Page 2998 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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While I accept the Committee's view that certain commercial information should be allowed to be given in confidence -
and this takes up the point that Mr Connolly made -
I cannot accept that allegations made by individuals or organisations are within this category. Such allegations could be given credence without the person or persons involved being given the opportunity to defend themselves.
So they could, but they were not. The committee did not rely for its findings on any of the evidence that was given to it in camera, and we did not accept allegations. In fact, I made it clear to the Minister that the committee held severe reservations about some of the allegations that were made and that we did not support those allegations. None of our recommendations were based on them. Finally, Ms Ellis said:
I therefore cannot agree with my fellow committee members that we reject and regret the Attorney-General's statement, -
that was about the credibility of these witnesses -
as I believe that allegations received in this way should be able to be defended, or categorically disregarded.
They were categorically disregarded, Ms Ellis. If you read the minute that I wrote to the Minister on this matter, you will see that we did categorically disregard those allegations. So, I think it is unreasonable for you now, in a dissenting report, to raise the issue as though it had some impact on the committee.
Let me turn briefly to some of the comments that Mrs Grassby made. She talked about political outcomes and said:
The Committee was totally obsessed by the Burmah contract and paperwork from the Attorney-General's Department. It demonstrated its ignorance of business arrangements and paid scant regard to part (ii) of its terms of reference ...
Mrs Grassby, that simply is not true. It is all right for you to assert it; but it simply is not true. I can only assume that you believe that you are the only member on the committee who understands business. That is not true either. I have been in business. I have managed businesses. Speaking for myself, I have done a lot of things in my lifetime, and I do not accept your assertion that I am ignorant of business arrangements. I do not believe that we paid scant regard to part (ii) of our terms of reference either. Mrs Grassby said:
The Committee blindly accepted that costs were "just higher" in the ACT for service station operators and hardly sought to test their relative efficiency.
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