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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2116 ..
MR
HUMPHRIES: No, you have not seen it because it is advice that I took from my own solicitor. So I am sorry to tell Mr Hargraves that he has not seen it. My view is, based on that advice, that it would be defamatory to make those comments outside the house. I do not have written advice. This is my personal advice.Mr
Hargreaves: And the chance of success?MR
HUMPHRIES: I do not really care what the chance of success is, Mr Hargreaves. I think the comments are-Mr
Hargreaves: You are just grandstanding.MR
HUMPHRIES: That may be your view. I think that you are grandstanding, Mr Hargreaves, which is why you want this report published under privilege.Mr
Hargreaves: I did not bring this on.MR
HUMPHRIES: I know. It is hard to imagine, is it not-Mr
Hargreaves: I did not bring it on. You brought it on.MR
HUMPHRIES: You put the comments in your report. Mr Speaker, I think Mr Hargreaves has abused the process of the Assembly with these comments.I want to digress and make very clearly one important point about this process. The comments which Mr Hargreaves makes in his dissenting report are not based on any evidence given before the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety inquiry. My advice is that no witnesses came before the Assembly committee and made comments of the kind which are contained in Mr Hargreaves' report. No submission was made to the committee in the terms of Mr Hargreaves' report. Absolutely no evidence of any kind was given before the Assembly committee which even vaguely suggested the kinds of comments that Mr Hargreaves has made in his dissenting report.
That being so, the question needs to be asked: on what basis are the comments made in the report? They are, I think, quite properly personal supposition, a personal guesstimate, a stab in the dark, an assertion without foundation by Mr Hargreaves. Indeed, in a more recent committee inquiry when these issues were canvassed extensively-that is, the estimates committee inquiry-it became quite clear that the suggestion that, in taking the decision I had with respect to funding of the two bodies, I was on some wild frolic of my own, was unsubstantiated in that the advice on which I acted was clearly advice of my department. The basis for these claims has been repudiated since then by hearings before another committee of the Assembly.
Mr
Hargreaves: No, they haven't.MR
HUMPHRIES: I think they have, Mr Speaker, and that is my view.
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