Page 263 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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The government will not be opposing this motion. The government will accept that the Assembly has a legitimate interest in these documents. Once the Assembly so orders, I will table the documentation.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (9.19): We are, of course, pleased to be supporting this motion by Mr Hanson that has been put before the Assembly tonight. It is important to get this independent expert’s decision, but I want to make a few points about this.
I am amazed that the committee that was looking into the delays in the AMC was still deliberating around June, when I believe this decision was made—June-July. That was still deliberation; it was an ongoing inquiry. And the government had this information. I do not understand why, at that time, the committee was not informed that this had been undertaken and that the document was not forwarded to the committee to be part of its deliberation. I simply cannot understand why this information has been kept secret and has seen the light of day only at this very late stage. Mr Corbell, I think yesterday was the first time I heard you mention this, and that was in your response to the committee’s report. I just do not understand why that information, which was obviously critical and central to that inquiry into the delay at the AMC, was not made available to the committee of this Assembly that was investigating that matter.
You have had a go tonight. You have said that the Liberal Party has got it wrong and that the Greens have got it wrong. It was a three-person committee, Mr Corbell. That means that every party in this place got it wrong. Maybe—just maybe—if the government had made that decision to forward this critical piece of information, that really would have helped with the deliberations of the committee.
I felt that it was very important to put that on the record. I find it astounding that, some eight months or so down the track, suddenly this comes to light. I look forward to receiving this advice when it is tabled.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (9.21): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to speak again and clarify a number of matters.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: In response to the matters raised by Ms Hunter, I would say two things. First of all, I was under the impression that members of committees operated as individuals, not as representatives of their parties. Indeed, that is the convention: members sit as individuals. And, as Ms Hunter should know, members of committees are not allowed to disclose the proceedings of committee deliberations to other members, particularly to ministers. So any suggestion that the government was complicit in the findings of that committee is quite inaccurate, and I reject it absolutely.
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