ASIC treating Parliamentary question as 'hypothetical'
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) wants to treat as “hypothetical” a Parliamentary question about whether people within the regulator were briefing members of the media about ASIC’s stood-aside chair, James Shipton.
The question was first raised by West Australian Labor back-bencher, Patrick Gorman during a recent hearing of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services and followed up in similar terms by NSW Liberal Senator, Andrew Bragg.
The question was posed to acting ASIC chair, Karen Chester, who denied any such briefings had occurred and then told the committee that she had been assured by ASIC’s media team that it had not been the part of any such briefings.
A question was then placed on notice: “Noting that ASIC claims that no such briefings occurred, will ASIC therefore waive any claim to confidentiality (including off-the-record or background status) of briefings provided to journalists and media commentators from ASIC staff with regards to the matters regarding James Shipton”.
ASIC’s formal response was: “In light of our answer to Senator Bragg’s question, we respectfully regard this question as hypothetical. If Mr Gorman has a specific journalist or article in mind we would be happy to consider that request”.
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