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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1776 ..

now lodged a formal statement with the coroner pursuant to a request from counsel assisting the coroner that I provide a statement to the court in relation to that. I think that in the statement I have given to the coroner’s court—I do not have it with me—I state that I believe that the telephone call that I received from Mr Keady—which was the first contact I had with any of my officials on that day—was somewhere around one o’clock; I think that is what I say.

In answer to a supplementary question, I said:

I received no call. I received no information about the behaviour of the fire or the event of the fire—none whatsoever. I made the decision to attend at the Emergency Services headquarters because I had on that day assumed responsibility for emergency services as a result of a decision that the minister, Mr Wood, had earlier taken to take leave as and from that day.

Mr Speaker, that response referred to a statement of mine to the coroner. In fact, I made two statements to the coroner. In the first, dated 14 October 2003, I said:

On Saturday 18 January Mr Tim Keady, the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, contacted me sometime, to the best of my recollection, between 1.00pm and 2.00pm, requesting that I attend a meeting at ESB HQ.

In the second, dated 12 March 2004, I said that I did not recall receiving any briefings about the fires on 17 January 2003. I said that on 18 January:

At lunchtime, I decided of my own volition to go into ESB at Curtin to find out more directly what was occurring. As I was approaching ESB, I received a telephone call from Mr Keady in which he informed me that the fires were becoming a matter of much urgency. He asked that I immediately attend at ESB. I explained that I was about to arrive at ESB, and met with Mr Keady at ESB a few minutes later. I have no memory of any specific or direct contact of me by any person about the fire between the time of the Cabinet briefing on the morning of 16 January and the call from Mr Keady at lunchtime on 18 January.

That is what I told the coroner in my statements. I gave evidence on 20 April 2004. Essentially, I was questioned by counsel assisting in a chronological manner, starting from 12 January 2003, the day before I was due to return to work from my Christmas leave. I was questioned at some length about the cabinet briefing of Thursday, 16 January 2003. I was questioned only briefly about events on 18 January, and the focus of those questions was on the declaration of the state of emergency. I was not asked about any contact I had, or might have had, with officials or emergency services personnel.

Quite obviously, I have made numerous public statements about a range of aspects to do with the 2003 bushfires and the inquiries that have since been established. I have answered many questions from journalists and given countless interviews for press, television and radio newsrooms. In the vast majority of cases where I have been questioned about the contact I had with officials in the period the subject of this debate, I have qualified my answers.

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