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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 6 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1549 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

then I guess that is it. The committee will, of course, be rigorous in its assessment of that and has mapped out quite a detailed consultative process.

The committee has been charged with its own organisation and will determine for itself how it goes about meeting its terms of reference and, given that it has that responsibility, it is important to acknowledge the calibre of the people that have been engaged-whom you have mentioned, Mr Stefaniak. I am pleased that you say your question in no way impugns any of the people appointed to the committee, and I think it is graceful of you to make that acknowledgment. Having said that, you then need to take the next step and acknowledge the enormous capacity and standing of the people who have been appointed to that committee.

Professor Hilary Charlesworth is acknowledged not just nationally but internationally as one of the leading academics in the area of human rights and rights issues in the world-not just in Australia but in the world. She spent the last year at Harvard as a visiting professor. She is acknowledged internationally. Her standing is impeccable. It cannot be impugned; it cannot be called into question; it is simply above question.

To then take the quantum leap and suggest that somebody of the standing of Professor Hilary Charlesworth cannot be trusted to faithfully pursue the terms of reference she has been given is, Mr Stefaniak, to impugn her standing and her reputation. She is a citizen of this place with a reputation so beyond reproach that I think you do impugn that reputation by suggesting that she would not faithfully pursue the terms of reference that she and the committee have.

That goes not only for Professor Hilary Charlesworth; it also goes for Professor Larissa Behrendt. Professor Behrendt is a leading academic, a professor in indigenous studies and law at the University of Technology, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and an outstanding academic. The same also goes for Penelope Layland, the third member appointed to the committee, an ex-associate editor of the Canberra Times, a very significant Canberra resident and somebody who has no allegiance to the Labor Party-as none of these people do, to my knowledge. Their reputations speak for themselves, and I have no reason to believe that they will not faithfully pursue the terms of reference that they have accepted.

We could say about anybody we appoint to anything that there is a range of other people that one might have considered for appointment, and that is certainly the case. In your time as minister, Mr Stefaniak, you will have found that one of the issues that occupy serious thought and contemplation is the range of people that government appoints to committees, advisory bodies, boards and even courts. These are issues that require us to give significant thought and judgment. We do that, and I am sure you did that.

I have great faith in Professor Charlesworth, I have great faith in Professor Behrendt, I have great faith in Penelope Layland and I have great faith in the ex-officio member of that committee, Ms Elizabeth Kelly. I think that they are exemplary appointees, and I expect that they will pursue the terms of reference faithfully, vigorously and with the utmost integrity.

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