Matter of Privilege, Speaker's Statement

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:13): Thank you, sir. My question is to you. In light of your qualification of your remarks regarding your ruling on the Premier's statement in relation to cutting funding to Brand SA, will you now revisit the question of the privileges motion against the Premier?

The SPEAKER (14:13): The short answer is no. Whilst the member for West Torrens is entitled to ask these questions, I referred to a statement that I made in the house yesterday concerning that matter of privilege to which the member is referring, and as part of the initial statement I made some comments and, in quoting my original comments, I said:

The fact that Mr Joy chose to disseminate correspondence that he had received concerning the government's [decision] on Brand SA funding cannot, in my opinion, be considered sufficient enough to be regarded as the government's announcement…

In relation to that dissemination part, I qualified those remarks, and I did say today that I did not intend to assert that Mr Joy was the source of any leak but, rather, that correspondence addressed to Mr Joy found its way into the public forum, which it did. And so I retracted my earlier assertion and I did apologise—it is on the record—for any inconvenience that was caused to Mr Joy. I have nothing further to add. The member for West Torrens.

Members interjecting:

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