Grievance Debate

McGowan, Dr C.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:06): The situation for the largest and one of the most important departments in this state and its chief executive is getting more and more serious and the position of the chief executive is becoming more and more tenuous. Day after day in this parliament we are hearing more revelations about how Dr Chris McGowan has lied to parliamentary committees, how he has covered up his lying, and he has not showed any honesty in his dealings with the parliamentary committees.

This all originally came about because of a secret directorship that he held. He did not even tell the Premier or the health minister that he was holding that directorship and then he backdated that directorship. That then spurred an independent inquiry that the Premier originally said was not needed but has now been ordered by the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment. Sadly, that inquiry has not started yet.

At that time, we said that Dr McGowan should stand down pending the inquiry, but since that time we have heard more and more revelations that raise more and more serious questions and allegations about Dr McGowan's conduct. Yesterday, we heard that, despite Dr McGowan saying to the Budget and Finance Committee that he was not involved in the business in terms of dealing with Silver Chain, he had a secret meeting in Perth to visit Silver Chain to talk about their site, that he had a meeting with his staff to talk about the Silver Chain program and then two weeks after that meeting a contract was signed for Silver Chain for $2.9 million, yet he then went on to say to the parliamentary committee that he was not involved in any of the negotiations about that program.

Now today, what we have learnt is another revelation of Dr McGowan lying to the parliamentary committee, this time about Liberal Party fundraisers. Last year, he was asked at his first appearance if he had attended any Liberal Party fundraisers and he said that he had certainly not attended those fundraisers. 'Certainly not' is what he said. Yet what we find out now is that less than two months after he appeared he received an email from Tess Meldrum at Silver Chain, which said:

Hi Chris

I have been able to access your calendar to provide the following plus relevant attachments.

20 February 2013—Liberal Party Special Dinner with Shadow Minister For Health And Ageing…

who at the time was Peter Dutton—

3 July 2013—Federal Election Dinner at Burswood WA

that was with Tony Abbott—

22 October 2013—Liberal Dinner with Steven Marshall at Robin Hood Hotel, Norwood SA

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr PICTON: That is right. I have never heard of that one. This dinner with Steven Marshall and the now Speaker at the Robin Hood Hotel in Norwood—

The SPEAKER: If the member for Kaurna makes another display, he will be leaving.

Mr PICTON: Then we had another one, which is the latest one, being 23 June 2017: Liberal Party gala dinner, International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour in Sydney. That one was with Malcolm Turnbull, but it was also advertised as involving premiers, cabinet ministers, other state leaders and party office-bearers. So the big question is whether Steven Marshall was at that fundraiser as well. That reportedly involved tables of up to $10,000, which raises the question of whether there was any breach of the Electoral Act involved with the South Australian people who were there.

What we know is that there are more and more allegations coming out. The Premier is deflecting all of this, but it is clear that Dr McGowan lied to the committee. It is clear that Dr McGowan misled the parliament about both Silver Chain and these Liberal Party fundraisers. More than that, he covered up this information because he knew about this information back in September last year and made no attempt to correct the record of parliament about knowing about these Liberal Party fundraisers. It is always the cover-up, not the crime and, in this situation, there is a significant cover-up of that information.

He has now been caught and I think it raises a serious question about whether he can be trusted. If he cannot be trusted on these matters, what matters is he presenting to the parliament and to other bodies that we cannot know whether he is telling the full truth? That is why he needs to stand down, pending a proper independent investigation. We understand that that independent investigation has not even started yet. This government is moving so slow on this. They need to start that independent investigation and they need him to step down while that is underway. If this was happening to a staff member 10 rungs down, they would be facing much more serious consequences than somebody on $560,000 a year is facing.

The Premier originally said that this did not reach a threshold, but this is becoming more serious by the day. He cannot keep ignoring this. He cannot keep deflecting questions. He must call on Dr McGowan to step down from his role immediately.