Grievance Debate

Attorney-General

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:14): Ray Finkelstein QC is a distinguished Australian lawyer and jurist. He was appointed to the bar in 1975, was solicitor-general of Victoria and then appointed to the Federal Court. He made silk in 1986. The independent advice written by Mr Finkelstein QC, who served on the bench with our own ICAC commissioner, the Hon. Bruce Lander QC, should send a chill up the spine of every government member.

The Attorney-General is bringing the state to the brink of a constitutional crisis. We have an Attorney-General who is facing a probe into her conduct by detectives of South Australia Police, a probe into the way she has conducted herself. This parliament is given privileges for a reason, and that reason is so that the government can inform the public and that we can have a debate here that can be seen without fear or favour by any South Australian.

This is the chamber where the first law officer or the then transport and infrastructure minister responsible for Renewal SA could have made a statement informing the people of South Australia why two executives of Renewal SA were on leave. We now know why. Instead of availing themselves of what the constitution and the parliament give them—that is, privilege in this place to make those statements—the Attorney-General has recklessly abandoned statutes and gone out in the public and broken an act she administers, an act that is assigned to her.

We rely on the Attorney-General, whoever that is, to be in regular communication with the ICAC commissioner, to be in regular communication in Executive Council with the Governor. We rely on the Attorney-General to be trusted by our police, by our ICAC commission and by our judiciary. What we have here is an esteemed former Australian Federal Court judge writing an opinion that is scathing, and I do not know why there is not a larger clamour on government benches about what has occurred.

Let me read out the conclusion. Any member can get a copy of this; it has been tabled in the Legislative Council. The conclusion by His Honour is that:

The Attorney-General's statement does tend to suggest that a particular person (the chief executive identified by the media) is subject to an investigation under the ICAC act. For this reason, in my opinion, there was a contravention of s56(a) when the Attorney-General uploaded the statement on her website.

These are the facts we have. We also have another piece of advice from His Honour that says the ICAC commissioner has no power granted to him by this parliament to make retrospective approvals for public statements.

We know from published reports in InDaily that the ICAC commissioner had a conversation with the Attorney-General. They both agreed, according to the recollection of the Hon. Bruce Lander QC, that no-one would mention an ICAC inquiry. Then, of course, there is the Attorney-General's public statement. This is the first sentence:

In respect of questions about Renewal SA executives that the government has received from both the media and the opposition, I confirm that:

I have enquired of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, Mr Bruce Lander QC, as to whether there is any further information that can be made available on this matter. He confirmed that there is not.

Anyone reading that can know that she is talking about an ICAC investigation and identified Renewal SA executives, and she was not authorised to do so and is still not authorised to do so.

It is important to note that the ICAC commissioner's approval is only for the media to publish the Attorney's statement, not for the Attorney to make the statement. The Attorney-General needs to release the advice she is relying upon to the parliament to clear it up—at the very least to her colleagues.

South Australia Police are independent. There is an act guarding very fervently their independence, and they are probing this matter. It could become an investigation and there could be charges. While every member on the backbench sits and lets this Attorney-General stay in this portfolio, they are abandoning the oaths they took to keep this parliament above, I think, the very best standards the people of South Australia expect.