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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2441 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this will take a little more time than normal; but it is necessary, due to the seriousness of the issue. It is just one page. It continues:

This means it was hand-delivered. I have the envelope and would be happy to show it to you for corroboration if you wish. Was this at your instruction, I wonder? I doubt it.

I checked this morning with your assistant -

the person is named, but I do not think it is necessary for me to do so -

(who was very helpful, I hasten to add). She shared my concern. She said that your Inquiry simply does not have postal facilities, and sends the mail to the Chief Minister's Department to post.

The reality is that by the simple ruse of not providing you with postal facilities the Chief Minister's Department is able to monitor precisely every person you write to! Am I kidding? No.

Last night I had a phone call from -

the person is named; I shall not name him, although I am happy to table this letter for Assembly members to read -

of the Chief Minister's personal staff. He gave an apparently cogent reason for ringing me - we had spoken about one month before. However, I was intrigued, but it was only after his call that I realised something fishy was going on. That was when I checked your letter and realised it had been hand-delivered to my home. The hand-delivery is of itself not important, but the fact that the Chief Minister's Department knows that you are writing to me is. As many people may have put their personal and professional reputations on the line in coming forward to make a submission to your Inquiry, I believe this warrants immediate and high-level investigation. I am not particularly concerned for myself as I have no confidential information to protect, but other people may do. If it happened to me, it could have happened to anyone. By monitoring your mail they can have a full list of all the people who made submissions to your Inquiry. If they asked you for that list - would you give it to them?

Before I decided to make a submission to you I studied the Inquiries Act 1991, and took comfort from section 17.

I can read to you section 17, if members would like. The letter continues:

Now you know why many citizens were concerned at Mr Walker appointing his trusted aide as Secretary to your Inquiry. See how easily the protection offered by the Act has been bypassed.

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