Matter of Privilege

Matter of Privilege, Speaker's Statement

The SPEAKER (11:32): I wish to speak on the matter of privilege that was raised with the Premier in relation to the Minister for Trade and Investment's alleged failure to declare an investment property on his register of interest. That was raised by the member for West Torrens. I make the following statement with regard to the matter of privilege raised by the member for West Torrens in the house yesterday.

Before addressing that matter, I wish to outline the significance of privilege as it relates to the house and its members. As I have reiterated in the past, it is not a device by which members or any other person can seek to pursue matters that can be addressed by debate or settled by the vote of the house on a substantive motion.

I have referred on a number of occasions to McGee in Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand, which in my view forms the relevant test. Generally speaking, any act or omission which obstructs or impedes the house in the performance of its functions, or which obstructs or impedes any member or officer of such house in the discharge of his or her duty, or which has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such a result, may be treated as a contempt and therefore be considered a matter of privilege, even though there is no precedent of the offence.

I refer to the matter raised by the member for West Torrens in relation to answers given by the Premier to a series of questions in the house yesterday, where the member for West Torrens alleges that the Premier has deliberately and intentionally misled the house. More specifically, the member for West Torrens asked the following question to the Premier:

Has the Premier's Minister for Trade and Investment failed to declare on his register of member's interest his ownership of a holiday rental apartment in the seaside town of Victor Harbor over a period of several years? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave was granted and he continued:

It was made public on 18 October 2018 that Mr Ridgway not only failed to declare his family home on his register of member's interest, he misspelt his name, and public reports today show that he has failed to declare an investment property in Victor Harbor.

The Premier provided the following answer:

I thank the member for bringing that to my attention. I wasn't aware of that, but I am happy to look into that matter.

The member for West Torrens then asked the following question:

My question is to the Premier. Has the Minister for Trade and Investment breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct by failing to declare an investment property on his register of member's interest?

The Premier provided the following response:

I just refer the member to my previous answer.

The member for West Torrens then refers to the following question asked by the Leader of the Opposition in the other place to the Minister for Trade and Investment:

Supplementary arising from the original answer: minister, when did you first inform your Premier of your oversight for the second failure to declare property that you own?

The Minister for Trade and Investment provided the following answer:

I thank the honourable member for his question. As far as I know, the Premier's office was [made] aware yesterday.

The member for West Torrens alleges that the Premier has deliberately and intentionally misled the parliament as his denial of knowledge of the Minister for Trade and Investment's ownership of a holiday investment property in Victor Harbor and the minister's failure to declare it on his register of interest does not accord with the minister's account that as far as he knew, 'the Premier's office was aware yesterday'.

I have had the opportunity to carefully read the Premier and minister's responses. As far as the Minister for Trade and Investment is concerned, the Premier's office may have been aware of his failure to declare his ownership of a holiday investment property on his register of interest declaration; however, at no time has the minister indicated that he conveyed that information about his failure to declare a holiday investment property on his register of interest to the Premier.

That said, there is nothing that can be brought to my attention to confirm or suggest that the Premier was in possession of the information conveyed to his office which the member for West Torrens alleges he has withheld from the parliament. Therefore, in the Chair's opinion this is not a matter of privilege for the reason I set out above.

Accordingly, I do not propose to give the precedence that would enable any member to pursue this matter immediately as a matter of privilege. However, my opinion certainly does not prevent any member from pursuing this matter by way of substantive motion.