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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (28 October) . . Page.. 2359 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the allegations were investigated by the Federal Police. There are also allegations being investigated under the Public Interest Disclosure Act by the ACT Auditor-General, at my request. Those investigations, Mr Speaker, are not yet complete. I am awaiting advice on those. However, I can advise the Assembly in respect of advice from the Australian Federal Police that, to refresh the Assembly's memory, allegations were made by a former detainee that he was supplied with alcohol and favours in return for a loan, employment or other favours.

The AFP have advised that there is insufficient evidence to substantiate a criminal prosecution in relation to these allegations and that the investigation has been concluded. The investigation has identified some administrative and accountability shortfalls in the centre which will be communicated to the chief executive officer of my department by the Australian Federal Police in the near future for remedial action.

Mr Speaker, there were other allegations made by a former staff member of ACT Corrective Services about involvement of senior ACT Corrective Services officials and others in some criminal conspiracy to cover up these other matters. I should emphasise these allegations are also being examined by the Auditor-General, so a final answer is not available on all aspects of that but, as far as the police investigation is concerned, they have advised me in a verbal briefing and now in a written briefing that there was absolutely no evidence to support any criminal conspiracy whatsoever and they have dismissed all of these allegations.

I might also add that the officers investigating the matter were highly critical of the credibility of the person making the allegations and suggested that there was ample evidence not to conduct further investigations into those matters. I am seeking legal advice on whether the report itself, which I received from the AFP, can be released. There is an issue about that, but I am prepared to make it available on a private basis to members of the Opposition - Mr Berry or Mr Stanhope - until I have been able to clear whether the report as a whole can be tabled.

MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question. Will the Minister confirm in this place that officers identified as having a possible conflict of interest in the issue did not take part in any of the investigations?

MR HUMPHRIES: The matters which I advised the Assembly of before in terms of the involvement of those officers concerned, as far as I am aware, have not changed since I gave that original advice. I have not checked that, but my advice to this place was that - - -

Mr Berry: Did you check it? Check it.

MR HUMPHRIES: I will check it, Mr Berry, but my advice was that they were not involved. I have no reason to believe that they would subsequently become involved after I told the house that they would not be. I might just sound a note of warning. If members of the Opposition are relying on a source, which is the same source as they identified in this report, I would suggest they should heed what it was that the police said about that particular source. They should be aware of the highly critical nature of the police's view of that particular source, if it is indeed the same source.

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