Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the amendments moved by the member for Indi, and I speak because the exceptional circumstances have been set as a bar too high for public hearings. I'd like to address the examples the Attorney-General just raised in the chamber. The Attorney-General identified a number of exceptional circumstances where a public hearing would not be appropriate, with which I agree. There are absolutely circumstances, such as national security or where it could prejudice a criminal investigation, where a public hearing would not be appropriate. However, that doesn't actually cover the point, which is to say that no hearing should be public unless there are exceptional circumstances. I don't believe those examples actually go to the heart of this, which is that it's the prejudice to assume that it's only in exceptional circumstances—sorry: I think it goes to the opposite piece, where that's an argument to say, 'Well, under exceptional circumstances the hearing should be in private.' I 100 per cent agree. But that's not to assume that it's only exceptional circumstances where the hearings are in public.

I come from New South Wales, and one of the most egregious examples of corruption in New South Wales is the Eddie Obeid case, where the former New South Wales ICAC commissioner said, 'The operations behind these cases could not have been undertaken without public hearings.' As I said, this is one of the most egregious examples of corruption in New South Wales. The people of New South Wales are deeply appreciative of the ability to actually get awareness of this corruption, but this would not be possible under the circumstances outlined in the act.

The Victorian experience, when contrasted with the New South Wales experience, shows that there is a real difference in the operations of public hearings because of these exceptional circumstances. In the case of New South Wales, where there is a high bar to public hearings, we only get about five per cent of the hearings actually public. This is not something that is abused; this is something which is used extremely sparingly. So I agree with the member for Indi and I agree with the Law Reform Commission's example on this. Fundamentally, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it is absolutely crucial that exceptional circumstances be removed from this legislation. I support the amendments from the member for Indi.

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