Members

Members, Accommodation Allowances, Speaker's Statement

The SPEAKER (14:06): I wish to make a statement regarding the tabling of country members' accommodation allowance forms. Further to the statements I made in the house on 30 June and 1 July regarding country members' accommodation allowances, I advise the house that I have sought advice from the Commissioner of Police concerning the appropriateness of publishing home addresses or any information that would lead to the identification of the home or families of members of parliament.

I have considered the commissioner's advice and decided to table the country members' accommodation allowance forms in a redacted form so that the precise details of the members' addresses are not disclosed—the street name and number would not be disclosed, but the suburb would be. I have tabled a copy of the following:

correspondence from the Commissioner of Police dated 2 July 2020 regarding the appropriateness of publishing home addresses or any information that would lead to the identification of the home or families of members of parliament;

the House of Assembly country members' accommodation allowance claim forms for the period 1 March 2010 to 30 June 2020;

correspondence from the member for Narungga dated 17 July 2020 requesting to make repayment of country members' accommodation allowance claims made since 28 November 2018;

correspondence from the member for Schubert dated 20 July 2020 requesting to make repayment of country members' accommodation allowance claims; and

an email from the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development dated 20 July requesting to make repayment of country members' accommodation allowances for selective claims.

For members' benefit—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! For members' benefit, rather than have that thwack of documents be available, I believe we have the information available on the tabled database of the parliament. In theory, that should be available. I want to take this opportunity to also thank—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order. I do want to thank the staff who took literally tens of hours to compile that data in the most expeditious period possible.