Page 1167 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (12.01): I will speak to the amendment and in closing. In answer to members’ questions, am I satisfied that we have a full explanation? No, I am not. Let me be very clear about this. Firstly, when I asked for information, I did make it clear, I think, about three or four times in my speech, that the broader explanation did not need to include the detail of the sensitive police information that would be operationally sensitive. I made that abundantly clear, so it was somewhat disingenuous for the Chief Minister to, in essence, hide behind that.
To say that this matter is concluded, that there is nothing more to say, simply because the Chief Police Officer has concluded his investigation and has nothing further to say, is disingenuous. The Chief Police Officer has a responsibility to investigate matters, to establish whether there was a crime committed or not; and, if not, to basically say that it has been investigated and no further action will be taken or, if charges are laid, to refer those matters on to the DPP.
The Chief Police Officer is not responsible, responsive or accountable in that sense to this place or the broader community. The Chief Police Officer is responsible to the minister. The Chief Police Officer has made a reasonably brief statement to the community within his remit and then it is a matter for the Chief Police Officer to refer to the minister and the Chief Minister, as he has done, to talk about the broader implications.
It is the minister and the Chief Minister who are responsible for broader explanations about what has happened, in this place, so that we can consider whether this government is being held to account or not, and to the broader community. Indeed, they said that they would do that. I quote the Attorney-General:
These are serious, serious issues, and they go beyond the issues that have been reported in the media to date.
This is not about a member of a minister’s staff relaying to a stakeholder that their concerns had been raised ... these matters go beyond that.
The reporting we’ve seen over the past 48 hours is not telling the full story, and the reason for that is that the police evaluation is ongoing.
We need to wait for police to do their job …
The Attorney-General, now the police minister, said that these serious, unprecedented issues did not relate to these matters, that they go beyond the issues that have been reported, that it is not about a member of a minister’s staff relaying to a stakeholder that their concerns have been raised. It is not about that. It was about something else that led to ministers resigning and staff being told to resign.
The Chief Minister said:
I need to stress it relates to matters beyond the specific issue that was aired in the Fairfax media a day or two ago in relation to an information request from the CFMEU …,
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