Page 5934 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010
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Ms Gallagher: You did not listen.
MR SMYTH: I did listen.
Ms Gallagher: No, you did not. You were talking when I did.
MR SMYTH: No, no, no, I did listen. I have gone and checked the act because we cannot trust you when you read out parts of the act. And again—
Ms Gallagher: Did you find an error?
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, members.
MR SMYTH: Again, I have. I have found the errors.
Ms Gallagher: You did not.
MR SMYTH: Point to the part of the act, minister—through you, Mr Speaker—that says you cannot release the conclusions. Indeed, you said in this place on 17 March this year:
There is an investigation under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. This creates the environment for everyone to participate in. It protects everybody who participates in it. It provides natural justice to those who may be complained about. And at the end of it, there will be an outcome. It is at that point that further information will be made public.
Mr Hanson: Where is it?
MR SMYTH: What further information has been public? Where is the information? You have not told us anything new. There is nothing in what you have said that reveals whether or not the inquiry was effective, whether it was efficient, whether it actually addresses the questions that were raised, what outcomes will be taken, how can we have an assurance that it will never happen again? We are no more knowledgeable at the end of this debate than we were at the start of the debate, because you simply will not tell us. This is a snow job.
The Greens, as always, have moved an amendment. They are running cover for the government, as they do so well. But I guess that that is what you do when you are in alliance with the government. You run cover for your alliance partners. Ms Bresnan actually calls on members of the Assembly to recognise under clause 24(3)(d) that people who make public interest disclosures can ask for a progress report. I am not sure what Ms Bresnan is referring to in section 24(3)(d), because it does not actually exist. There is a section 24. It has parts (a), (b) and (c), but clause 24(3)(d) is inaccurate.
Perhaps you might like to check the act. You will have to move an amendment to your amendment to clarify the amendment, because I would hate for this place to pass something that was as inaccurate as—
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