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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1778 ..
Mr Speaker, I draw members' attention to House of Representatives Practice. It states:
... a person shall not, by fraud, intimidation, force or threat, by the offer or promise of any inducement or benefit, or by other improper means, influence another person in respect of any evidence given to or to be given before a House or a committee ...
The claim made by Mr Gower, in evidence before an Assembly committee, is that the Minister for Urban Services, his officers and his personal staff threatened that if the Gungahlin Community Council did not give its support to the eastern alignment, the government's preferred route, it would not build the Gungahlin Drive extension at all. Mr Speaker, this is highlighted again by Mr Gower's evidence in an exchange between Mr Gower and me, and I quote again from the transcript. I asked Mr Gower:
So is it the case that you have now decided to go with the eastern alignment, albeit in a slightly modified form, simply because the government has indicated that if it is not that alignment, it is no alignment?
Mr Gower replied:
Yes. Pressure was put on us to a degree that if we did not support the government's option, which is the eastern alignment, we would not get a road.
All members in this place should be concerned by the claim by the President of the Gungahlin Community Council that the council changed its view on the Gungahlin Drive extension, and thus the evidence it would give before an Assembly committee, from not having a view on the route at all to support for the eastern alignment because of pressure from the minister and others that if they did not support the government's view no road would be built at all. Mr Speaker, there is a clear allegation from Mr Gower that the view, the evidence, that the Gungahlin Community Council was planning to give to the standing committee inquiry was changed as a result of a threat from the minister and others to not build the road at all if support was not forthcoming for the eastern alignment.
Mr Speaker, the nub of the issue is this: if a committee inquiry of this Assembly cannot receive evidence which it can safely assume is in no way improperly influenced, then the committee system will cease to properly operate. Never again will committees be able to rely on the evidence given to them in inquiries to be free of influence, threat or coercion.
There is no doubt that this is a very serious matter and that it must be properly investigated. It must be properly investigated to either confirm the claims made by Mr Gower or to clear the minister and his officers of the allegations which have been made before the committee. It must be properly investigated so that the committee knows for sure that what Mr Gower said was in fact the case, or that the committee knows for sure that Mr Gower's evidence was not accurate. Most importantly, Mr Speaker, it must be investigated to establish whether the privileges of the Assembly have or have not been breached. Those are the reasons for a select committee on privileges and for this motion today.
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