Page 3000 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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MADAM SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I think it was exactly what I was saying—it was not a guarantee. It was not a promise that I was going to get there, because of all the challenges that were associated with it. It was a long conversation with a journalist about the plan we had to move in stages towards achieving this target, and then a long conversation with the journalist about the many challenges associated with that. You sit down in an interview with a journalist and they take short grabs, and the opposition misrepresents them. And that is exactly what has been happening here for months.
Mrs Jones interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Jones, that is enough interjection.
Government—ACT Integrity Commission
MR DAVIS: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, on Tuesday our New South Wales neighbours saw a change of premier, when Gladys Berejiklian resigned pending an inquiry into her conduct by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption. Since then, I have been contacted by several of my constituents who have asked me why the ACT does not have a specific, in name, independent commission against corruption. How do we give our community confidence that we are committed to exposing and eliminating corruption in government should it exist here in the ACT?
MR BARR: In the last parliament this place voted unanimously to establish the ACT Integrity Commission. There was an extensive committee process. Mr Rattenbury was involved in the committee, as were members of the opposition and the government. We then had a very extensive debate in this place to frame the legislative framework for the ACT Integrity Commission. We have established the Integrity Commission independent from the executive, so I am not the minister responsible for the Integrity Commission. The Integrity Commission sits outside the executive as it is, indeed—along with the Electoral Commission and a number of other statutory organisations—a creature of the parliament. There is a parliamentary committee that oversees the work of the Integrity Commission. So you can tell your constituents, Mr Davis, that the ACT does indeed have an Integrity Commission.
MR DAVIS: Chief Minister, what should Canberrans do if they suspect corrupt conduct from parliamentarians or government officials?
MR BARR: There is a pathway, depending on the nature of the alleged conduct, to report that either to the Integrity Commission or to the commissioner for standards. There are, of course—
Ms Lee: Madam Speaker, on a point of order, can I seek your advice on this? You have made it very clear on a number of occasions that questions that are in order are questions that are directed to ministers who have responsibility. The Chief Minister, in his own answer, has just said that he does not. He is not the overseeing minister for the Integrity Commission. Could you rule on whether Mr Davis’s question is in order?
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