Page 5657 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 6 December 2011
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conflict, but I think she has taken the honourable course to avoid a perception. I thank Mr Smyth for chairing the inquiry and for the spirit in which both members engaged in the conversations we had along that journey. I believe Dr Cullen did an exemplary job in stitching together disparate views and stitching together the evidence we received.
I will not go over the ground that Mr Smyth has covered around a lot of the issues to do with the inquiry other than to reiterate what he was saying about the lack of definition of “ethical”. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, so we need to be a little bit definitive about what we are talking about.
But I draw members’ attention to one of the significant planks in the report—that is, the disclosure of what is happening with territory investments. I draw your attention to recommendations 2 and 3 and, of course, recommendation 5.66(d), which talks about, as Mr Smyth indicated, keeping the Assembly and, therefore, the community informed of the direction that the government is taking in its investments and what instructions it has to its investment managers. This is not to be judgmental about where those investments are placed but, rather, to place on the record for the community to know just where those investments have been placed. If, in fact, the community at large are quite unhappy about the direction in which those investments are heading, they can make their feelings known through a number of avenues, one of which is the ballot box and another of which is to make representations to members of this place.
It is significant that we have recommended that the disclosure of what is happening is significant. I suggest that, in the absence of definitions, the importance of having what we are doing fully disclosed is sufficient. I find it very difficult, in fact, to legislate against an investment in what is a legal industry in this country and elsewhere as far as the legality in this country is concerned.
If we are so concerned as a community about a particular activity, then it should be illegal. If it is legal, it is an expression by the community that they are happy for that industry to continue. I do not particularly like the coal industry at all. Would I invest in it myself? No, I would not. But would I invest in it on behalf of the community? It depends on the rate of return that I am going to get out of it, because it is not my decision. But I would make it clear to the community that that was what was happening.
Ms Le Couteur, in her dissenting report, makes the point about the fact that we have greenhouse gas emission reduction targets yet happily invest in a coal-fired gas station. I think that is a reasonable point, except to say that I do not think we should ban investment in that. We should make it clear to the community that that is where we are going and that those apparent contradictions in some people’s minds exist, in the same way that we do not necessarily approve or disapprove of the way some companies engaging in legal activities are doing it, just as long as these things are disclosed.
For example, in our Electoral Act we require people to disclose where they receive their money from. The issue is about disclosure, which I was talking about a minute
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