Mick Gentleman accused of using his power to 'influence, suggest or pressure' WorkSafe ACT by colleagues

The Assembly's select committee on estimates has said they believed Mr Gentleman and work health and safety commissioner Jacqueline Agius interfered with the work of the committee and the "interference was improper".

Mr Gentleman has said the committee was wrong and had no evidence to support its claim.

Budget estimate hearings at the Legislative Assembly were forced to come to a halt last month after WorkSafe ACT issued a prohibition notice on the hearings about the lack of a COVID risk assessment.

This was despite the fact the Assembly had already had an existing COVID-safety plan in place and had so for the past two years.

The committee has outlined its concerns about the prohibition notice in a scathing submission to a parliamentary inquiry which is investigating whether the issuing of the notice amounted to a possible contempt of the Assembly.

Select estimates committee members are the Liberals' James Milligan, Labor's Marisa Paterson and Greens' Andrew Braddock.

The committee's submission said: "It is the belief of the estimates committee that Minister Gentleman may have used his position as Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety to influence, suggest, or pressure the WorkSafe commission to issue a prohibition notice to interfere with the committee's ability to conduct hearings in person with online available in exceptional circumstances".

But Mr Gentleman has denied he interfered with the process. He said the WorkSafe commissioner was required to act independently and was not subject to the direction of anyone else.

"The assertion from the estimates committee is wrong and there is no evidence to support it because it doesn't exist," he said.

"WorkSafe ACT is an independent regulator; they keep workers safe and no work place, including parliament should be above the law."

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Submissions to an inquiry into the issuing of the notice show a staffer from Mr Gentleman's office had contacted the commissioner, saying the office had "significant concerns" about how the committee would meet its work health and safety obligations.

This email came after Mr Gentleman had written to committee chair Mr Milligan on three occasions to request a hybrid model for the hearings, where officials could choose to attend online or in-person.

The committee wanted ministers and key officials to attend in person.

A timeline of the events from Ms Agius has shown WorkSafe was first contacted by phone on Thursday, August 11 from someone at the Legislative Assembly about the matter.

The email from Mr Gentleman's staffer was sent following this phone call and Ms Agius passed the email on to her colleagues, which resulted in the inspection of the set-up for the hearings.

It has also been revealed the committee had to write to witnesses and issue public statements about "factually incorrect" statements made by Mr Gentleman.

The committee pointed to an interview Mr Gentleman had given on ABC Radio on Wednesday, August 17, where he said the committee required 40 people to be in one room and Canberra was experiencing record COVID cases.

The largest committee room only allowed a maximum of 21 people under the Assembly's COVID-safe plan and the comment about record COVID cases came when cases were at the lowest point since February 2022.

Legislative Assembly Speaker Joy Burch also submitted a series of correspondence to the inquiry, which addressed her previously aired concerns about the issuing of the notice.

In correspondence to members of the Assembly, Ms Burch described the issuing of the notice as a "very difficult and distressing action".

The Speaker also wrote to Ms Agius describing the notice as a "grave threat to the privileges of the Assembly".

The separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers in the ACT government, along with parliamentary privilege, meant the safety inspector - a function of the executive - should be unable to prevent the Legislative Assembly from operating.

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