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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 313 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

The coroner runs her court. She does it with the full authority of the law and she does it separately from the executive. That is how it is and how it will continue. However, the people of Canberra should, particularly in light of the Chief Coroner's press release of yesterday, harbour no concerns that they will not have full access to the Coroner's Court. The Chief Coroner has said that the coroner will soon be outlining the process for the making of submissions to the inquiry. That is the coronial process.

Mr McLeod, the Commonwealth ombudsman, when he retires-which I think is this week-will be undertaking an exhausting administrative inquiry into every aspect of the bushfire-the management, the conduct, the preparedness, the actions of each of the members of the Emergency Services Bureau and of each of its constituent parts.

Mr McLeod will be looking at the Emergency Services Bureau and its management; he will be looking at the ACT Fire Service; he will be looking at the ACT Ambulance Service; he will be looking at ACT policing; he will be looking at Environment ACT, and he will be looking at ACT Forests. He will have full access to all their files, all their papers and all their officers. Each of those organisations will be making detailed submissions. I will table each of those detailed submissions for the information of members and the community. Mr McLeod will be unrestrained in his conduct of this inquiry and will use all of his significant inquisitorial investigatory experience.

Mr McLeod is a person of untrammelled integrity. He is a person of the highest integrity and reputation in this community. There is nobody who can hold a torch to him when it comes to his objectivity and integrity, the respect in which he is held, and the confidence this community can have in him. But he is no creature of this government-he is truly objective and will undertake a thorough and far-reaching inquiry.

There have been some concerns today about privilege. We need to acknowledge that the coronial process is, of course, a judicial process. I am a little interested in the notion that, all of a sudden, people are going to beset these inquiries with defamatory documents and statements.

I think we need to go back one step and ask the question-who is it that is interested in making potentially defamatory statements? Who are these people who are so concerned that the McLeod inquiry does not attract privilege, or has privilege, that they are concerned about making submissions? Who are these people who think that their submission will be of such an order that it requires protection against defamatory action?

Mrs Dunne: Ordinary people.

MR STANHOPE: Who? Which Ordinary people?

Mrs Dunne: Anyone who wants to come forward.

MR STANHOPE: I would imagine that many of the submissions which might be made would be made by public servants. I can understand that there may be some concern that, if you are a public servant or in public employment, you might have some concern about making a submission-but, then again, this jurisdiction has thorough whistleblower legislation. Any such person is protected, in terms of their employment or otherwise.

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