Page 1155 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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It started in December 2015 when Ms Burch resigned after the revelation of a police investigation into her office. Her chief of staff was reportedly also asked to resign. My understanding—this can be confirmed—is that it related to a briefing that was provided by the Chief Police Officer to the minister and her staff regarding the CFMEU. Then that information was relayed to the CFMEU. But the uncertainty was then compounded by the Attorney-General. He said:
These are serious, serious issues, and they go beyond the issues that have been reported in the media to date.
This is not about a member of a minister’s staff relaying to a stakeholder that their concerns had been raised ... these matters go beyond that.
The reporting we’ve seen over the past 48 hours is not telling the full story, and the reason for that is that the police evaluation is ongoing.
We need to wait for police to do their job …
On 16 December Mr Barr said:
… the matter went further than the alleged CFMEU briefing.
He went on to say:
I need to stress it relates to matters beyond the specific issue that was aired in the Fairfax media a day or two ago in relation to an information request from the CFMEU.
What we have been told is that these are matters that went well beyond what went to the police. We were told that we need to wait for the police to do their job. On 18 December in a report entitled “Full explanation on Joy Burch resignation must await police probe,” Mr Corbell said:
I appreciate that people want to understand exactly what has occurred here—
Yes, we do. He went on:
but the matters are still being investigated. They are investigated by an independent and professional police service. Let’s allow them to do their work and let’s see what the results of that are and then we will have a very good idea and clarity around what has occurred here and why it has occurred. And at that time we can have a broader conversation about the circumstances of this most unfortunate matter.
The police investigation has concluded, members. We have been assured that we will be provided with a full and comprehensive explanation. We have been told that there are matters that go well beyond the police investigation. We are still waiting for that explanation. We have been respectful to the members involved. We have called for information. We have asked for explanations. But, ultimately, we, along with the rest of the community and the media, have been waiting. We were told that we would
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