Page 2214 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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The bill significantly reduces complexity and increases protection for disclosers and witnesses, as well as encouraging a more proactive disclosure culture to support transparent and robust responses to matters of integrity. The bill effects extensive improvements to encourage a more proactive disclosure culture within the ACT public service and here in the Legislative Assembly. I thank members for their support and commend the bill to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (11.40), by leave: I move amendments Nos 1 to 7 circulated in my name together and table a supplementary explanatory statement to the amendments [see schedule 1 at page 2320].
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (11.41): I will speak briefly. These amendments boil down to two issues which, as I said in my earlier speech, I raised with officials in the briefing I took on this bill. The bill, as it currently stands, provides that the Integrity Commissioner can refer a public interest disclosure about a Legislative Assembly member to the parliamentary standards commissioner for investigation. The standards commissioner is not a statutory entity, so it is not appropriate for the commissioner to be investigating a public interest disclosure.
The first of the government’s amendments is to remove the commissioner from the list of entities to which the Integrity Commission can refer a PID for investigation, and I am glad that the government has heard my concerns. I think that I was not the only person who expressed concerns on this issue. Instead, the amendment will provide that the Integrity Commissioner must undertake the investigation into any PID about an Assembly entity and may not refer it to anyone else. Further, the standards commissioner is included in the list of Assembly entities.
The second area of amendment relates to PIDs that are referred to members of the Legislative Assembly. The act currently allows a discloser to make a referral of this nature also to a journalist if a disclosure that they have made has not been dealt with in accordance with the act.
Indeed, this happened to me during the term of this Assembly. My problem was that there was no guidance on how I should deal with it or what I should do with it. I had to get advice, which boiled down to, “Be very careful, Mrs Dunne; make sure that if and when you say anything about a PID, or do anything about it, you do it under privilege.” There probably needs to be a little more guidance for members than that. That advice was obvious and appreciated, if not particularly helpful.
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