Page 2429 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 1 July 2008

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(a) whether Mr Stefaniak acted without the authority of the Committee when he made the requests to Mr Corbell for certain documents as outlined in his letter of 16 June 2008; and

(b) whether this constitutes a breach of privilege by Mr Stefaniak;

(3) the Committee shall report by 26 August 2008; and

(4) the Committee shall be composed of:

(a) one member nominated by the Government;

(b) one member nominated by the Crossbench; and

notified to the Speaker by 4 p.m., Tuesday, 1 July 2008.

Mr Speaker, obviously these motions are treated very seriously in this place, and I note that you have this morning recognised that the matter is serious enough to warrant precedence so that a motion can be moved without notice on this matter. The issue that needs to be examined is that on 16 June Mr Stefaniak, as chair of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, wrote to me in relation to that committee’s inquiry into ACT fire and emergency services arrangements. I acknowledged that request and responded to the committee on 19 June, a couple of days later, providing a number of documents that the committee had requested.

It has since been brought to my attention, Mr Speaker, that it appears that the request made by Mr Stefaniak on 16 June was not authorised by the committee. Indeed, I raised the matter with Mr Stefaniak during the committee’s public hearing. At that time, Mr Stefaniak did not deny that and, in fact, refused to confirm that his request had been authorised by the committee prior to it being received by me and responded to by me.

Mr Stefaniak requested a range of significant documents, including a copy of a document which is cabinet in confidence. The issue of concern to me, Mr Speaker, is that a chair of a committee conducting a public inquiry appears to have requested information of a minister without the authority of the committee, and the minister has supplied most of that information. For me, this raises a very important point: if ministers are to respond to requests for information in this place as part of public inquiries, they should have the confidence to know that those requests, when they are received from the chair of a committee on the letterhead of the committee stating to be on behalf of the committee, are actually being made with the authority of the committee.

My concern is that it would appear to be the case that Mr Stefaniak made this request without the authority of the committee. He effectively demanded documents of a government minister without the authority of the committee. As the responsible minister, believing, quite reasonably, that the request was made on the part of the committee, I supplied that information. I then subsequently discovered that it would

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