All must file integrity declarations from 1999

THE EDITOR: As one of those directly affected by the failure of the Government to lay the forms required by the Integrity in Public Life Act 2000 (as amended) (“The Act”) in Parliament and having regard to the rather spurious comments of the learned Attorney General on this issue, having read the Act carefully I would like to make the following observations.

(1) The Act requires me, as a person in public life, to make a full declaration of my assets and liabilities in the prescribed form for each calendar year during which I was a person in public life. “Calendar year” means January to December.
(2) Section 11(1) of the Act requires me to submit by May 31 of the following year the declarations in respect of the previous calendar year. So, because I became a Senator in October 2002, this means that I am obliged by the law to make a declaration for the calendar year 2002, ie, January to December 2002.
(3) But the deadline for me to make my declaration for 2002 expired on May 31, 2003.
(4) By Section 11(2) of the Act the Integrity Commission has the power to extend the deadline for the further filing of declarations for a period of not more than six months. In other words, the Integrity Commission does not have a “carte blanche” power to extend any deadlines for indefinite periods.
Hypothetically then, assuming that the prescribed forms are laid tomorrow in Parliament and they get the affirmative resolution required, the Commission can theoretically extend my deadline to November 30, 2003. Until then there is nothing legally that can force me to make the appropriate declarations. The Commission will not have the power after November 30 to extend the time unless the law is amended.
(5) But, you will appreciate that if I had been in public life, say in October 2001, then my deadline for that year would have expired on May 31, 2002, and assuming that I had got a six- month extension from that date, then I would have had to file on November 30, 2002. But, there were no forms on that date! So guess what? Tada! Tada! I have gotten clean away. I don’t have to file anything for that period! (You will, by the way, readily appreciate that whatever I say about myself as a person affected by the Act also applies to everybody else who is also affected by the Act. Hopefully, you get the point!)
(6) The Attorney General, by her recent statements as reported in the newspapers (August 14 2003) seems to (i) either have a complete misunderstanding of the Act or (ii) is deliberately trying to sweep under the carpet the fact that she, and many other persons, can escape their obligations to file declarations for the years, 1999, 2000 and 2001 unless something is done.

In the circumstances, I call upon the Prime Minister to state categorically and unequivocally and without the obfuscation that he is famous for that both he as well as every member of his government and every other person (eg, chairman and directors of State Companies, etc) affected by the legislation will voluntarily file all of their declarations from 1999 to date; and that they will authroise the Integrity Commission to make public the fact that this has been done. You will appreciate that a simple declaration of “yes, we will do it” is really not good enough without an independent body corroborating this fact, (Horror of horrors! Politicians have been known sometimes to abuse the truth) and these declarations will be filed, say, within a month of the forms being laid in Parliament. For the record, I have today written to the Senate President asking that we debate a motion that I have filed on this very point as a definite matter of urgent public importance.

SENATOR ROBIN
MONTANO