NSW: HIH Commissioner to call in police

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2001
NSW: HIH Commissioner to call in police

SYDNEY, Dec 3 AAP - HIH Royal Commissioner Justice Neville Owen is calling in the police
to investigate how a confidential document relating to the inquiry was leaked to a magazine.

Justice Owen today said, at the opening of the commission's inquiry, he had serious
concerns about how the unnamed magazine got hold of a report about the role of Andersen,
HIH's auditors.

While initial inquiries suggested that the magazine did not get the information from
the commission, it could have been leaked by another party who was still bound by the
commission's confidentiality rules, he said.

If that was the case, then the Royal Commission Act of 1902 could have been breached
- a criminal offence.

Justice Owen said he had instructed the secretary of the commission to "refer to the
relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation, the circumstances surrounding
the publication of the article concerning the report."

Justice Owen said some aspects of the report had already been challenged by the auditors.

"My concern stems not simply from the fact that the law may have been contravened,"

Justice Owen said.

"Publication of confidential material in the face of the confidentiality orders strikes
at the integrity of the commission's processes and at the confidence the parties and the
general public can have in those processes."

The hearing is continuing.

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KEYWORD: HIH LEAK

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