House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-06 Daily Xml

Contents

Public Sector Confidentiality Agreements

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (16:50): My question is to the Attorney-General. When government agencies require public servants who are leaving the service of the government to sign confidentiality agreements about matters that have been in dispute with their employer, is it acceptable to the government for the confidentiality agreement to require the public servant not to go to ICAC?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (16:51): Yes, I thank the honourable member for the question. Can I say first of all, I am not aware of any such documents. I don't have any role in providing advice personally in relation to separations between individual employees and the state government. All I can say is that if such a document were to exist, I would be very interested to see it, because I would wonder whether such a document would first of all be enforceable, given the state of the legislation, but secondly it would indicate to me that there was some unsatisfactory advice being given around the place and that that needed to be fixed up. I take the honourable member's question very seriously. I think if there were such a thing going on, I would invite the honourable member to provide me with the details so that I can make the appropriate investigations.