Page 2684 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the identity of those who had raised concerns about Bimberi in anonymous emails, specifically because you—and I quote:
… and the senior executive of the directorate were keen to ensure that these matters could be fully investigated … So yes, the directorate responded to those emails to try to elicit further information.
Minister, how successful was the directorate in identifying the author or authors of those emails?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Jones for her question. I will take that question on notice because, obviously, there are some sensitivities around ongoing investigations in relation to these matters. I want to be sure of what I am able to say.
MRS JONES: Minister, why would we need to know the identity of an anonymous email correspondent in order to fully investigate concerns?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Jones for her question. What I actually said in my statement was that the directorate had sought out the author or authors of the email earlier this year, because the matters raised in those emails were extremely serious and they were very keen to get some further information. It is helpful in terms of being able to investigate matters, and for the authorities that have the statutory capacity to investigate matters, for people to be able to make reports. Again, I will take the detail of the question on notice about the identity. But my statement was more around the need to get some further detail of the allegations that had been raised because, as I have said on multiple occasions, those allegations were very serious and both the directorate and I were very keen to get further information about the allegations that were being made so that the specific matters that were being raised could be fully investigated.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, you keep going on about further information. Precisely what further information were you and the directorate hoping to obtain that would allow the allegations to be fully investigated?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for her supplementary question. As I have said on a number of occasions, a number of descriptions of incidents were vague in terms of the time frames in which they occurred and in terms of the people involved. It is very difficult to investigate those kinds of allegations without a clearer picture of exactly when those were alleged to have occurred. That was an example of the further information that we were seeking.
Budget—emergency services
MR PETTERSSON: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Could the minister please update the Assembly on what support is contained in the 2017-18 ACT budget for our emergency services?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mr Pettersson for his question and his interest in our front-line staff. As part of the 2017-18 budget, the ACT government has announced a
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video