Page 1234 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: In terms of transparency, the opposition may not have noticed but the Chief Minister and I and the Chief health Officer have been doing press conferences pretty much every day for about six weeks, including on weekends, live, on line, on the ABC, on Facebook, where journalists were able to ask us any questions they wanted to about the implementation of the directions which are publicly available online, as Mr Rattenbury has indicated. I am happy to expand further in answer to a supplementary.
MR COE: Minister, in light of that view, why is it that you think that the Human Rights Commission got it so wrong?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Coe for the supplementary and I certainly would not put it in those words. But I would say that there is transparency and then there is sort of bureaucratic process through the Assembly and the Human Rights Commission. In terms of transparency, in addition to the press conferences, which have also been attended on occasion by the Chief Police Officer, who has been very happy to provide advice to the community about the oversight of the compliance arrangements in relation to the directions, which I know is another matter that the Human Rights Commission has raised, the Assembly itself has also established an inquiry into the COVID-19 response, which Mr Coe chairs and which provides another level of transparency. They can call the Chief Health Officer and the Chief Police Officer and me to any hearing of that inquiry that they wish, and that provides another level of transparency.
I have not had an opportunity to talk to the Human Rights Commission about what other processes they would like to see in terms of transparency. But this Legislative Assembly is sitting. That Legislative Assembly inquiry exists. We have been doing almost daily press conferences for two months where any journalist can ask us any question about the implementation of the directions which are publicly available online. I would be very happy to have a conversation with the Human Rights Commission about what additional processes they would like to see but I absolutely reject the proposal put forward that the implementation of our response to COVID-19 has been lacking in transparency. That is certainly not the feedback that we receive from the ACT public.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, how is it that you have not already consulted the Human Rights Commission, given that the commission has made a submission to the COVID committee and has given evidence to the COVID committee and has raised these concerns before the COVID committee as well as in the media?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Obviously they have made a submission to the COVID committee which is a form of transparency in relation to the implementation of the COVID-19 response. They have raised this general concern about transparency but from my recollection they have not made any specific recommendations about what additional—
Mrs Dunne: Yes they have.
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