BURNSIDE CITY COUNCIL

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question on the subject of the Burnside council investigation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON: Yesterday, the minister announced that she had granted an extension of time to the investigator, Mr Ken MacPherson, to complete his investigations into activities of the Burnside city council and that the report is now expected to be received after the next state election. My questions to the minister are:

1. What was the original estimate of the likely cost of the inquiry which Mr MacPherson was commissioned to undertake?

2. In the light of the extension of time for delivery of the report, has the minister been provided with a fresh estimate of the likely cost of the inquiry, and what is that estimate?

3. Will the costs of this particular inquiry be paid by the state government, the council, or some other (and, if so, which) person?

In this connection I recall the fact that Mr MacPherson, when auditor-general, conducted the last inquiry under this section into the Port Adelaide council and the flower farm. He and his office produced a 440 page report many months after being so commissioned at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars more than the money that was said to have been lost by the flower farm.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:58): Indeed, the honourable member alludes to the thoroughness and competence of our investigator. He does not jump to conclusions. He, in fact, conducts a very thorough investigation, and collects and analyses the facts before making a judgment or any determination. We can see that that clearly gets under the skin of the opposition. It would rather a monkey court and to be able to point the finger and make allegations and insinuations all over the place. Well, that is not how we operate. We operate with due and thorough diligent process.

In relation to the funding of this inquiry, an estimate was made reasonably early in the piece and, given that the full scope of the inquiry was not known at the early stages, there was a decision to open the inquiry to public submissions. At that time we had no idea what the uptake and the demand from the public would be.

Early estimates were that the likely costs were around $250,000 to conduct the inquiry. Clearly, extending the inquiry until February will significantly affect those costings. I have asked the agency to prepare a cost estimate given the new scoping that has recently been provided to me by the investigator. The investigator has indicated that he anticipates that a report will be handed down in February.