CORONAVIRUS —
RESTRICTIONS — DOCUMENTATION
1306. Hon PETER COLLIER to the Leader of the House:
I have given the Leader of the House
a copy of this question.
I
refer to the Leader of the House's statement to the house on 11 November,
tabling documents in relation to the order determined by the Legislative
Council.
(1) Is the Leader
of the House aware that on 17 November 2020, the Chief Health Officer informed
the Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations as follows —
� the request was for information
that I had received from the Premier and other parties, not for information I may
have provided to those parties.
(2) Is the Leader
of the House aware that the Chief Health Officer also advised that he keeps
notes of all conversations that he has with
the Premier ''in the form of a diary'', yet he was not asked by
the government to provide copies of those diary notes?
(3) Can the Leader of the House confirm that she did
not ask for these documents prior to giving her statement on 11 November?
(4) Will the
Leader of the House undertake to table these missing documents at the
commencement of tomorrow's sitting; and, if not, why not?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
giving me a copy of the question prior to the taking of questions.
(1)–(2) These parts of the question refer to quotes. They
are in quotation marks and they are in italics. I am not sure what they
are quotes from.
Hon Peter Collier: From the
estimates hearing.
Hon SUE ELLERY: The Leader of
the Opposition may well be telling me that —
Hon Nick Goiran interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order! Member, the minister is
trying to provide a response. She might be guided by the person who
actually asked the question, not by others, if she is seeking that assistance.
Hon SUE ELLERY: If the
question is whether I have read those words in the uncorrected Hansard,
uncorrected record or whatever of the estimates committee last week, the answer
is no, I have not.
I just asked the Clerk to provide me
with a copy of the motion passed by the house. I have a copy of the letter sent
to me by the President on 5 November. If I assume that the quote in part (1),
which says that the Chief Health Officer told the committee ''the
request was for information that I had received � not for information I may
have provided'', that is what this motion says. I am not sure how the
member could draw the conclusion that the notes that the Chief Health Officer
wrote in a diary of a conversation that he had constitutes something that he
received. I am not sure how the member draws that conclusion. In any event, if
I can get access to those quotes, I am happy to check them.
(3) People need
to understand that the Chief Health Officer does not report to me. He is an
independent statutory officer. His dealings are with the Premier and the
Minister for Health, and they are the people for whom I requested information,
or passed on the order that was made by the house.
(4) I cannot give
the Leader of the Opposition an undertaking that I will table these missing
documents. I do not know that any documents are missing. I do not know the Hansard
that the member is referring to. I will take
the Leader of the Opposition's question and I will give it
consideration, but I am not sure that I am going to be able to help the Leader
of the Opposition much further than the Chief Health Officer was.