Canberra, 9 June 1969
5681. Confidential
Your 3660.1
Select Committee on Constitutional Development
1. Minister would like you to ensure that Official Members during debate state the Government’s position—
(a) That establishment of Select Committee is matter entirely for elected members to decide and officials will therefore express no opinion as to its desirability.
(b) Accordingly they will not vote if division called.
2. Official Members should, however, press for inclusion of two Official Members of any committee set up and seek to have nominations of officials left to Administration. As advised our 2485 para ‘F’ in reply to your 1102,2 Minister agrees on Johnson. Minister wishes second member be D.D.A. man to support Johnson fluent in pidgin (see our 4679).3
3. We expect to send in a few days preliminary working paper on possible lines of constitutional development which Select Committee, if established, might consider.
4. We envisage that when the Administration have had time to look at this paper a joint meeting will be held in Canberra with the two Official Members and others from the Administration (e.g. Law). Following those talks there will be a submission to Cabinet. Following Cabinet’s decision there would be another meeting to discuss a detailed brief of the same kind as the one prepared for Official Members on the last Select Committee.
5. Glad advice who you consider should be second Official Member and also whether you consider Ministerial Members should not be members of this Committee—should the view be adopted that they should act in personal capacity (or with private member status) on this Committee on the ground that it is entirely sui-generis and has no relation to their ministerial responsibilities?
[NAA: A452, 1969/1135]
1 See footnote 5, Document 269.
2 Hay had recommended to Canberra that he ‘would favour at the most one Official Member (probably Johnson)’ (telex II 02, 14 February 1969, NAA: A452, 1969/1135), to which Warwick Smith had replied as recorded in the final dot point of paragraph 1.2, Document 261.
3 Document 269.