Commissioner) may not be the person having the function of "making the report", it does not in terms provide for how the presiding officer's witness credibility assessments might be provided to the relevant Commissioner and taken into account in the preparation of a report as required by s 74(3).
82 From the Commission's perspective, one obvious way of achieving that outcome is by the Chief Commissioner requiring the presiding officer, if still an Assistant Commissioner, to provide that assistance, if necessary exercising the power under s 6A(3). The question raised by the applicant's argument, ultimately one of construction, is whether that is the only way of achieving that outcome; or whether it can be achieved by the presiding officer being appointed as a consultant to provide that service, information or advice after his or her appointment as an Assistant Commissioner has expired, including in circumstances where it cannot be renewed because of the time limitations in s 5(4) of the Act and cl 5(4) of Sch 1 to the Act.
83 The Act does not in terms state that the only means by which the Commission might secure that assistance in the preparation of its report is from the presiding officer whilst still an Assistant Commissioner. However, it does in terms provide that a suitably qualified person may be engaged to provide the Commission with "services, information or advice" (s 104B), and in doing so it does not limit in any way the subject matter of the "services, information or advice" which might be provided.
84 Nor does the Act describe the function of providing such assistance as one to be performed by an Assistant Commissioner as part of the function of presiding at a public inquiry or otherwise.
85 There is no warrant to read down the language of s 13(3)(a), which includes as a principal function and power of the Commission the making of findings and forming of opinions "on the basis of the results of its investigations". In relation to the exercise of that function, acceptance of the applicant's argument would impose an unwarranted limit upon the Commission's ongoing access to assistance and information concerning its investigation.
86 For these reasons, this argument should be rejected. The appointment of Ms McColl as a consultant under s 104B was valid and effective. Her assistance in the drafting process was the provision of "services". It also involved Ms McColl providing "information" or "advice" as to her assessments of the credibility of witnesses. Having presided at the two public inquiries, she continued to be an officer of the Commission (s 3(1)) following her appointment under s 104B, and was the person best placed to make those assessments. Those assessments were "important factors for the Commission to consider in properly weighing the evidence and making [its] findings of fact" ([2.38], extracted at [63] above). In providing those assessments to the Chief Commissioner, Ms McColl was communicating information concerning the results of one part of the Commission's investigation. The Commission, in making the Report, did not act beyond
