Page 5183 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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and their parliamentary oversight committees. Out of that we gleaned some strong views and some quite different views. We were given warnings, we were given advice and we were given ways to do things and ways not to do things. That tells me that there is no single way through this.
I have mentioned this before, but in the first round of public hearings Tony Harris, a former New South Wales Auditor-General, gave very strong views on how we should shape this and what were the really important features of it. When he looked at the two bills—and it is important to mention that it was both—he said that between the two bills the ACT was set to come up with a state-of-the-art integrity commission. That was a very genuine comment. In the committee process that gave me great confidence that we were heading in the right direction. We have stuck true to the tenor of that feedback in getting through the bill.
Most importantly, this is about giving the citizens of Canberra something they deserve and that those who have been engaged in these discussions really want to see. I was due to speak at the Kingston-Barton residents group AGM tonight at 7 pm. Clearly I missed that. We rang them to tell them that the Assembly was still going and they said that they felt this was an absolutely appropriate excuse to miss their meeting. Those who know the residents of the inner south know they are perhaps the most focused on seeing this integrity commission delivered.
I was at another meeting with them a couple of months ago, as the chair of the committee, and I got 45 minutes of detailed and excellent questions from a very engaged audience on how it would work. I am happy to let them know tonight that we have confirmed this; I will probably text them shortly to say it is done. We should finish the debate now. I thank members for their work in putting this together.
MADAM SPEAKER: I appreciate and am heartened by members’ recognition of OLA staff. Janice provided 27 pages of cheat sheets, and they were easy to follow, even though I got the numbers wrong occasionally.
Title agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Continuing resolution 5AA
MS J BURCH (Brindabella) (9.13): I move:
That Continuing Resolution 5AA be amended as follows:
(1) in paragraph (6), omit “will”, substitute “may”;
(2) in paragraph (5), add the following “The Integrity Commissioner established pursuant to the Integrity Commission Act 2018 may also refer matters to the Commissioner for Standards for consideration via the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly about matters the Integrity Commissioner considers should be referred.”; and
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