Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Integrity and Oversight Committee

Performance of the Victorian Integrity Agencies 2020/21: Focus on Witness Welfare

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (10:25): I am pleased to give a contribution to the Parliament of Victoria’s Integrity and Oversight Committee Performance of the Victorian Integrity Agencies 2020/21: Focus on Witness Welfare report. I think that when we are talking about issues such as the Westminster tradition, I hope there is agreement on this that we are not talking about tradition for tradition’s sake; of course we are looking at the purposive nature of these traditions and how they assist in delivering the most fair and reasonable outcomes in terms of supporting our democracy. I would like to think that there is some sort of congruence on the central tenets of these traditions in terms of giving the greatest strength to the outcomes of committees and committee reports. So I think that is more the tangent that we would wish to take, as opposed to tradition for tradition’s sake.

I would like to commend all the committee members, of course we have the Chair Gary Maas, we have Brad Rowswell MP, Deputy Chair Stuart Grimley MLC, Dustin Halse MP –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! You need to refer to members by correct titles.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes. The member for Ringwood –

A member interjected. You’re in a different place.

Nina TAYLOR: I am in a different place – and other committee members are there as well. I am learning; come on, I am getting there. The other place has a slightly different flavour to the way that certain matters are delivered. It is all good. But I respect those matters.

In any case, thank you to all the committee members for their excellent contributions. Can I also commend the secretariat throughout the review, Sean Coley, committee manager; Dr Stephen James, senior research officer; Tom Hvala, research officer; Holly Brennan, complaints and research assistant; and committee administrative officers Maria Marasco and Bernadette Pendergast. I must say I concur with the Chair that it was an excellent report and there is always going to be a tension on all sides and all committee members having their particular perspectives on these matters, but I would like to think that, certainly from the perspective of government, the goal and certainly the outcome was to deliver the most fair and reasonable outcome possible for all involved, and I believe that was done.