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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 32 ..

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Humphries. I did give him half an hour or so's notice that I would be asking the question, so that he would be able to look at the details. Minister, one of your appointees to the recently announced Rural Leases Task Force is a Mr John Hyles, who I understand is a member of the Rural Lessees Association. Are you aware of a report in the Canberra Times dated 11 July 1996 which refers to a company, Tharwa Sand Pty Ltd, of which a Mr John Hyles and his son, also Mr John Hyles, are manager and part owner? Is the Mr Hyles on your task force the same John Hyles - either the father or the son - whose company is reported to have been convicted four times of environmental offences, including the dumping of waste water into the Murrumbidgee River, for which it faced a bill of fines and costs of approximately $20,000?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Moore for the question and the notice he gave me of the question. First of all, let me say that in one sense I have not appointed Mr Hyles to this body, the rural task force. I asked the Rural Lessees Association to suggest some nominees, and Mr Hyles's name was suggested to me. He is an active member of the Rural Lessees Association and I was happy to accept the nomination.

Mr Moore: And an active polluter of the Murrumbidgee.

MR HUMPHRIES: I think, with respect, Mr Moore might think about withdrawing that. It is true that Mr John Hyles Junior currently has an association with the company, in fact has taken over the management of Tharwa Sand Pty Ltd from his father; but it is his father and only his father who was convicted in the Land and Environment Court in New South Wales of an offence under the legislation in New South Wales. My advice is that Mr John Hyles Senior is the only person who has ever been convicted in respect of those matters and that Mr John Hyles Junior has no convictions in respect of the Land and Environment Court in New South Wales. Mr Moore shakes his head. Perhaps he has better advice than I do, but that is the advice I have obtained in the last 40 minutes or so.

Mr Moore: It was the company, of which they were both partners.

MR HUMPHRIES: Okay. If it was the company that was convicted, and that may well be right, then I would have to say I have not appointed the company to the task force. I have appointed Mr John Hyles Junior.

Mr Moore: That makes it much better!

MR HUMPHRIES: With great respect to Mr Moore, what connection to a company makes a person unable to take up an appointment in these circumstances? Mr Hyles has no convictions. Mr Moore says that the company has convictions. I take his word for that. Mr John Hyles Senior has at least one conviction, but I believe that that ought not to disqualify his son from dealing with an issue which relates to a question of the security and permanency of rural leases in the Territory. I realise that this has an association with environmental issues at some distance. It is not directly associated with an environmental question; the task force's terms of reference do not directly entail those sorts of issues. It is more about the granting of leases and security of leases.

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