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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 868 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

At the beginning of the inquiry the committee noted two things, the first being that the inquiry be undertaken and any submissions considered without a specific reference to recent events, namely, the case of Marshall v. De Domenico and the ACT. Accordingly, this limited the inquiry to considering the development of appropriate guidelines for the granting of legal assistance to members in general.

The second thing the committee noted was that it should limit the span of its attention. We considered the matter to be a parliamentary matter rather than a public one and consequently did not advertise for submissions or hold public hearings. The committee did ask for and receive submissions from our own Attorney-General and the Speaker of this Assembly, as well as from various representatives of the Commonwealth Parliament, State and Territory parliaments and the New Zealand Parliament.

After considering submissions, the committee agreed upon presenting to the Assembly nine recommendations. In doing so, the committee noted that the issue of providing legal assistance to politicians is nearly always sensitive and may involve significant public expense. It was also clear to the committee from the submissions received that the standard practice of Australian and New Zealand parliaments is that it is up to the government of the day, not a committee of the parliament, to develop guidelines for the provision of legal assistance.

The recommendations of this report are divided into two groups. In the first group, recommendation No. 1 is that the Government develop appropriate guidelines, and then refer those guidelines to the Assembly for consideration. In the second group are recommendations Nos 2 to 9, in which the committee outlines a number of factors the Government needs to consider when developing these guidelines. Some of these factors are questions yet to be finalised by other parliaments, factors such as whether legal assistance should include the payment of costs for damages. During this inquiry the committee was very impressed with the New Zealand model and suggests that this would make a good starting point for the Government.

Another important point for the Government to consider is that the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee is conducting a similar inquiry into the provision of legal assistance to Commonwealth members of parliament and is yet to report. I believe that this Senate report will also be able to assist the Government in developing its guidelines.

I would like to thank the other members of the committee for their input into this inquiry - the former committee members, Trevor Kaine and Rosemary Follett; and the current members, Bill Wood and Harold Hird. Finally, I would like to pay special thanks to our committee secretary, Beth Irvin, who once again did a great job with this report. This is a unanimous report, and I commend it to the Assembly.

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