Oakden Mental Health Facility

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:10): Supplementary: does the Attorney-General currently have no knowledge of the investigation appointment of MinterEllison or any budget approval for their investigation?

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) (15:10): The only knowledge I have of it is knowledge that I have acquired in the course of the revisiting of this topic in this place consistently over the last couple weeks. If the question you are asking is: did at some point in time a proposition come to me saying, 'Will you permit the Minister for Mental Health to do this or will you not?', no. That doesn't get escalated onto my desk. This is the sort of thing I am trying to explain.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: My goodness, you are humorous.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned for the second and the last time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I think it was actually the member for Schubert throwing his voice, Mr Speaker. In any event, the Crown Solicitor receives routinely many requests for external legal provision of services, and those requests are dealt with on their merits as and when they arise, and they are dealt with administratively, pursuant to the circular that applies to these things, by the Crown Solicitor.

That is not a matter that requires me to be involved. It is a matter that the Crown Solicitor does as part of their job, and for that reason I do not have a running tally of how many for how much and to whom in respect of those applications but, to the extent that I can obtain that information from the Crown Solicitor in order to answer the questions that have been asked, I will seek to do so.