Page 7 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2016
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investigation, they have said that they are not answering questions being put to them by the police. I will not comment on the detail of that investigation. That is being litigated. We are waiting for the result.
But let me quote from the ministerial code of conduct. It says at 3e:
Ministers are accountable for their own behaviour and the decisions and actions of their staff.
So you cannot separate what has been going on by the member, by Ms Burch. There is a direct link. That is not me saying that; that is in the ministerial code of conduct issued by the Chief Minister to his ministers.
I also quote from Mr Stanhope when he was the opposition leader. During a debate in this place on a motion of no confidence in Mrs Carnell, this is what Jon Stanhope had to say:
But, in terms of the extent of ministerial responsibility, if responsibility for the actions of a statutory authority is at one end of the spectrum, surely responsibility for the actions of the Minister’s personal staff is at the closer end of the spectrum, the very sharp end. Her office is entirely her direct and personal responsibility.
Let me say that again:
Her office is entirely her direct and personal responsibility.
That is Jon Stanhope’s view, and now we know what happened back in history with those various motions and what they led to. But Jon Stanhope, a Labor leader, Chief Minister for 10 years, makes that point.
Given what the ministerial code of conduct lays out, given the comments of a previous Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, it is clear that appointing Ms Burch to a position of authority in this Assembly while the investigation into her former chief of staff is ongoing would be reckless, absolutely reckless. This matter needs to be resolved one way or the other. I make no judgement. But it needs to be resolved because, as Jon Stanhope said and as the ministerial code of conduct makes clear, you cannot separate the member from their staff when these sorts of matters are being investigated.
The second concern is that when these events blew up in December last year Mr Barr and Mr Corbell advised the media that there were other serious matters at play. I quote from the ABC on 18 December. This is Mr Corbell who gets to speak. This is from the ABC:
The chief of staff, Maria Hawthorne, tendered her resignation on Tuesday after revelations she allegedly briefed … (CFMEU) secretary Dean Hall about a ministerial meeting with Mr Lammers.
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