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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 260 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

on the record as having said. In that quote I have just given you, Ms Rees is saying that advice by members of the administration to successive governments has not been honest, that is, it has been dishonest; people who are public servants have intentionally lied to the government of the day.

Has Mr Moore ever made that sort of accusation? He has certainly accused public servants of being careless on occasions and questioned the validity of advice. He has never, to my mind, though, accused public servants of being dishonest, and I would hope that without evidence he would not do so. If Mr Moore made that accusation in this place, he would be called upon to produce his evidence of that, but Ms Rees has not done that. A further quote from Ms Rees's submission to the Stein inquiry is:

There is a perception that public officials can, and do, use "inside information" on redevelopment plans for personal profit and that political appointments to statutory boards are not always at sufficient arm's length from vested interests to give the community confidence in the integrity of decision-making.

Mr Berry: This was before she was appointed.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed they were, Mr Speaker. The question is: Who in this place has made the accusation that public officials have used inside information for personal profit? Mr Moore certainly has not. Nobody on that side of the chamber has. We never have made that accusation. It would be a very serious allegation indeed. Why is it different if Ms Rees makes the accusation? Why is a defence available to her?

Mr Moore: She says there is a perception of it, Gary. You just read that: There is a perception of it.

MR HUMPHRIES: You cannot make those sorts of claims without going to the nub of what you are suggesting. The suggestion of corruption is there, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: There is a public perception, of course, and I will say there is a public perception. There has been for years. Why did a certain senior public servant make so much money out of property development while he was in charge of the leasehold system just prior to self-government?

MR HUMPHRIES: I think what we have here, Mr Speaker, goes well beyond that, and Mr Moore knows that it goes well beyond that. It is the sort of thing that demands explanation and justification if it is made. If Mr Moore made these claims, he would justify them, but that is not what Ms Rees has done. From Ten News on 18 November:

It is tragic that the Federal Government is withdrawing from Canberra. But we are not going to attract them back by the kind of skulduggery, the third rate, indeed the tenth rate decision making, the appalling run down administration, by the clowns who are in the Legislative Assembly.

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