Members, Accommodation Allowances

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:39): My question is to the Premier. What process did the Premier conduct to satisfy himself that the administrative errors claimed by the members who sought to be invoiced for entitlements they were not entitled to were done appropriately and are accurate?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:40): As I have said several times already in parliament, that is an obligation on every individual member, whether they be a member of the government, a member of the opposition or a member of the crossbench. Ultimately, though, we have written to the Auditor-General and we have asked the Auditor-General to provide greater scrutiny on the country MPs' accommodation allowance going backwards and also continued and greater scrutiny going forwards.

It's one of the reasons why we are going to be publishing those records on an ongoing basis, on a monthly basis, and we think that this is a much higher level of scrutiny than has been considered previously, certainly much higher than had been considered under the previous government in its 16 years in office.