Page 4163 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 26 November 2013
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A person shall not, without reasonable excuse:
And subparagraph (ii) says:
refuse or fail to produce documents, or to allow the inspection of documents, in accordance with an order of the Assembly or of a committee.
The Treasurer was ordered by the Assembly to provide documents, the original documents—not an analysis, not a condensation, not his view of the documents but the original documents. We know that the Treasurer understood this because the Treasurer actually said, when we were having this debate, that he understood what was happening, and the Treasurer reiterated his position. Firstly, he said:
Should the Assembly wish to support this motion, the government will, of course, claim executive privilege in relation to the documents as they inform cabinet deliberations in terms of the budget and in terms of broader government policy. That is entirely reasonable and available to us under standing order 213A.
So he understood what 213A did. It outlined the process. And that process, Madam Speaker, calls for the documents’ return. 213A(2) says:
When returned, the documents (where no claim of privilege is made by the Chief Minister) will be laid on the Table by the Clerk.
There has been no claim of privilege by the Chief Minister, and yet no documents have been laid on the table, in direct violation of standing order 213A. Under (3) it goes on to say:
A return under this order is to include an indexed list of all documents tabled, showing the date of creation of the document, a description of the document and the author of the document.
That, I believe, was tabled late yesterday, well outside the time frame set by the standing order, and well outside the extended time frame set by the Assembly. 213A(4) says:
If at the time the documents are required to be tabled the Assembly is not sitting, the documents may be lodged with the Clerk, and unless privilege is claimed, are deemed to have been presented to the Assembly.
No such documents were presented. 213A(5) says:
Where a document is considered by the Chief Minister to be privileged, a return is to be prepared showing the date of creation of the document, a description of the document, the author of the document and reasons for the claim of privilege.
That certainly was not done by the Chief Minister. I have not seen anything signed by the Chief Minister claiming privilege, so, again, obviously (5) has been violated. (5A) gives a time frame of 14 days. We have extended that. 213A(6) says:
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