Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. Public hearings are an essential part of a credible anticorruption commission to rebuild trust in government. You've indicated that public hearings will be held only in exceptional circumstances. Why is the government setting the bar this high, instead of whenever it is in the public interest? And what are exceptional circumstances?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and I thank her for her interest—along with that of the rest of the crossbench and, indeed, the whole of the parliament—in this very important piece of legislation that we're going to be introducing tomorrow. The particular question that has been asked by the member for Curtin goes to the circumstances in which the commission will be able to hold public hearings. The most important part of this is that the commission will have power to hold public hearings. That will be when there are exceptional circumstances, in the opinion of the commission, and where it's in the public interest to do so, in the opinion of the commission.

There are a number of factors outlined in the bill, which the commission may consider before deciding to hold a public hearing, and it is appropriate, in the view of the government, that the discretion sits with the commission. We are not going to be directing the commission as to when it should hold private hearings and when it should hold public hearings, but I think all of those in this House would be aware that there will be a number of circumstances which will dictate against holding a public hearing. It might be that the subject matter of the investigation is concerned with national security information, or it might be that the subject matter of the investigation deals with matters that are either the subject of a current criminal trial or a projected criminal trial. All of those are going to be matters that would suggest to the commission that no public hearing should be held at a particular time, but a time may come later in the investigation when a public hearing is going to be appropriate. But, at all times, we think that this matter should be left to the discretion of the commission.