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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2819 ..

Mr Wood: For how long have you been there?

MR HUMPHRIES: You were there for longer than we have been here. Mr Speaker, my figures go back to June 1994. The graph begins about 25 officers below the level that we contracted for at that point in time. I have to assume that the graph probably continued to some point lower than that again before June of 1994, so the problem may have gone back a very long way. The question that needs to be asked, I suppose, is why it was not possible to pick up these sorts of issues in the way in which the reporting of police numbers occurred within government to successive governments in the Territory.

Mr Wood: Okay. What have you been doing?

MR HUMPHRIES: What I have done, Mr Speaker, is identify this problem. We have had regular reporting. In fact, since I have been - - -

Mr Wood: After I asked the question.

Mr Corbell: After we pointed it out.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I am not going to answer the question if I cannot be listened to. We initiated a process, when we came to government, of getting weekly reports on staffing levels within all areas of government. The Australian Federal Police reported to me on staffing levels as well during that period. The staffing levels reported were always at the level contracted for. Clearly, those reports were wrong.

Mr Osborne: Who was lying? Who was doing the reports?

MR HUMPHRIES: The Australian Federal Police were doing the reports and the reports were clearly wrong. These are the figures. I table the graph that I promised to table before. It is actual staff numbers from June 1994 to July 1997.

Mr Osborne: Who signed the reports?

MR HUMPHRIES: I do not have that information at my disposal at the moment, Mr Speaker. It is not your question anyway, Mr Osborne. You can ask your question when you get to your feet. I will say that we had weekly reports on staffing levels. They always disclosed a level of staffing at the level contracted for. The inquiries that this Government made led to our revealing that those figures were not accurate. That is why, Mr Speaker, we are in the position today to be able to announce to the Assembly that there has been a shortfall and that the remedial action already indicated has been taken. I think that that is appropriate and I hope that this will be a lesson in better means of transparency and accountability in the future.

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