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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4572 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I indicated to members last night that the regulation had been gazetted last Friday. I was in Japan last Friday; so, I obviously did not sign it last Friday. Certainly, it was gazetted last Friday. That is what occurred last Friday. It was made operative from 1 December.

Mr Whitecross: Someone must have signed it. So, who signed it?

MR HUMPHRIES: I think the copy I made available to members, which was a copy for the purposes of gazettal, had my name and, I think, the Chief Minister's name on it. You have it; so, you can tell me, Mr Whitecross. It had names written on it, as I understand it.

Mr Whitecross: It was not signed. It was unsigned, undated and unnumbered.

MR HUMPHRIES: I was not giving you a copy that conforms with the requirements of the legislation.

Mr Whitecross: I just asked you for one then.

MR HUMPHRIES: If you would just like to listen, Mr Whitecross, you will hear. I was giving you a copy to provide you with the information about the content of the regulation, not to give you all the signed, sealed and delivered other requirements to go with the process of gazettal. I was giving you a copy so that you could find out what the contents were. If you begrudge that, then I certainly will not do it in future, I can assure you.

Mr Speaker, I think I have already answered the question about what to do about the hospital. In fact, I have a copy, which I will table, of a letter from Mr Brian Johnston, the chief executive of the Canberra Hospital, to Mr Phillip Green. He begins by apologising for the breach of the regulations concerning the publication of a photograph which appeared in a supplement to the Chronicle newspaper. He explains that the hospital management was negotiating with the Chronicle from 21 October to have the supplement inserted on 25 November. On 17 November the copy to be used was sent to the company that was doing the layout design. The hospital management signed approval on quotes by the Chronicle on 20 November, and apparently this company then booked the supplement on 25 November. It was not published on 25 November; it was published on the following Tuesday, which was this Tuesday - which was, of course, after 1 December. The letter says further:

The Hospital management did not receive notification of the regulations covering the publication of a photograph of an MLA until Wednesday, 3 December 1997.

I can indicate that the Government certainly made it very clear to the ACT Administration, particularly through a decision of Cabinet, that there were to be no publications that contained photographs of MLAs, and now clearly this has been breached. I would say, without expressing an opinion, that this appears to have been a breach by the Canberra Hospital. But, given that they appear to have, in good faith,

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