FREQUENT FLYER POINTS

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:16): I have a supplementary question arising out of the answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I know why it is so hard for people to understand the minister's answers when everyone is talking. The minister was quite clear in his answer last time, and he just repeated that this time.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: What is it that the Leader of the Government is hiding in refusing to provide this information, which all federal members of parliament somehow are able to provide?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:17): Well, I do not know whether federal parliamentarians have an arrangement with Qantas to provide on a separate account their particular information; I do not know whether or not that can be done. All I have said is that I have a lot better things to do than to go back over five years of monthly records—there would be 60 or 70 individual records—and divide—

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: When I was a minister I didn't have time for private travel.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Well, there you are, Mr President; he was obviously too busy himself. The thing is that I do not think that when Rob Lucas was a minister the opposition would have sought to waste his time over such trivial questions. What is clear is that I comply with the guidelines. As I have said, I have well in excess of 400,000 points accumulated.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: My last statement gives a cumulative total. Either the Hon. Rob Lucas believes me or he does not; it does not really worry me. It gives me no grief at all whether or not he chooses to believe me. As I indicated the other day, it would suit me fine if we did not get points for government travel, because I do not use them, anyway. Frankly, all they do is provide fodder for bored people like the Hon. Rob Lucas, who have nothing better to do with their time. Why isn't the Hon. Rob Lucas out helping his federal colleagues? Why isn't he out doing something to help his federal colleagues at the moment? I guess it is because they do not want his help. It shows how highly opposition members are regarded.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: If the—

The Hon. R.I. Lucas interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Well, no, they aren't actually. They are in their private time.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am pleased the honourable member has raised that question, because he has said by way of interjection that my staff have been out helping Nicole Cornes. It is true that one of my staff members has a position on her campaign team. As I indicated to this parliament some time back in answer to a question, he assists that person in his private time, in his private capacity. It is a lot different from what happened at the last state election. I would like to refer members—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: As the honourable member raised the issue and raised the accusation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: What the question has a lot to do with is the sort of innuendo that—

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! There have been enough interjections. The honourable minister can answer the question in whichever way he sees fit.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: On a point of order, Mr President. The minister is actually responding to an interjection which you would, quite rightly, tell him he is out of order in so doing.

The PRESIDENT: Interjections are out of order but, unfortunately, I was not quick enough to rule that one out of order. Not being quick enough to rule it out of order, I will allow the minister to respond to it.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: What is important is that the original question was making innuendos about me, and there was a further innuendo from the Leader of the Opposition in relation to the use of my staff. In the Adelaide Advertiser of Friday 5 May 2006, an article by Craig Bildstien (of course, a former Liberal member of parliament in Victoria), entitled 'Liberals "running on empty" in campaign', states:

The Liberal Party's finances were so bad before the March 18 election, MPs had to send almost 20 of their taxpayer-funded political staffers to the party's head office to run the campaign. In a damning appraisal of the election result, Liberal state director John Burston revealed the party barely raised enough money to 'keep the doors open' at its Greenhill Road offices. He admitted a considerable number of former opposition leader Rob Kerin's staff were seconded to work on the campaign at least seven weeks before the poll. 'At times, there were up to 18 extra staff,' he said in a report in the Liberal Leader newsletter out yesterday.

There were Liberal staffers (on the admission of the state executive) who were actually working there in the Liberal Party head office. Any staff who work for this government know the rules and abide by the rules, and any assistance they give is as individuals in their own time.