Page 3910 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I believe, Madam Speaker, that it is the duty of every ACT Government Service employee to report fraud, corruption or maladministration. Arguably, it is the duty of every citizen to do so as well. There are mechanisms already available for investigating these kinds of allegations. In most cases detection of these activities would not involve access to restricted information. Therefore, disclosure would not incur a penalty, unless, of course, the allegations were libellous and compensation was pursued through the common law.
The Government's whistleblower legislation model is based on the recommendations of the Gibbs committee and it provides a model that it has adapted to this Territory. It was developed in the administrative law framework of the Commonwealth, which, as members will know, the Territory has closely followed. The Government chose to follow this approach on the grounds that the knowledge and the expertise of a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia would be hard to better. Of course, Mrs Carnell thinks differently. I am prepared to go with the Chief Justice.
Madam Speaker, Mrs Carnell also has claimed that the Public Interest Disclosure Bill is also based on the Gibbs report. I am not sure why she believes this. Perhaps it is another one of her off-the-top-of-her-head statements. The fact of the matter is that some of the provisions in Mrs Carnell's Bill are directly opposed to the recommendations of that report - a fact that seems to have escaped her. For example, on the issue of coverage, while the Public Sector Management Act limits coverage to public servants and government contractors, both past and present, I might say, the Public Interest Disclosure Bill covers anybody who wishes to make the disclosure. Mrs Carnell has included that despite the following comment in the Gibbs report, and I will quote from it - - -
Mrs Carnell: It is, by the way, the recommendation of our committee.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I would be grateful if you would call Mrs Carnell to order. I quote:
... in regard to a proposal that there should be a general ... law directed to protecting any person who reports to the authorities commission of any ... offence or any conduct alleged to be harmful to the public health or safety ... it could be said that institution of such a system of protected informers is usually one of the first steps of a totalitarian society.
That is what Mrs Carnell has put forward, though. Madam Speaker, the Government supports the notion that whistleblower protection measures should come into play only when making allegations involves disclosure of restricted information - information which would not normally be openly available - and where the act of disclosure would render the person making the allegations liable to criminal or disciplinary punishment. Such people, almost by definition, would be only government employees or contractors.
The differences from the report of the Gibbs committee, Madam Speaker, do not stop there. The Public Interest Disclosure Bill also legislates for absolute privilege as a defence against any civil action. Not only does this go against the recommendations of the Gibbs report; it also creates an anomaly within the Territory's defamation laws.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .