Page 2780 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Neither my office nor the Clerk’s office has at any time released any of that information to anyone other than the commissioner, to the respondent and to the person complained about. How things get into the media is for other people to speculate upon but it has not been through my agency, the agency of my office or the Clerk’s office.
Personal explanation
MS BURCH (Brindabella): I ask for leave to make a statement under standing order 46.
MADAM SPEAKER: Do you claim to have been misrepresented?
MS BURCH: Yes, I do, Madam Speaker. Perhaps this is not the appropriate standing order—
MADAM SPEAKER: If you claim to have been misrepresented, I give you leave.
MS BURCH: Thank you, but I will go to the matter of my referral to the Commissioner for Standards—
MADAM SPEAKER: You have not been—this is not a misrepresentation.
MS BURCH: and you were on radio before you gave me the decency of being informed—
MADAM SPEAKER: Sit down, Ms Burch. You do not have leave. Members, as you well know—
Mr Gentleman: Madam Speaker, I would like to move that that leave be granted to Ms Burch to finish her request.
MADAM SPEAKER: I am sorry, standing order 46 means that I grant leave. You might like to suspend standing orders or you might wish to move that Ms Burch be given leave to make a statement. But under Standing Order 46, leave rests with me. I am in your hands but standing order 46 does not—
Statement by member
MS BURCH (Brindabella): Madam Speaker, I seek leave to make a statement.
Leave granted.
MS BURCH: With due respect to you, Madam Speaker, what you have just said has not been the experience of two members on this side of the chamber who have been referred to the commissioner. On both times the media was alerted. On both times—it was certainly the first time—you were on radio explaining the process and the referral before I was given any notice whatsoever. So I think there is a flaw in the process.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video