Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission
Tabling
Ms Colleen Egan (Thornlie) (11:03 am) : I present for tabling the third report of the Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission titled The Correct Action.
(See paper 789.)
Ms Colleen Egan: As Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission, I am presenting quite a short report today. As members know, adverse statements made by the Corruption and Crime Commission can significantly impact the reputations of people and organisations. They often attract media attention, are tabled in Parliament and stay on the public record into the future online. It goes without saying that the CCC has a duty to ensure that its reports are correct and that everything it publishes is correct. However, to err is human, as we know, and sometimes mistakes are made.
As a matter of principle, the committee believes that the CCC as the leading integrity body should have a policy to consider correcting and/or clarifying its own errors for the public record, particularly if the Parliamentary Inspector of the Corruption and Crime Commission believes that it is warranted. The issue of a corrections policy came to the committee's attention through correspondence regarding a case in which the Parliamentary Inspector Mr Matthew Zilko SC, discovered discrete errors in a CCC report and many months later, the public record had not yet been corrected.
I congratulate the new Commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission, Michael Corby SC, on his appointment to the role. He took swift action after receiving a letter from our committee regarding this matter and we thank him for his commendable response, which is detailed in the report. We also thank Mr Zilko for the advice and guidance that he provides this committee within its oversight role of the CCC, which we share with the parliamentary inspector.
In this short report, the committee has recommended that the CCC develops a policy to deal with any similar cases like this in the future. I thank my colleagues the member for Vasse and, in the other place, Hon Michelle Boylan and Hon Andrew O'Donnell and, of course, the staff.
