Parliament House Staffers

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Premier. Why did the Premier actively encourage South Australians to observe the allegations that were being made in the other place yesterday if he thought they had no credibility or merit whatsoever?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier will resume her seat. The member for Wright is called to order. The member for Lee will leave for 15 minutes in accordance with standing order—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: In silence.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (14:21): Can I indicate to the house, in considering the statement made by the Hon. Tammy Franks yesterday in the other place, that a number of these issues that were recounted are actually already detailed in the report of the acting equal opportunity commissioner in February this year.

I put them into three categories of areas of complaint. In her report, the review of sexual harassment in the South Australian parliament relates to the behaviour of staff and MPs as to their inappropriate comments in relation to women. I put them in a general category because there are a number of them traversed in her report that appear to overlap with some of the matters raised by the Hon. Tammy Franks.

In respect of the alleged sexual conduct, what I would call the lewd behaviour, sexual gestures in a workplace, they are again traversed in relation to two survey recipients who have been reported in Ms Strickland's report, and that includes the allegation of a male exposing himself. This is not a new matter that has been raised, but one which the Hon. Tammy Franks has outlined in her position. Some of that material she has not witnessed, she says, but has been reported to her, which she has outlined.

The other is an area that has been fairly much overlooked to date and that is her reporting to this parliament of her concern about remarks that she has received being of a racist nature. This should not be overlooked. This is a significant aspect of the report and I remind members when they are looking at these reports that, whilst there might be some media interest, in this instance, in sexual harassment matters, there had been this very important logging of concerns and her recommendations in relation to this area.

Again, the Hon. Tammy Franks touched on some of these matters in her outline. In fact, I think she quotes some of the aspects of the report. Finally, in relation—

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier will resume her seat for a moment. I understand the leader rises on a point of order.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: I do, Mr Speaker, standing order 98: my question to the Premier was rather specific. It went to the Premier's motives to refer South Australians to the Hon. Tammy Franks' remarks if he didn't believe they had substance or merit. I did not ask a question regarding the Equal Opportunity Commission report but, rather, the Premier's motives for his actions.

The SPEAKER: On the point of order, the Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: A question relating to motives invites the broadest possible response at any time. That point of order was utterly bogus.

The SPEAKER: I do just remind members that it is open for any member of the government to take the question. The question was directed to the subject matter of a contribution in another place. The Deputy Premier is addressing the question. The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: The final area is the consideration by Ms Strickland in her report—and I refer members to pages 121 and 122 specifically—of the sexual harassment case study which, unsurprisingly, relates to the subject matter Ms Franks raised in relation to the allegations made by Ms Bonaros, and she has outlined the same issues and, I think, again directly quoted that report. There was a lot in Ms Franks' contribution yesterday which is already covered by the equal opportunity report. I bring members' attention to that. I would urge members—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —to refresh their memory in relation to what this report says because it has important recommendations in it. As a government, I am proud to say we have acted. We have introduced legislation to this parliament to bring both members of parliament and judges to account and be the subject of that process. There is a further bill to come to tidy up some aspects which she has recommended and we are progressing that as a process matter. Of course, members would be aware of the joint parliamentary committee—some of which are members from this parliament—to investigate some decisions, including code of conduct, by the parliament.

The SPEAKER: Order! The time for answering the question has expired.