Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-11-18 Daily Xml

Contents

PENRICE MINE

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH (15:14): By way of a supplementary question, will the provision of legal indemnity be a characteristic of all future community consultative groups?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:14): If you have a community group, one would expect that work undertaken by people on those groups should not involve them in any undue legal risk. I need to look at the advice. People should have legal indemnity. Where people work on government boards and have a reasonable indemnity, that should not necessarily flow through to deliberately reckless behaviour, and that is where we need the Crown Law advice to define the parameters. One would expect that anyone who is participating on these boards should not suffer from any work they undertake in a reasonable and diligent manner. The matter is fairly complicated, which is why unfortunately Crown Law has taken so long to get the advice back to the government. Clearly, we want an outcome where people should not fear undertaking work in good faith on these committees.