Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to ask the minister again, whether, given all the other checks and balances in the public interest—not prejudicing future legal cases—whether exceptional circumstances would apply for example, in equivalent cases to that of Premier Dan Andrews in Victoria. We're told, although it's been in secret, that there have been two hearings against him under the Victorian IBAC.

I campaigned very hard, and did lots of talking to many, many voters in the lead-up to the Victorian state election. Our state team had as part of their platform strengthening the Victorian IBAC so as to have more public hearings rather than the private hearings that are currently in place in Victoria. That's what this legislation seems to be modelled on. I can tell you, Minister, that there was a huge amount of support for having public hearings. People were very aware of the fact that there were private hearings involving their Premier that they were not privy to, that the Victorian public were being kept in the dark about, and comparing that with the situation in New South Wales, where, because of public hearings, when you had a Premier who was under scrutiny by the New South Wales ICAC, well—surprise, surprise!—the Premier decided that she had to resign.

So, Minister, would exceptional circumstances apply if it were a Premier who was under investigation, or if it were a Prime Minister or a minister of the Crown under investigation? Would those be exceptional circumstances, that, along with everything else—that it was in the public interest and no legal cases would be prejudiced—would that be the case?