❓ Dr. Honey questions the Minister for Child Protection regarding a police raid on a Department of Communities employee and the referral of the matter to oversight bodies. The Minister acknowledges the question but doesn't provide a specific date, promising to bring it before Parliament.
AnsweredQoN 109Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
COMMUNITIES — POLICE RAID
109. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to recent allegations
levelled at an employee of the Department of Communities; the raid of her home
by 10 police, which has resulted in no official charges; and the fact that Western
Australian police have announced that they have dropped the investigation as it
would not be in the public interest.
(1) What date was
this matter referred to the Public Sector Commission and the Corruption and
Crime Commission?
(2) On what date
did the Department of Communities alert the minister or her office about
allegations of official documents being leaked by an employee of the
department?
109. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to recent allegations
levelled at an employee of the Department of Communities; the raid of her home
by 10 police, which has resulted in no official charges; and the fact that Western
Australian police have announced that they have dropped the investigation as it
would not be in the public interest.
(1) What date was
this matter referred to the Public Sector Commission and the Corruption and
Crime Commission?
(2) On what date
did the Department of Communities alert the minister or her office about
allegations of official documents being leaked by an employee of the
department?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) As
the Premier has indicated, and I reiterate, I want to be accurate in the
information I give Parliament. On the first question that the member asked with
regard to when the Department of Communities advised the Public Sector
Commission, I am sorry I do not have that date in front of me, but I am happy
to get that date and, for the sake of ensuring that it is accurate, bring it
before Parliament at the first opportunity.
I
reiterate the point that it was discovered that a large number of documents had
been downloaded and sent to an employee's personal email account and
perhaps forwarded on from there. That was one of the issues of concern to the
Department of Communities. The second issue was the nature of some of those
documents.
The proposition that a report was
made to police over one or two internal reports of the department is simply not true. In fact, the company that
undertook one of those reports, the so-called Westerman report, is
called Indigenous Psychological Services, so the idea that the IPS report and
the subsequent PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which have now been made public,
were the cause of a complaint to the police is just not true. That is not my
understanding of what led the Department of Communities to make a report to
police of a matter of the scale and nature that it was concerned about that
could be the result of criminal activity because of the nature of the report.
It
is important to highlight, too, that there is actually a requirement under the
Public Sector Management Act for
those matters to be reported to external authorities. I quote from a section of
the Public Sector Management Act
1994: any information that indicates criminal conduct should be immediately
referred to the WA police, in addition to notifying the Corruption and
Crime Commission for advice and possible investigation. That is what the WA
Public Sector Management Act says. That is what the Department of Communities
did and I, for one, think that was a sound thing to do; and, if it did not do
that, criticism would have been levelled at it.
the Premier has indicated, and I reiterate, I want to be accurate in the
information I give Parliament. On the first question that the member asked with
regard to when the Department of Communities advised the Public Sector
Commission, I am sorry I do not have that date in front of me, but I am happy
to get that date and, for the sake of ensuring that it is accurate, bring it
before Parliament at the first opportunity.
I
reiterate the point that it was discovered that a large number of documents had
been downloaded and sent to an employee's personal email account and
perhaps forwarded on from there. That was one of the issues of concern to the
Department of Communities. The second issue was the nature of some of those
documents.
The proposition that a report was
made to police over one or two internal reports of the department is simply not true. In fact, the company that
undertook one of those reports, the so-called Westerman report, is
called Indigenous Psychological Services, so the idea that the IPS report and
the subsequent PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which have now been made public,
were the cause of a complaint to the police is just not true. That is not my
understanding of what led the Department of Communities to make a report to
police of a matter of the scale and nature that it was concerned about that
could be the result of criminal activity because of the nature of the report.
It
is important to highlight, too, that there is actually a requirement under the
Public Sector Management Act for
those matters to be reported to external authorities. I quote from a section of
the Public Sector Management Act
1994: any information that indicates criminal conduct should be immediately
referred to the WA police, in addition to notifying the Corruption and
Crime Commission for advice and possible investigation. That is what the WA
Public Sector Management Act says. That is what the Department of Communities
did and I, for one, think that was a sound thing to do; and, if it did not do
that, criticism would have been levelled at it.
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