Grievance Debate

Brand South Australia

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:32): Today, an extraordinary letter was delivered to the opposition by Mr Peter Joy, chair of Brand SA. In that letter, there are some serious accusations and questions that the Premier needs to answer. Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your earlier statement. The opposition made statements prior to question time congratulating you on your statement, despite the feelings in the house afterwards. However, there is one person who has made no apology, one person who has made no retraction, and that is the Premier.

We are told in this letter by Mr Peter Joy, the chair of Brand SA, whose reputation is impeccable, that he can categorically rule out that neither he, his board nor the chief executive released a letter from the Premier to anyone, as the Speaker confirmed today. We have subsequently found out today that the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the one public servant in that agency who answers directly to an elected official, whose contract is with that elected official—the only public servant in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet who can have his contract terminated by the Premier—told Mr Joy eight days before 16 May that their funding would be cut.

Yet the Premier in this parliament referred us to an answer to a question in the Legislative Council. The next day, at a media conference, which you were at, sir, the Premier told the assembled media that he did not want to answer that question in parliament because he was not sure whether or not Brand SA had received that email that was sent at 12:36 or so. What we now know is that the government had informed Brand SA. They did know that their funding was being cut. They had been told by the most senior public servant in South Australia that their funding would not commence.

In that letter from Mr Joy he makes it very clear that his view is that the parliament has been misled. There can be no more serious accusation made. I have to say that it is courageous that Mr Joy has done this, and I bet that it is with regret rather than anger that he has had to do this. But when a senior business leader in South Australia has to put pen to paper and put his signature to a document that says that the Premier of this state has misled this parliament, all of us should pay attention. All of us should be concerned.

Mr Speaker, on receipt of this letter, you immediately acted. You are to be congratulated. The Premier has not; the Premier doubled down. The Premier cannot even tell us if he knew whether his chief executive had told Brand SA whether or not their funding had been cut. We are to assume that the head of government, the Premier, in cabinet was not aware that Brand SA had had its funding cut, despite having signed a letter to Brand SA telling them that their funding had been cut and despite the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet eight days earlier telling Brand SA that their funding had been cut.

We are meant to believe that no announcement will be made until the budget. It is clear that the Legislative Council informed the House of Assembly that indeed an announcement had been made. How do we know that? By their telling us that no announcement will be made until budget day, yet we have a letter from the Premier and a letter from Mr Joy confirming that they had been told earlier. That is the announcement, yet we are meant to believe that the Premier has nothing to answer.

Well, I am sorry, but the house has been wronged. The question for us now is: what do we do about it? Do we use a majority in the parliament to just silence the truth? Do we let the majority just say, 'Well, regardless of what the facts are, we are going to ignore it all and move on,' and the train and the caravan move on? If the Premier cannot tell the truth in here, who can?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker: I know that you have already given an earlier warning about these statements in relation to untruths, lies and the like. I ask you to bring the member to order.

The SPEAKER: I again ask that members maintain some civility in here. Today, I appreciate, has had a level of volatility not seen before. I ask the member for West Torrens not to reflect on the Premier's conduct. He is finished?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: Minister, you have the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We are in grieves.