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

Contents

Freedom of Information

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): My question is to the Attorney-General. Given the Attorney-General's statement yesterday and again today in relation to FOI officers—yesterday's statement was, 'We defend their right to be an independent officer and we condemn anybody who would attempt to interfere with that'—and his indication today that they could take action themselves if they want, why won't the minister at least investigate the claims made in the Ombudsman's report that ministerial officers have attempted to interfere with them?

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) (14:52): As I said, I have had a chance to have a look at the report, although I haven't read every single word. I have read this bit. I looked at the footnote attached to this bit, and it said, 'See transcript'—which is not available. I do not know who this person is, and more particularly, if you read the footnote and you read the passage that everyone is getting very excited about, there is not one scintilla of evidence to suggest the person involved was in any way affected by the alleged conversation with the unknown person about an unknown topic.

I come back to the point. If there are FOI officers who are being asked to do things they know they shouldn't be asked to do by people who shouldn't be asking them to do that, they should complain and if they do so they will have the support of the government because they are doing the right thing.