BURNSIDE COUNCIL

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question relating to Burnside city council.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The suppression order the Supreme Court put in place to protect the MacPherson investigation is being used by the government as a reason to avoid further investigations. The minister's press release of last Thursday reads:

However, the Supreme Court's ruling has created a series of very significant legal impediments to the further investigation of any allegations arising from the draft provisional report.

I draw the minister's attention to his use of the words 'legal impediments'. I ask the minister what legal impediments exist to further investigation, and will the government go back to the Supreme Court to seek a variation of the suppression order to the extent necessary to ensure that there are no legal impediments to further investigation of the allegations, and on whose advice did he assert that there are legal impediments? Was the advice legal or political?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:31): The legal impediments I refer to include the fact that, first, there is a suppression over the draft report. Secondly, a number of the terms of reference were ruled invalid. That in itself has created a huge impediment to completing that report, and this is even acknowledged by the judges themselves in regard to problems that would arise out of completing this report. They are the legal impediments I have talked about.