Page 3192 - Week 11 - Thursday, 13 September 1990
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low cost mechanism, but one which, at the same time, maintains independence from all existing vested interests and will therefore be able to command public confidence. I believe that the matter of public confidence is one that is absolutely crucial for any such investigative mechanism.
We are very pleased, therefore, to see that the Government has accepted the general directions contained in the committee report and, indeed, we hope to see the legislation that is required to give effect to the committee's report in this Assembly before too much longer.
We are not happy about the time that it has taken the Government to come to a conclusion. I believe it is an important principle for a parliamentary system that recommendations of Assembly committees should be taken seriously by the Government, which is responsible to the parliament.
It is a fact that recommendations grow stale if they are not addressed by the Government in good time. I would just like to make the comment that while we were in government the Labor Party adopted a self-imposed requirement that we would respond to Assembly committee reports within three months and announce our proposed action in the Assembly.
I know that similar governments operate along similar time frames and I think it is important that committee reports, particularly ones of the importance of this one, are dealt with in a timely manner. It is not acceptable that it has taken eight months for the Government to respond to an Assembly report which, really, it instigated itself, at the time with a great sense of urgency.
Just before I conclude, I would also like to make a comment on proposals that have been floating around that the ACT in some way take part in the New South Wales royal commission into corruption in the building industry. I know that Mr Collaery has called publicly on the Labor Party for a response. He has not called on me personally for a response; but, just in case there is any doubt, may it be placed on the record that we are opposed to any such action. We do not believe that it is warranted. We believe that it is, in fact, a witch hunt and that there is no great support in the community on the building industry side, the union side or, in fact, in the community generally for such an action within the ACT. So we do not believe that that is warranted.
I am, however, pleased to support the recommendations, as I said before, by the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into an advisory committee against corruption, and we indeed look forward to the legislation being brought forward into this Assembly.
MR JENSEN (10.36): Mr Speaker, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee now and at the time of the preparation of this report, I also will speak briefly to this matter
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