Page 2211 - Week 08 - Thursday, 10 September 1992
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Mr Berry: It is the same as your policy when you were in government.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it is not. I am glad that you said that. Mr Berry says that it is the same policy as the Alliance Government had when it was in office. That is not so.
Mr Berry: Isn't it?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it is not. Let us look at the document Ms Follett tabled this morning. This is the policy of the Alliance Government when it was in office:
Requests for information are usually made through the responsible Minister, but it is recognised that direct approaches to officials for routine factual information on constituency matters, are traditional and appropriate.
In any event, an official should inform the Agency Head of any request for information and the response, and inform the Minister of any matter which is likely to involve him or her.
What did this minute to members of the Attorney-General's Department say the other day? It said:
(a) requests to officers of the A.C.T. Government Service ... from non-Executive Members of the Legislative Assembly for information ... should be directed to the office of the relevant Minister; and
(b) that the office of the relevant Minister be kept informed of any occasion where publicly available factual information is provided to non-Executive members of the Legislative Assembly.
That, Mr Berry, is different. On every occasion that one of us makes a request for information, no matter how mundane - even a request about library opening hours - your office or the office of the relevant Minister has to be informed. That was not what happened during the time of the Alliance Government.
Mr Berry: Then we can ring you straightaway and see whether we can help you out. We rang you to try to help you out. You did not want to be helped.
MR HUMPHRIES: Do not try to distort the situation and mislead. What happened in the Alliance Government's time is not what happens now. We now have a government which is not an open government; it is a government of reaction. It reacts to what we do, it reacts to what the public says, and the reaction is usually, "Let's close down the shutters".
Mr Lamont: Mr Deputy Speaker, Mr Humphries was obviously quoting extensively from documents. I ask that those documents be tabled.
MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Follett tabled them this morning, but I will table them again very happily.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Humphries.
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