Page 1069 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 6 May 2014
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The fact that he misled this Assembly really does not need to be made out. We were here, and the case makes itself in black and white in the Hansard. The first fact is that when Simon Corbell spoke in the debate the committee’s minutes had not been published. They had not been published in hard copy and they were not online. The reason for that is that committee minutes are never published. They can only be authorised by a committee to do so if somebody approaches the committee for them to be released. That has been verified by the committee secretary and on advice from the Clerk. I think we should all understand that that is the procedure.
As we know, Madam Speaker, a minister or a member of this place, or indeed anybody who is not a member of that particular committee, should not have had access to information about that committee, about what was going on in that committee and particularly the detail of the minutes. With that knowledge, let me now quote from the Hansard and repeat for members what occurred in this place this morning. In the debate Mr Corbell said:
It is disappointing that, once again, we see some members on the other side of this chamber seeking to disrupt the business of the committees by deliberately obstructing the passage of an Assembly inquiry into an important piece of legislation. I understand from a review of the minutes—
I repeat: from a review of the minutes—
that it would appear that the opposition members …
And he goes on. Mr Smyth then interjected:
How did you get the minutes?
A good question that one would ask. And the minister’s response was not to say, “I haven’t got the minutes,” “I haven’t seen the minutes,” or “I haven’t been briefed on the minutes.” What he said was:
The minutes are online and they are available …
In essence, in accepting the argument that he had seen the minutes and he was saying, “Yes, they’re online, they’re available online, that’s where I got them,” as we know, Madam Speaker, that is not true. When the minister said, “They’re available online,” basically responding to the interjection and saying, “That’s where I got the information from,” he was deliberately and intentionally misleading this place.
The minister said that he reviewed confidential documents that had not been authorised for publication. The question of where he got that information is not, as I said, the subject of the debate today. In what form he got the minutes—was it a detailed briefing from one of the committee members; was it a copy under the door that he provided in a blank envelope; was it emailed by somebody?—how on earth he got that privileged information that he talked about in this place, is going to be the subject of other action that we take.
The point that we must come to a conclusion about here in this Assembly is the fact that this minister said that he had reviewed the minutes. He gained information about
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