Grievance Debate

Member for Bragg

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:30): Clearly, the air is tense in the parliament because I think we all appreciate the gravity of what has just occurred. During the course of the last week—

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Point of order: the leader appears to be reflecting on a vote of the house.

The SPEAKER: This is a grievance debate, minister. I will hear out the leader—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I will hear out the leader, but it is a grievance debate.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: I think we are all very conscious of the gravity and the seriousness of what has just occurred. Some time ago, I had reason to ask the parliamentary library to investigate the history regarding motions of no confidence in ministers of the Crown in the state of South Australia. They could find no precedent. As far as they could go back and research, they could find no precedent. We are now in uncharted waters.

The house having resolved that it has no confidence in the first law officer of our state plunges this government into even more chaos than was the case previously. I do want to put on the record my disappointment that it has come to this. The reason there is no precedent for the circumstance we now find ourselves in is that traditionally by now the Premier of the state has acted—the Premier of the state has intervened into the chaos and decided to exercise the function of leadership to protect the government, à la the confidence of people in the government.

It appears that the Premier of this state is intent on denying himself the opportunity to show leadership and, rather, is perpetuating the crisis of confidence in the Deputy Premier, who also has extraordinary responsibilities to the people of South Australia at this very moment.

South Australians would well be aware, as I referred to in my earlier remarks, albeit under extraordinary interjection from those opposite, that we are in a state of declared emergency. We know that on 1 December a critical piece of legislation expires, namely, the COVID emergency bill, I think it is called. The Attorney-General is responsible for that legislation.

The pageant has been and gone. We are almost in December. Today is supposed to be the last sitting day. Thankfully, your intervention, Mr Speaker, will hopefully now allow the government to turn its mind to, rather than itself and its crisis, ensuring there are the legislative underpinnings that are necessary to maintain the Commissioner of Police, the State Coordinator, being able to exercise their critical functions.

But, of course, we have not seen any evidence of that from the government thus far because they are in a state of crisis. They are in a state of paralysis and we have a Premier who seems to be completely divorced from reality. The Premier now seems to be in a land of total delusion where the House of Assembly, the house in which government is formed, can pass a motion of no confidence against the first law officer of the state and the response that he intends to provide is nothing. This is truly extraordinary.

I would draw the Premier's attention to the Australasian Parliamentary Review, which refers to responsible government and the things that underpin responsible government in our great country. That review refers to High Court rulings on issues of confidence and responsible government. I refer specifically to a High Court matter in Egan v Willis, which states;

The courts have also pointed out that responsible government depends on a combination of law, convention and political practice.

I quote:

Responsible government is a concept based upon a combination of law, convention and political practice. The way in which that concept manifests itself is not immutable. The nature and extent of the responsibility which is involved in responsible government depends as much upon convention, political and administrative practice and a climate of public opinion as upon rules of law.

The Premier is throwing out all the convention that holds our system together at a very time of crisis in the state of South Australia, at the very time that the government should be focused on ensuring they engender confidence in the truthfulness of the words they say in this place. The Premier is actively ignoring the fact that this house has definitively resolved that it has no confidence in the first law officer because she misled this house. She took her privilege—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The leader's time has expired—

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —and she abused that privilege.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: —a little while ago.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Now the Premier must show leadership and dismiss the Attorney-General.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader, your time has expired.