Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Hansard source

It also raises the question whether the chair is in breach of standing order 231, which states:

… no Member may sit on a committee if he or she has a particular direct pecuniary interest in a matter under inquiry by the committee.

One of the Wilson Asset Management investments which Mr Wilson holds is through his self-managed superannuation fund, meaning that in his retirement Mr Wilson may be impacted by the very policy his committee is inquiring into.

The next issue concerns the website. In or about November 2018, the chair authorised a website as the 'chair of the Standing Committee on Economics'. Mr Geoff Wilson has since admitted that he, along with a number of unnamed individuals, personally contributed to the cost of that website. The website includes the ability to submit to the committee a prefilled submission—which states it is against Labor's policy—and begins with, 'Attention: Tim Wilson MP, Chair'. Clearly this will mean that a number of the submissions received by the committee will have been written by the chair of the committee to himself, and that when the committee writes its report it will use evidence written by the chair. The fact that submissions to the committee are lodged through a website partly funded by a person with a vested interest in the chair's inquiry is also concerning. Again, this raises the question as to whether the chair's actions amount to an improper interference with the free exercise of his own committee's functions: the committee is being asked to assess evidence addressed to the chair which he himself wrote and which has been submitted through a website partly funded by a person with a vested interest in the chair's inquiry.

Equally concerning is that, from when the chair's website was set up until the beginning of February this year, people could only register to attend a public hearing of the inquiry on the website by agreeing to be registered for a Wilson Asset Management petition against Labor's policy. Fortunately, this has since been resolved. However, this again raises a question as to whether the chair improperly interfered with the free exercise of his own committee's functions such as to constitute a contempt of the House—that is, by only allowing people to register to attend a public hearing of the inquiry if they agreed to sign a Wilson Asset Management petition against Labor's policy. This website also continues to create the misleading impression that, in order to attend, people are required to register, even though that is not the case.

These circumstances are concerning not only because it meant that, in order to register to attend a public hearing of a parliamentary committee, people were forced to provide their private information to a commercial enterprise but also because it would likely have discouraged people who held a different view to that outlined in the petition from attending. It also may have the effect of continuing to discourage people more generally from attending. As such, in its deliberations, the committee will be forced to rely on evidence which has been prejudiced by actions of the chair. Again, this raises the question as to whether the chair has improperly interfered with the free exercise of his committee's functions.

The website also collects a large amount of private information from people who either registered to attend a public hearing, agreed to be contacted about future activities, or registered for the petition. This information is collected on a website which states it is authorised by the chair of the Standing Committee on Economics but is not operated by the committee's secretariat and is, in fact, partly funded by Mr Geoff Wilson. It is not clear who has access or who will have access to this information collected by the member for Goldstein in his capacity as chair.

It is also reported that at a public hearing of the inquiry on 30 January this year the chair did nothing when the member for Fisher called for people to join the Liberal Party while he was giving evidence to the committee, and then reportedly allowed the handing out of Liberal Party membership forms to people at the hearing.

The member for Mackellar has also used the member for Goldstein's position as the chair to encourage people to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser, and the chair allowed the member for Mackellar to have A-frames directly outside the public hearing of the committee, at the Dee Why RSL Club, printed with the member's face, name and the words 'Liberal Mackellar'.

I also note that, contrary to the House resolution on the registration of members' interests, it is reported today that the member for Goldstein failed to declare until today that he had been a director and shareholder of a particular company. In relation to this matter, I understand the member for Isaacs has, in accordance with practice, written directly to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests.

To assist you in considering this matter, I provide you—as is normal practice—with a number of documents. I ask you to consider giving precedence to a motion to refer any or all of these matters to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests. Additionally, for the matters I have raised, I ask you to consider and report back to the House as to any impact on the dignity of the parliament and its committee system. I thank you for your consideration of this matter.

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