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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 2352 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

saw very clearly there the extremely dangerous situation that occurs when allegations are made and people are tried and judged without proper evidence, and decisions are made before a full assessment of facts is made in an appropriate forum. Mr Greiner lost his premiership in circumstances that I think anybody would describe as being extremely unfair.

Mr Kaine says we should follow New South Wales and Queensland because, if they have corruption, we must have corruption. Let me ask him this question: If they had those sorts of results from their ICAC, why would we not have those sorts of results in the ACT as well? I would like to hear him answer that question.

Mr Kaine says a lot of work has gone into this draft Bill, but, with very great respect to the people responsible for drafting it, that does not appear to be entirely evident from the document before us. In fact, this draft Bill demonstrates a considerable amount of sloppiness in its drafting. As I started to read it, first of all I was appalled that so much time and effort had gone into the drafting of an exercise like this when I had some serious doubts about whether it would be passed by the Assembly. I was thinking of all the time that had been diverted from other tasks in creating this.

Then I was appalled by the mistakes that I started to see in the legislation, and I realised that this was not drafted by ACT Parliamentary Counsel at all. In fact, someone has taken the New South Wales ICAC Bill and simply changed the names as appropriate, or, in some cases, as inappropriate, because, Mr Speaker, there are all sorts of errors and omissions in this piece of legislation. There is reference, for example, to there being complaints that are made to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, ACT Region. There is no such person as the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, ACT Region. Mr Kaine surely knows that. Mr Kaine is on the Justice and Community Safety Committee. Did he not read the draft Bill before he tabled it in this place?

There are other mistakes in here. We have references to the Removal of Prisoners Act 1968 and the New South Wales - there is a give-away - Prisons Act 1952. I understand that at least one of those two Bills has been repealed. It does not exist any more. There are references to Justices of the Peace employed in the Attorney-General's Department. First of all, as Mr Kaine well knows, because his committee shadows my department, there is no Attorney-General's Department in the ACT. There is a Department of Justice and Community Safety. As he probably also knows, there is no such thing as Justices of the Peace employed in that form in that department. This Bill is replete with errors of drafting. Someone who has put this together has not bothered to check whether the ACT is actually the same as New South Wales. So, I am sorry, but I dispute the assertion that a lot of work has gone into this draft Bill. If there has been a lot of work, it has been not particularly astute or attentive to detail.

Mr Speaker, I think Mr Kaine, if he is reading the pages of the Canberra Times, would be better advised to read the editorial of the Canberra Times that appeared on 16 August. The Canberra Times has been very quick to point the finger at particular people, particularly governments of the day in the past, when it has perceived that there has been an error or mistake on the part of public servants or someone has got something wrong. It has been very quick to do so. We have all felt the brunt of criticism in the Canberra Times. We all know of circumstances where there have been unfair

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