance. I ask you to bring Mr Stevenson to order.
MR SPEAKER: Please, Mr Stevenson, I would ask you to address the MPI before the house, not what happened elsewhere.
MR STEVENSON: I am concerned about it because the wording of the MPI talks about the lack of investigation into these matters by the Attorney-General, Bernard Collaery, who first of all tried to prevent the MPI being heard by jumping over it and secondly tried to prevent it going ahead by making a false statement in this house. When someone comes along to you, as Mr Albrighton, a shift supervisor at the Belconnen Remand Centre, came to me, it is very important that you have an understanding of whether or not that person is telling you the truth.
During the last three months I have had a number of occasions to talk to Mr Albrighton and I believe indeed that he is telling the truth, while obviously some other people are not. I have a document here signed by 23 people - their signatures were collected in January and February of this year - which states:
We, the undersigned officers of Belconnen Remand Centre, wish to express our concern over the transferring out of the centre of Mr Barry Albrighton. The officers whose signatures appear below have worked with Mr Albrighton for going on a year or just over and a number of us have worked for him for nearly three years. During this time we have always found Mr Albrighton to be competent in his duties as senior officer of the Remand Centre.
They go on to talk about the good relationship he has with other people. So that bears out what I believe from my discussions with him. He said that last September he contacted Mr Stefaniak, and later Mr Collaery, to try to get assistance in handling what he alleges are grievous injustices. He said that no assistance that resulted in anything was forthcoming. Indeed, he said he wrote to Mr Collaery and has not received a letter.
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