Page 1648 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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I also received an email prior to this becoming public and prior to my becoming aware of it that said that there were problems at Calvary, that figures were being manipulated there. It said that these results are linked to commonwealth payments. I do not know if there has been any overpayment as at the time that these figures were submitted but certainly if this had not been discovered, if that question on notice had not dug up some of what has happened here, it is quite clear that the results that were being put up to the commonwealth would have been fraudulent and would have resulted in fraudulent payments. We are not talking about just some random data here. We are talking about data that is linked to financial payments and is important when it comes to saving lives.
I was also advised that there was a conflict of interest between Katy Gallagher and a family member. At the briefing with the director-general on the 26th—Ms Bresnan was there—I said: “Is there a conflict of interest? Is there a personal relationship? Is there some relationship that is not being identified by the Chief Minister?” I was not provided with an answer to that. But the very next day the Chief Minister came out and said: “Yes, there is. I have sought legal advice and I am stepping aside.” What a coincidence again!
So Katy Gallagher did not tell anyone for six or seven days about this conflict of interest, although she knew about it immediately, she had known about it for about a week. But again, the day after the opposition had asked the question, what we see is Katy Gallagher coming out and saying: “Yes, there is a conflict of interest. I am stepping aside.”
The question is: why did she not express that straightaway? Why is it that it seems to be that we only find out what is going on in this case when the opposition starts asking the questions—in the first place about the discrepancies in the data or about this conflict of interest? It does beg the question: what else is there that we do not know?
We do not know what other data has been manipulated, but what we do know is that the government has asked for an audit into this matter. I welcome that but what is quite clear is that the government, and Katy Gallagher in particular, is trying to limit the scope of that down to looking at the data. As I have expressed through my statements to the Assembly so far, there are a lot of implications and a lot of issues that go simply beyond the data.
Has there been any political advantage, Mr Speaker? Has there been any potential direct or indirect political interference? Why were these results falsified? What is the relationship between Katy Gallagher, her family member and the senior administrator? Why did Katy Gallagher not immediately advise that she had that conflict of interest? How did we uncover this in the first place? Was it the fact that the opposition was digging? Was there a potential? Was it the aim for the commonwealth to be defrauded? Even if it has not been, was that the aim?
We hear Katy Gallagher talking about open, accountable government. It seems to be a theme of hers. I would have thought, although it is unlikely to support the censure,
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