Courts Administration Authority

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:58): My question is to the Attorney-General. When will the Attorney-General provide the court system (the Courts Administration Authority) with enough funding to ensure water doesn't come through the court ceiling when it rains?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:58): It is a very important question from the member for Hartley, and a matter very close to my heart. I have been and continue to be concerned about the conditions in which our judiciary, particularly the District Court and the Supreme Court judiciary, are currently housed. Those conditions are not adequate. They are in buildings that require work, and they require maintenance. I remain hopeful that, with good arguments and good fortune at my heels, I may one day persuade the whole of cabinet that this is a priority to be escalated up the list.

But, until that time, we are providing money—in fact, I think, if I am not mistaken, in this budget that was handed down recently by the Treasurer in this respect has been very good. I think you will find in the budget papers some millions of dollars have been allocated by the Treasurer to assist in the maintenance and proper repair of the courts. I am hopeful, now that he is onto this track, that he will continue to think—

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is called to order.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —kindly about them. We recognise they need repair and we recognise they need maintenance and, as I said, if my memory serves me correctly, the Treasurer was very good and, in his budget, provided a sum of money to help those facilities be repaired and maintained.

There is no argument from me, or anybody else, that those buildings are very aged buildings. One, in particular, the Supreme Court building (as the member for Hartley might know; others might not know) is a 19^th century building which was originally the old Magistrates Court, strangely enough, and that is now the Supreme Court. It is a magnificent building, if any of you have visited the building to have a look around, but you will notice signs of ageing around the building. It does need repair, I accept that, and so does the Samuel Way Building. The Samuel Way Building does also require, from time to time, maintenance—

Mr Picton: It used to be a department store.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —and that has got, indeed, a very colourful history. Charles Moore's, I think, was the original title of that building, and there are some here who might even have parents who remember that it burnt down once many years ago. It has since been restored, but it does cost money.

The SPEAKER: We were both alive at the time of its burning down.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I was trying to make us sound a bit younger, Mr Speaker—at least you got the joke. The Speaker was paying attention to that one. Yes, they do need repair and they do need maintenance. As I understand it, there was money in the budget. I am concerned about it, and people in the Courts Administration Authority are rightly concerned about it.

As Mr Speaker has often pointed out, there was an opportunity some time ago, during his tenure in my current office, for a move to be made to what is now the SA Water building and, for whatever reason at that time—and there was some controversy, I have heard, if that is one way of putting it, between the present Speaker and a former chief justice about exactly what did or didn't happen, but there was an offer, anyway—the offer was not taken up. So, now we have this situation where we are, unfortunately, housing these people in buildings that require a lot of work.