Courts Administration Authority

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:57): Supplementary: given the express concern of the Attorney in respect of this circumstance and the identification that the Chief Justice is responsible, did he make any enquiry as to why this circumstance arose last Friday?

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) (14:57): Can I make it clear that I did not say the Chief Justice is responsible for anything.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes.

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is warned and, alas, the deputy leader was already on two warnings.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I want to make it very clear, just in case the Chief Justice is having a break at the moment and tuning in, that I am not asserting—and I underline the word 'not', and if I was putting this on paper I would be using a red crayon now—I am not—in large letters underlined—asserting that there is any deficiency on the part of the Chief Justice in relation to the Courts Administration Authority. He probably has no greater idea as to whether the particular person employed by the Courts Administration Authority, of whom there are probably many, whose job it is to manage the availability of a particular courtroom at a particular moment in time, did their job well or poorly. I imagine he doesn't know, and I wouldn't expect him to know, and I explicitly do not accuse him of anything. I am simply making the point—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart is on two warnings already.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I am simply making the point that this particular very unhappy circumstance, which all of us agree is unacceptable, I do not put down to malice or misbehaviour or anything of the sort by the Chief Justice. I assume that it is, like most of these things, misadventure, accident or happenstance.

I don't think there was any deliberate attempt by anybody to cause any hurt or harm to this family. I regret it happened—we all do—but I'm not going around pointing fingers at people. I expect, though, that the Courts Administration Authority will have taken notice of the understandable public concern about this and that in the ordinary course of their business they will direct their minds to how they can ensure this doesn't happen again.

Can I make the point again: this is their business; they run the courts. I have every reason to believe that they are just as sensitive to these matters as we are. When I next meet with the Chief Justice, it may well be a matter I raise with him, to say that this has been raised by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the parliament. I will perhaps even obtain a copy of Hansard to share with him so that he knows exactly what has been said in the parliament about this matter.