Page 2053 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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performance of the Legislative Assembly’s functions, as all appropriate material relating to the relevant budget and structural decisions were and will be made available as part of the relevant budget legislative process.
He went on to state:
Finally, its production would significantly undermine the continued effective operation of the government. The Report is a very clear example of the type of document to be protected from production by executive privilege.
He further goes on to state:
It is therefore beyond the powers, privileges and immunities of the legislature to call for the Report.
Those are the findings of Sir Laurence Street, which the Greens and the Liberal Party do not believe represent the notion of a responsible government and the ways in which a responsible government does or should operate. These are traditions, notions and conventions that have existed in many instances for centuries and are at the heart of the strength of our form of government. Although the government has consistently maintained cabinet confidentiality around the functional review document itself, it has, of course, published the decisions based on it in the budget papers.
As Sir Laurence adverted to, all of the decisions have been published in budget papers and have been explained in detail, particularly in the 2006-07 budget. We have answered questions ad nauseam on every aspect of the decisions that we have taken both here in the Assembly and in the committees. The government has also fielded questions and criticism from the public and the press. The government recognises and values the important role played by the legislature in scrutinising the actions of the executive. Again, we recognised that as a fundamental part in the strength of our democracy and a proper role played by members in pursuing lines of questioning with responsible ministers.
But just as the government recognises that fundamental plank of our system of government, it gives equal importance to the conventions of cabinet confidentiality, safeguarding as they do the deliberations of the cabinet. I must say that I do find it a very sorry day indeed, having set our path on a particular innovation in relation to decisions around determining executive privilege, that on its first outing, because it does not meet the expectation of the Greens, the entire process is now to be rejected and the arbiter is to be embarrassed in the way that he has been today by the Speaker.
I think it is a simple outrage. We welcome the decision. It is a clear and comprehensive statement of the way in which this legislature and every other legislature in Australia operates and will continue and should continue to operate into the future.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo-Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.03): It is worth reflecting on a number of issues in this debate. I would like to start with a quote.
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