Mr. Martin Callinan:

It is the case, as one would expect, that all of the recommendations which are a matter of public record at this stage centre on procedural issues and the need to reinforce and inculcate in those charged with the responsibility of cancelling notices that they should do so for good and valid reasons and within the guidelines. It is the case that when one is dealing with a discretionary issue, it is extremely hard to be absolutely either prescriptive or descriptive in legislating because people meet individual circumstances and have to deal with them as best they see fit using their professional judgment. I have seen some of the product of the assistant commissioner's report and would not be entirely happy with some of the judgments made. Nonetheless, the people who made these judgements made them for the reasons they made them, which is an entitlement. What I can do now is reinforce the need to be very careful when one is dealing with these issues and ensure they are being done for all the right reasons.

The Deputy mentioned the need to keep documentation which, of course, is vitally important. There is criticism in the report that this did not happen in a number of cases and, of course, there are a number of people subject to a disciplinary investigation. That has to be dealt with, of course. We need greater oversight of the process and generally a tightening of the procedures in place. What I have done in the interim and during the currency of the assistant commissioner's report is send a directive to all of the officers involved at a level where they are in a position to cancel notices to impress on them the need to adhere to the policies in place and to inform them that there will be a further recommendation coming down the road. I have appointed an assistant commissioner and a small team to ensure implementation and monitoring of that process.