Page 2282 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
“Oh, well, it’s irrelevant to me if they are commercial in confidence; I’ll just release them?” That is not appropriate. You would not expect me to do that.
You stand up here and say, “Chief Minister, will you release this document?” If it is a commercially sensitive tender document, as these were, would you expect me to release those? Of course you would not. You would be outraged if I did—without looking at them, without taking advice on whether they were genuinely commercially sensitive.
So I took the question on notice. I did not say, “Yes, I will release those documents.” Have a look at Hansard. I said, “I will take that question on notice”—out of respect for those four companies whose documentation the LDA thought was commercially sensitive. Having looked at it and having taken advice, the advice that I received was, “Black out the commercially sensitive bits and release them.” They are with the committee.
There is probably an argument—this is something we could debate—for the non-release of those documents. I would think those four companies perhaps would have a bit of an issue around the fact that their documents have been released. I released them to the committee with a covering letter expressly requesting that the committee respect the confidentiality of the documents and not flash them around—but members of this place could have a look at them. That is what I did. The documents are with the committee.
Mr Seselja: But they are on the website, you said.
MR STANHOPE: Well, I do not know. Mr Gentleman suggested to me that he thought they were. But they are with the committee. I presume your members on the committee have them. I presume they have been approved for publication. I do not know. That is a matter for the committee.
Mr Seselja: That is a bit ambiguous, isn’t it? A second ago, they were on the website.
MR STANHOPE: Just let me clarify that. Mr Gentleman indicated to me that he thought they were on the web.
Mr Mulcahy: Are they?
Mr Gentleman: The question on notice is on the website.
MR STANHOPE: The question on notice—the one you said was not answered. The documents that you are so concerned about—that 10 minutes ago you said that we were refusing to release: we were refusing to release them; we were covering up—are with the committee, and your members have access to them. Mr Stefaniak and Mrs Burke have access to the documents which you claim we were refusing to release. We had not at any stage refused to release them. At no stage had I refused to release them.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .