❓ The Minister addresses concerns about the release of documents related to the finance broking scandal, highlighting the government's commitment to transparency and the resources dedicated to fulfilling this promise, while acknowledging delays due to the volume of documents.
AnsweredQoN 542Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
FINANCE BROKING INQUIRY, RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS
What actions has the Government taken to meet its undertaking to release documents relating to the finance broking scandal of the Court Liberal Government? Mr KOBELKE
What actions has the Government taken to meet its undertaking to release documents relating to the finance broking scandal of the Court Liberal Government? Mr KOBELKE
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
Mr KOBELKE replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
Mr KOBELKE replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
Prior to the election the Labor Party issued a five-point plan for dealing with the finance broking scandal. One of those points was to provide documents, and we have fulfilled that promise. This issue was raised at the weekend in an article in The West Australian , largely driven by a release from Mr Solomon who claimed, in part, that we were not releasing documents of this sort and also that I had not replied to his letters. In fact, I wrote to Mr Solomon on 12 June, 24 October and 8 November, in response to his various letters. In my reply of 12 June I provided copies of three legal opinions sought by Mr Solomon, access to which had been denied by the former Government. The previous Government had clearly tried to deny access to those legal opinions at every turn, and to deny access to a whole range of other documents that Mr Solomon was seeking on behalf of his clients. We have taken a very different approach and we are providing those documents. I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
I can understand that Mr Solomon and his clients are perhaps a little frustrated at the time this is taking, but we have had to go through 700 files containing 185 000 folios. It has taken quite a length of time to search, sort, collate and provide the information sought by Mr Solomon and his clients, and it has also taken a large commitment of resources. In fact, I am advised that the State Government has spent more than $200 000 doing that work on behalf of Mr Solomon. I am also informed that the normal process by which Mr Solomon and his clients would have to pay for that has been forgone, and we are not expecting payment because we said in that election statement that we would clean up this mess. A key element of cleaning up the mess left by the previous Government was to provide access to documents. We are doing that with the greatest speed possible. We regret that it has taken some time, but this has been due to the complexity and the number of documents, as well as the commitment of resources. A number of those documents have now been handed over and others are ready to be handed over. Mr Solomon has that list of documents and we will provide the remaining documents as soon as we can.
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