Page 200 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
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Mr Collaery: She cannot handle me.
MR SPEAKER: Order, please proceed.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Kaine, are you aware that there is an office in Captain Cook Crescent, Manuka - a fairly luxurious office - which advertises by way of a banner the services of a Mr Bernard Collaery, barrister and solicitor. I ask you, is the existence of that office and that advertisement in any way inconsistent with your previous statement?
MR KAINE: No, I am not aware of the office to which the Leader of the Opposition refers. If she cares to give me further information of a specific nature, I will follow it up.
Gaming and Liquor Authority
MR MOORE: My question is directed to Mr Collaery. Mr Collaery, in your position as Attorney-General I wish to consider the views you expressed on Mr Tony Hedley in the urgency debate of 6 July 1989. I will read from some of your words about Mr Hedley:
I said very clearly that these issues may not be criminal, they may not be corrupt, but they raise concerns about the perception of open and honest government and insider trading, or words to that effect. Where else in Australia, except in Queensland ...
and so forth. Considering those words, and further considering that you have appointed him to the board of the ACT Gaming and Liquor Authority, have you revised the opinions you expressed at that time?
MR COLLAERY: I thank Mr Moore for the question. I think it is an appropriate question and I am quite keen to answer it. My comments, as Mr Moore quite correctly reminded the house, were not that there was an issue of corruption that I was addressing, but that there was an issue of potential conflict of interests when senior civil servants are engaged in enterprises, which can give the impression of a conflict of interest.
As for the second part of the question asked by Mr Moore, the Government has announced its intention to review the Gaming and Liquor Authority. That review will take place over the next 12 months. At the time the Government changed the whole board of the authority had come up for renewal. The Government took the view that, except for one casual vacancy where there was not a replacement, we should simply reappoint the existing authority members so that they could assist with the incoming review. In our view,
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