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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3113 ..

MS TUCKER: I seek leave to make a further statement.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: I do feel I have to clarify a couple of issues, regarding the Ombudsman's report particularly. I have before me a media release from the Commonwealth Ombudsman's Office. Basically, the first two paragraphs say:

Commonwealth and ACT Ombudsman Philippa Smith has found that the ACT Government Department of Education and Training had misled the School Without Walls community.

The Ombudsman's findings are contained in an investigation report which examines the decision-making and consultative processes underlying the Department's decision to relocate the School Without Walls ...

I will not read out the whole release. I am quite happy to table it, though. I seek leave to table it.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: Thank you. I think it is important to get that clearly on the record. I am also concerned at the imputation that this report was not supported by evidence. It was. Mrs Littlewood has had the opportunity to look at the evidence that was presented to the committee before the earlier production of the discussion paper. I was interested in her response, because I think it is unnecessarily defensive. The Chief Minister has acknowledged that there have been problems. This was a recapping of what has happened since our initial discussion paper. We went through the issues as they occurred. The Chief Minister has acknowledged it. We have commended her, through her customer involvement unit, for picking up the issues that were raised in our discussion paper. As I made clear in the statement, it has been picked up by the Government. Of course, there are still some issues to be addressed, and I believe this statement is actually quite positive in coming up with not only the dangers where consultation does not work but also some very constructive suggestions about how to make the processes work better. I am sorry Mrs Littlewood feels so alarmed by this report, because it is actually not particularly negative at all; it is something that is quite encouraging to the Government, to continue improving their performance in this area.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General): Mr Speaker, I also seek leave to make a statement in relation to the statement made by Ms Tucker.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank members. Mr Speaker, I have had the chance only in the last few minutes to look at the statement that was made by Ms Tucker. I would have adjourned this debate, except that I am aware that we are going to have very little chance to come back to matters that are adjourned in this relatively late stage of the Assembly's life. I want to make a few brief comments about the statement.

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