40TH PARLIAMENT Report 52 STANDING COMMITTEE ON PROCEDURE AND PRIVILEGES A matter of privilege raised by Hon Jim Chown MLC Presented by Hon Kate Doust (Chair) September 2018 Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges Members as at the time of this inquiry: Hon Kate Doust MLC (Chair) Hon Simon O'Brien MLC (Deputy Chairman) Hon Martin Aldridge MLC Hon Adele Farina MLC Hon Rick Mazza MLC Staff as at the time of this inquiry: Mr Nigel Pratt, BA, BJuris, LLB (Clerk of the Legislative Council) Mr Paul Grant, BA (Hons), LLB (Deputy Clerk) Mr Grant Hitchcock, BA (Usher of the Black Rod) Address: Parliament House 4 Harvest Terrace, West Perth WA 6005 Telephone: 08 9222 7300 Email: [email protected] Website: www.parliament.wa.gov.au ISBN 978-1-925578-50-8 CONTENTS Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. i 1 Referral of a matter of privilege .................................................................................................. 1 The matter of privilege.......................................................................................................................................... 1 2 The timeline of established facts ................................................................................................. 3 3 The evidence before the Committee ......................................................................................... 12 Committee procedure ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Who said what at the pre-dinner drinks function? ................................................................................. 12 What information did Hon Darren West provide to the Minister for Education and Training on 7 or 8 April 2018? ....................................................................................................................... 16 Approaches to dealing with conflicting evidence ................................................................................... 18 Standard of Proof ................................................................................................................................................. 20 The Committee’s assessment of the evidence ......................................................................................... 21 Appendix 1 Transcripts of hearings ............................................................................................... 26 Appendix 2 Facebook posts............................................................................................................. 86 Appendix 3 Email: Cr Tracy Lefroy to Moora Shire President and Hon Jim Chown ............... 93 Appendix 4 Statutory declarations ................................................................................................. 94 Appendix 5 Response from Minister Templeman, Cr Jan Court and Hon Samantha Rowe.. 96 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 On 14 August 2018 a matter of privilege raised by Hon Jim Chown pursuant to Standing Order 93 was referred to this Committee for inquiry and report. 1.2 The matter of privilege is that the Council may have been misled by information provided to it in answers to two parliamentary questions. 1.3 The information relates to alleged commitments that Hon Darren West provided to two Moora shire councillors, regarding his willingness to engage an independent assessor to assess the repairs required for Moora Residential College to remain open and operational, and his alleged undertaking to source $500 000 if that was the amount required to repair the college. Hon Jim Chown has tabled statutory declarations from two witnesses that support the giving of these alleged commitments. Hon Darren West has made no comment in the House regarding the alleged commitments. 1.4 On 12 April 2018, Hon Samantha Rowe, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training, provided a response to Hon Jim Chown’s question without notice 284. The response was that the minister did not agree that Hon Darren West gave such a commitment. On 9 May 2018, Hon Jim Chown asked the Minister for Education and Training the following in question without notice 329 — (1) Has the minister asked Hon Darren West whether he provided such a commitment? (2) If yes, what was the honourable member’s reply? The minister replied — (1) Yes. (2) That he did not say what they claimed he said. 1.5 The Committee has held hearings and gathered oral and documentary evidence from all relevant parties. 1.6 The Committee undertook detailed inquiries into the conversation between the Hon Darren West and the two Moora councillors at a pre-dinner drinks function at the Western Australian Local Government Association Wheatbelt Conference on Thursday, 5 April 2018. The Committee was, however, unable to resolve a clear conflict of evidence as to what various witnesses claim was or was not said. 1.7 The unresolved conflict of evidence does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that any of the witnesses were untruthful. Many factors can affect a witness’ recollection of events, even when the witness is examined immediately after those events. Findings and recommendations FINDING 1 Page 25 The Committee finds that there is conflicting evidence regarding what was said between the Hon Darren West and Moora councillors, Cr Tracy Humphry and CrTracy Lefroy at the pre-dinner drinks function for the 2018 WALGA Wheatbelt Conference on the evening of 5 April 2018. Executive Summary i FINDING 2 Page 25 The Committee finds that the alleged contempt of the Legislative Council by Hon Darren West arising from the information that he gave to the Minister for Education and Training for the purpose of answering Question without Notice 329 is unproven. FINDING 3 Page 25 The Committee finds that no other person committed a contempt of the Legislative Council in relation to this matter of privilege. RECOMMENDATION 1 Page 25 The Committee recommends that the Legislative Council take no further action in relation to this matter of privilege. ii Executive Summary CHAPTER 1 Referral of a matter of privilege The matter of privilege 1.1 On Thursday, 28 June 2018, Hon Jim Chown raised a matter of privilege pursuant to Standing Order 93.1 1.2 The President having ruled, pursuant to Standing Order 93(5), that there was “some substance to the matter”, referred the matter of privilege to the Procedure and Privileges Committee (Committee) on 14 August 2018.2 1.3 The matter of privilege relates to whether any contempt of the Legislative Council was involved in the provision to the Council of information contained in answers by the Minister for Education and Training to questions asked by Hon Jim Chown. The basic facts are summarised in the President’s ruling as follows: In this particular case, the matter relates to alleged commitments that Hon Darren West provided to two Moora shire councillors, regarding his willingness to engage an independent assessor to assess the repairs required for Moora Residential College to remain open and operational, and his alleged undertaking to source $500 000 if that was the amount required to repair the college. Hon Jim Chown has tabled statutory declarations from two witnesses that support the giving of these alleged commitments. Hon Darren West has made no comment in the House regarding the alleged commitments. On 12 April 2018, Hon Samantha Rowe, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training, provided a response to Hon Jim Chown’s question without notice 284, in which it was stated that the minister did not agree that Hon Darren West gave such a commitment. On 9 May 2018, Hon Jim Chown asked the Minister for Education and Training the following in question without notice 329 — (1) Has the minister asked Hon Darren West whether he provided such a commitment? (2) If yes, what was the honourable member’s reply? The minister replied — (1) Yes. (2) That he did not say what they claimed he said. 1.4 The Committee notes that, in its 44th Report,3 it found that it was a contempt of the Legislative Council for a public servant to knowingly provide inaccurate or misleading information to a Minister for the purposes of the Minister answering a parliamentary question. 1 Hon Jim Chown, Western Australia, Legislative Council, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 28 June 2018, p 4077-78. 2 Hon Kate Doust, President, Western Australia, Legislative Council, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 14 August 2018, p 4225. 3 Western Australia, Legislative Council, Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges, Report No. 44, A Matter of Privilege raised by Hon Sue Ellery MLC, 8 November 2016. Chapter 1 Referral of a matter of privilege 1 1.5 The Committee adopted the following terms of reference for its inquiry on 15 August 2018:4 In relation to the answer to Legislative Council question without notice No. 329 asked by Hon Jim Chown, and answered on Wednesday, 9 May 2018 by the Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Sue Ellery: (1) Did Hon Darren West commit a contempt of the Council? (2) Did any other person commit a contempt of the Council? 4 Western Australia, Legislative Council, Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges, Report No. 50, A matter of privilege raised by Hon Jim Chown MLC - Terms of reference, 16 August 2018. 2 Chapter 1 Referral of a matter of privilege CHAPTER 2 The timeline of established facts 2017 planned upgrades to the Moora residential