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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 694 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

The matter was then raised again about a week later. It was raised by me phoning the Director of Public Prosecutions to let the Director of Public Prosecutions know that I had this circumstance on my hand. He knew the particular person involved, as did I, and that made me doubt whether files were actually missing. In the interim, I had asked the drug and alcohol program whether they were aware of any missing files. They were not aware of any missing files. So there was still some doubt as to whether there were missing files or not, and I have to say that there is still some doubt about that.

I took advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions who said, "Under these circumstances you ought to give another few days. Let her know that you will report this to the police, but give her another few days to ensure that they are returned". I did that and still there were no files forthcoming. I then asked the head of community care to carry out an investigation as to the missing files and to ensure that the matter was reported to the police. It has been reported to the police and an investigation is being carried out, as I understand it, at the moment. It is a very serious matter. If such files are missing, however they became missing, they are stolen property and should be returned. If they have been taken, they are files that are of a personal nature, so we are taking this very seriously. I have taken it very seriously from the beginning and I have followed through that process.

If any member is approached under these circumstances the immediate response should be to say, "The first thing you do is return any files, if indeed there are any files and it is not just talk". There is a possibly that it is just talk, but if there are any stolen files - I cannot describe them in any other way - they need to be returned.

In the meantime, community care has been carrying out an investigation, going back through all its files to check and to see whether any files are missing. To go through the archival material as well as the material in current use is a long process. It would appear that there are no missing files from the material in current use. It is possible that there is archival material missing. A lot of files have been archived over the last 12 months. This is a particularly serious matter, Mr Rugendyke, but I have dealt with it in the most effective way I know.

Ms Carnell: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper, Mr Speaker.

The following paper was presented by Mr Speaker:

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