Page 2708 - Week 09 - Thursday, 9 August 1990
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The responsibility for recruitment and selection of senior executive staff rests with the head of the administration and the Commonwealth Public Service Commission, and Mr Harris has advised me that Mr Chivers was acting in the position of Executive Director, Community Programs - that is, position number 7922 - in the Housing and Community Services Bureau on 29 June 1990. The position was advertised in December 1989 and, following the normal procedures for selection of staff, on 5 June 1990, Mr Harris recommended the promotion of another officer to that position.
The Public Service Commission advised us on 6 June 1990 that his recommendation had been approved and the events referred to by Mr Stevenson occurred on 7 June 1990. So the decision that Mr Chivers would not occupy that position on a permanent basis had in fact been taken before the events that you referred to me had taken place and had no relationship to those events at all.
PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS
MR CONNOLLY: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. I claim to have been misrepresented during question time, and I seek leave to make a statement.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Please proceed.
MR CONNOLLY: In answer to a question from Mr Jensen, the Attorney-General claimed that in a press release, which was accurately reported by the Canberra Times, I said that the Attorney-General should have issued a fiat for Mr Wensing. In fact no such statement was made. What was said was that the Attorney-General had misunderstood his role in considering whether a fiat should have been granted.
The basis for this was that Mr Wensing wrote to the Attorney-General requesting a fiat to intervene in the Canberra Times site redevelopment issue. The response that Mr Wensing received from the Attorney-General was a letter signed by the Attorney-General. I do not have the papers with me, but it referred to Mr Wensing's letter and said, in effect, "as this is a matter of portfolio concern to the Chief Minister, I have passed the letter on to him for response".
It was on that issue - that is, whether the Attorney-General himself should consider the application for a fiat or pass it on to a Minister of portfolio responsibility - that the press statement was issued, and Mr Campbell, of the Canberra Times, accurately reported those views. Whether a fiat should have been granted in the case was not a matter of my concern. I am pleased that the Attorney-General has properly taken legal advice on the matter and the legal advice would seem to be that it is inappropriate for a fiat to be issued.
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