BURNSIDE COUNCIL

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question about the investigation into the Burnside council.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Yesterday, the Minister for State/Local Government Relations made a ministerial statement regarding the status of the ongoing investigation into the Burnside council. The minister indicated that, from her correspondence with the investigator, the investigation was expected to be concluded in approximately eight weeks' time. The minister noted that she anticipated receiving the report in mid to late August.

Presumably, the minister will need to consider the report before deciding what action she proposes to take. Under section 273(3) of the Local Government Act, once the minister has received the report the minister must also give the council a reasonable opportunity to make submissions before any action on the report is taken.

On 22 July 2009, the minister committed to making the report on the investigation into the Burnside council public and tabling the results in parliament. However, the parliament will not sit until mid-September. Given the time frames outlined by the minister, it is quite probable that Burnside electors will not have an opportunity to review the findings of the investigation before nominations for the local government elections close on 21 September. This raises the real prospect that electors may be left with nominations only from those who are the subject of the report. Given the minister's prior commitments and the legislative requirements going forward, I ask:

1. Will the minister reaffirm her commitment to make the report on the investigation into the Burnside council public?

2. Will the minister release the report to the public at the same time as it is provided to the Burnside council?

3. Will the minister reaffirm her commitment to table the report in this place?

4. How long does the minister consider is a reasonable period within which to require the Burnside council to respond to the report before action is taken?

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 for the City of Adelaide) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for his questions. As I have already stated in this place, we certainly wish to expedite the full completion of this report and to address all matters that might be relevant to the report expeditiously.

I will endeavour to do everything in my power to expedite those parts of the process I have a role in. Clearly, as yet we don't know exactly the date the investigator will make the report available to me, so a lot of the actions resulting from that will obviously depend on whether the report is received early in August or late in August. One will simply have to wait to see when the report is delivered.

I have already put on the record on numerous occasions that I would table the report in parliament at my earliest possible convenience, provided there were no legal impediments to my doing that. I think I am wasting this chamber's time simply repeating the commitment I have already put on the record numerous times, but, anyway, I am happy to waste people's time again.

In terms of the timing of making the report available, as I said, it will depend on the content of the report, the complexities and whether there are associated actions in relation to those findings. It is a very speculative and hypothetical question. Clearly, the simpler the findings, the more quickly I will be able to deal with those matters: the more complex, obviously, a longer time will be needed. In terms of what is reasonable, as I said, it will depend on the complexity of the findings. I do not think it is in anyone's interest for me to speculate on those matters that are unknown.