Contents
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Commencement
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Members
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Bills
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Motions
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Petitions
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Parliamentary Procedure
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Parliamentary Committees
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Question Time
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Grievance Debate
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Matter of Privilege
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Bills
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Answers to Questions
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Question Time
Members, Accommodation Allowances
Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier support a motion of this house to release all country members' accommodation allowance claims forms and supporting documentation from 20 March 2010 to 30 June 2020? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain.
Leave granted.
Mr MALINAUSKAS: On ABC radio this morning, in response to a question whether the Premier would join me in supporting the release of all information right back to 2010 relating to the country members' accommodation allowance, the Premier stated, and I quote, 'Well, I think that's what's going to happen in the parliament today.'
The SPEAKER: That is not on the Notice Paper yet, so it is in order. The Premier has the call.
The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:07): Thank you very much, sir. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is important that we have transparency on this issue and that's why I very much support the statement that you made in this parliament earlier today, which I presume all members of this parliament are now aware of, and that is that that information as requested will be provided. I understand, of course, that there is an administrative component to that going back and getting those records over a 10-year period, and that will be provided.
My understanding is that you, sir, will be providing advice to this house as to exactly and precisely when that information can be provided. I think it is important that we look at this issue of country MPs' accommodation allowances. We know that over an extended period of time the Auditor-General has been responsible for auditing this allowance. This is an allowance which has been in place for decades. We have no information to suggest that anything is untoward whatsoever but, in an abundance of caution, I note, sir, that you have sent a letter to the Auditor-General asking him to review this and we wait for his report back to this house. If we need to take corrective action, that's exactly and precisely what we should do.