Page 5182 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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It is a pleasure to have been part of this process. We have to make sure that this legislation is workable. There may be an amendment bill at some point in the first half of next year. There will also be an important role for the Assembly to make sure that we adhere to the standards that are set by this integrity commission but also that we ensure that it does the job that we expect it to. It is an honour to have been involved in this process, and I urge members to support the legislation.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (9.08): This is a terrific outcome. In my time in the Assembly it has been usually only once or twice a term that something of such detail comes through and that you see such a lengthy debate, with so much effort that goes into it. It takes a whole lot of people to make that happen.
There have been a few thankyous and I would like to add to that list. Earlier today I spoke of the committee processes and acknowledged my colleagues on those committees, and I thank them again. But I was remiss not to mention the two secretaries, Andrea and Hamish, who took us through those respective committee processes and did an excellent job of distilling large amounts of information into what became quite understandable reports that laid a solid foundation for both phases of the work.
I acknowledge Mr Coe and his team, particularly Ausilia, who have put a lot of time and detail into this. It has been a collective effort. Similarly, I thank the Chief Minister’s team and, of course, in my office Lisa and Indra, who have put significant time into this, particularly over the last few weeks, when we have got into the really detailed stage. While I was off having my wisdom teeth extracted they were busy negotiating their way through some of the finer details, and I thank them for their attention to the detail.
As others have, I also acknowledge the ACT public service team who have worked on this from a number of directorates, predominantly Chief Minister’s and JACS, led by Meredith Whitton. I saw them all coming downstairs during the dinner break tonight; they looked slightly weary but also hopeful that they were close to the end. They should go home tonight feeling satisfied that we have done a good piece of work.
Mr Coe mentioned Janice’s work behind the scenes on this, and he was right. I got to a point in the script tonight where I thought, “No, there’s a quicker way to get this done. I’ll just skip through this bit.” Of course, I should not have tried it because Janice was right. I thought I saw a better procedural way and I was frankly wrong and Janice was right, so there’s a lesson for everyone in the chamber.
Mr Coe used a useful expression—he said this has not been hyper-political but it has been hyper-technical. For me this has been a process where all through the discussions I have been persuaded by others, and I like to think on occasion I have persuaded others of a way that we might work through various issues. This is not a piece of work for which there is one right answer; there are various permutations.
The committee went around in the first phase and visited the New South Wales ICAC, the Victorian IBAC and the Tasmanian Integrity Commission, both the organisations
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