Page 946 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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Public Interest Disclosure Act in relation to the letter that I have received and the allegations it contains.
The person that has written to me is a permanent ACT public servant. Her disclosures are covered by the Public Interest Disclosure Act and I am required to act in a certain way in relation to those—that is, I need to respect certain aspects of the content of the letter that was written to me, irrespective of the fact that it has nevertheless been published by its author. I will be circumspect in any answer I give in this place, Mr Speaker, until I am fully appraised of my obligations and my responsibilities under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.
Having said that, the letter does contain allegations and the allegations have been published in the Canberra Times. It is moot, however, to say just by way of example in relation to one of them—and the rhetorical question was asked in the letter: what is the government doing about a boy who appeared in class with a bloody face? What the government did in relation to that was that the government referred it immediately to the police and the matter is being actively investigated by the police.
The issue, of course, following the letter, the public interest disclosure, following the allegations it contains, behoves authorities, most particularly the head of the department, to investigate fully each of those allegations. In relation to one, and one alone—and as I understand it from discussions that I had today with the head of the department, he was taking advice—but the only one of the allegations in the letter of which he was personally aware, but he was taking advice, was the issue in relation to the boy who had appeared in the room with a bloody face.
He was not, as the minister has just indicated she was not, aware of other allegations around children fearing rape or children being detained for 18 hours—issues in relation to other matters. So the process now, Mrs Dunne, as you would appreciate is that allegations have been made. It is appropriate that the allegations be fully investigated. It is appropriate in that context, of course, and I would imagine that the head of the department will now write to the public interest discloser asking her perhaps to give greater detail on the allegations.
The minister has indicated that she was not made aware of these other allegations. The head of the department has informed me that his preliminary position is that he was not aware of these allegations. I think that the process now, in the interests of fairness, requires that further detail on the allegations be sought from the person making the allegations so that they can be tested. They are serious allegations and they have to be investigated fully, and they will be investigated fully, but at this stage they are allegations—
Mr Smyth: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! Stop the clocks, please.
Mr Smyth: The question actually is: does the minister support his minister’s action? It is not about the allegations but does he support the course that the minister followed? In the remaining 24 seconds, perhaps he might answer that question.
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