Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (21 June) . . Page.. 2344 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

So we can clear up the truth in relation the Assembly's first request for documents in relation to Bruce Stadium. It did not include a request for cabinet documents of any description. We can debunk the first claim that was made, the spurious claim in relation to requests for cabinet documents. The Assembly did not ask for cabinet documents, and the government did not provide cabinet documents to the Assembly.

Mr Humphries: Yes, but you did.

MR STANHOPE: I did not. I lodged an FOI request for all documents. Go back to the wording of my request. My request under the FOI Act to you, Chief Minister, was for certain documents relevant to the Bruce Stadium redevelopment.

Mr Humphries: Then you asked for cabinet documents as well.

MR STANHOPE: I did not. This is where you have been mistaken. In some of our correspondence on this, Chief Minister, I have often thought we were at cross-purposes. In your response to me in relation to my FOI request, you made certain suggestions to me about whether or not my request should be regarded as including cabinet documents. My response to you was: "That is a matter for you, pursuant to the FOI Act, to determine." In other words, it was for you to decide whether or not there were documents characterised as cabinet documents that you could release pursuant to the FOI Act. My request was for whatever documents you could provide to me pursuant to the FOI Act. It was for you, the government, in your administration of the Freedom of Information Act, to determine whether or not there were cabinet submissions and documents that would have been excluded under the FOI Act. I did not specifically say, "I want this cabinet document." I asked for documents related to Bruce Stadium. It was for the government to determine whether or not cabinet documents fell within the parameters of my request.

That was the correspondence we had. I was surprised by your letter to me, Chief Minister, in which you asked me how we should deal with the request under the FOI Act. You might remember the letter, Chief Minister. You asked me for my views on how, under the FOI Act, we should deal with cabinet documents. I wrote back to you and said, "In accordance with the FOI Act, you have to make a decision on whether or not a certain document, whether it is characterised as a cabinet document or not, falls within the exemption."

Mr Humphries: You went public calling for the cabinet documents.

MR STANHOPE: What, the cabinet decisions?

Mr Humphries: You went public calling for them. That is what was reported in the media.

MR STANHOPE: I have never asked for cabinet decisions under the FOI Act.

Mr Humphries: I did not say "cabinet decisions"; I said "cabinet documents".

MR STANHOPE: Documents that may have informed a cabinet decision, certainly any document in relation to which an exemption did not apply.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .