CRIMINAL APPEALS

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Urban Development, Planning and the City of Adelaide, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Food Marketing) (15:22): I would very much prefer not to be here at this present time, nor to be occupying the time of another member on this side of the house who wants to say something constructive about the work that they are doing in their electorate and the work that their communities are doing or issues that are very important to them but, I consider that, having suffered the provocation in question time the other day from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and again today, and having had it then—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I listened to you in silence. Then today to have it made even worse by this miserable attempt at self-justification that we have just heard, I am left with no choice but to come in here and say a few words reluctantly about this distasteful topic. The first thing I need to make very clear, and I have said it already a couple of times in question time, is this: the Director of Public Prosecutions is the person who makes decisions about whether cases are prosecuted in this state and whether appeals are taken in respect of convictions obtained or not obtained in this state. That is point No.1.

Point No.2: to the best of my recollection, I do not recall—aside from the particular case mentioned by the deputy leader, namely the Nemer case—an attorney-general interfering in the prosecutorial discretion of the Director of Public Prosecutions. I do not recall it. At the very least, we have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition comparing a single event that has occurred in the last decade—incidentally, not one that has occurred during my tenure but, nevertheless, a single event—to one particular case out of the hundreds if not thousands of other criminal cases that have been heard here in South Australia in the last decade. One single case!

What is it that is so particularly interesting about this one particular case? In the last six months we had a case where a young man was charged with the offence of murder and was given a non-parole period below the 20-year maximum, and there was public outcry about that. It went to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The director exercised his discretion and decided that no appeal was appropriate. What did they say about that? Nothing, not a word, not a single word.

We had another case here recently where a woman, apparently in a moment of great anger and frustration, killed her husband. I believe he was burned. There was much public outcry about that, a great deal of public outcry about that, and there were questions about whether she received the right sentence, which I believe might have been a suspended sentence. What did we hear from them about that case? Nothing, absolutely nothing. In that case, again, the director exercised his discretion. They did not complain about that. They did not ask me to review that.

There are hundreds if not thousands of other cases where the great legal mind of the deputy leader—having read something in The Advertiser which goes for two paragraphs—might have formed a different opinion to the opinion expressed by the judge, but what does he do? Nothing. We know what is going on here. It is transparent what is going on here, and it is a great shame to the deputy leader personally, and to the leader, who must have authorised this rubbish, that this parliament is being abused in this way.

I ask all those who sit behind this man: are you proud of what he is doing? Are you proud of the way he is misusing this chamber? Are you proud of a leader who is prepared to authorise and endorse this behaviour? All this talk about political prisoners—what a lot of rubbish! It is absolutely—

Mr Williams: Tell us what you think about Paul Nemer.

The SPEAKER: Order! Continue, Attorney.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Madam Speaker, I could go on, but it is obviously futile.

Mr Williams: Not a word about the Nemer case.

Mrs Geraghty: Shame on you.

Mr Williams: That's what it is about, and you know it.

The SPEAKER: Order! Sometimes I wonder why I am here.