LEGAL, JUSTICE AND POLICE RETIREMENTS

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. S.G. Wade:

That this council places on record its appreciation of the exemplary service to the people of South Australia by Chief Justice John Doyle, Commissioner of Police Mal Hyde and Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras, and their contribution to the legal, justice and policing services of the state.

(Continued from 16 May 2012.)

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (21:32): I respond on behalf of the government in this chamber, and I thank the honourable member for moving this important motion in the Legislative Council. I do not intend to speak for long as both the Attorney-General and the Minister for Police in the other place have already placed on the record the government's appreciation of the committed service given by all three of these outstanding public servants.

Just briefly, in relation to the Hon. John Doyle AC, only the eighth chief justice we have had in South Australia, he is without doubt one of the most respected and outstanding leaders this state has ever had. I believe that I could not possibly do better than place on the record in this chamber the words of the Attorney-General in the other place in speaking to this motion. He said:

First, can I just say a few remarks about Chief Justice John Doyle.

Clearly he was speaking at the time just before his retirement. The Attorney-General continues:

John Doyle for anyone who knows him is a most remarkable man—a man of enormous balance, great intellect, enormous patience and a truly inspiring leader for the court, both by reason of his temperament and his great capacity for work. He has been a tireless administrator and leader of the court, and I do not think there would be anyone in the legal profession in South Australia who does not have absolutely enormous respect for Chief Justice Doyle. He is a person who has made a substantial impression on everyone who has met him but in a quiet, measured and entirely decent fashion.

I know that those comments are echoed by all in this chamber. I have personally had the opportunity to meet the former chief justice on several occasions as part of my parliamentary duties and I have always found him to be a considered gentleman. Many years ago, because we both had connections with St Ignatius College, we were invited to be interlocutors at the yearly Jesuit Lenten Seminars. The title of the seminar that year was 'Morality in Public Life', and the two guest speakers and the audience could not have asked for a more appropriate person than our former chief justice to take part in that conversation.

On behalf of the government in this chamber, I add my sincere best wishes to the Hon. John Doyle AC and his family for his long and enjoyable retirement. Most importantly, our thanks go to him on behalf of the people of South Australia for his commitment and distinguished service.

Since the honourable member opposite moved this motion, the government has announced the appointment of the ninth Chief Justice to our state, the honourable Chief Justice Chris Kourakis. He is now our ninth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, and I take this opportunity to place on record on behalf of the government in this chamber our congratulations on his appointment. Premier Weatherill described our new Chief Justice as follows:

Justice Kourakis has had an outstanding career, serving the court and the community with distinction. He has the leadership and management skills to lead the court in this exciting new era for the justice system in South Australia.

I add my best wishes and congratulations.

This motion also rightly recognises the second longest serving SA police commissioner, former commissioner Mal Hyde. I know that the Minister for Police in the other place, as I have mentioned, has placed on record a lengthy contribution in relation to the service of former commissioner Mal Hyde.

I was personally pleased to have had the opportunity to work with the former commissioner in my then capacity as the first minister for road safety in our state, as a new portfolio. There was a great team effort by several agencies, including the Motor Accident Commission and the Road Safety Council, to educate and to promote road safety and to introduce legislative change, as well as enforcement, and I believe that we were able to achieve some sound results in the portfolio. Mr Hyde's leadership and commitment was always unwavering.

In summing up Mr Hyde's service to South Australia one would use words such as 'thoroughly professional', 'immaculate integrity' and 'leader of institutional change in the force'. I will conclude with the words of minister Rankine in the other place:

Commissioner Hyde leaves a legacy that has a positive impact on South Australians every day.

I add my congratulations to our new commissioner, Gary Burns. I will borrow the words of Premier Jay Weatherill, again, at the time of commissioner Gary Burns' appointment:

Gary Burns has devoted his career to serving people of the state and there is no better candidate to lead South Australia's police force into a new era. His wide-ranging experience in law enforcement and his academic qualifications are typical of the enormous diversity of skills and experience within SAPOL.

I am certain, again, that I am joined by all in the chamber in offering our new commissioner all the best for his appointment and to congratulate him.

The third person this motion recognises is the former director of public prosecutions, Mr Stephen Pallaras. The Attorney-General, in the other place, at the time of announcing the appointment of the new DPP thanked Mr Pallaras. He said:

I would also like to thank Stephen Pallaras for his seven years of dedicated service to the South Australian community as DPP. He has been a strong and courageous contributor to the justice system in the state, and I wish him well for his future.

I believe that Mr Pallaras has since taken up another position, and I am certain that we all offer him the best for his future.

Mr Adam Kimber SC has been appointed South Australia's new Director of Public Prosecutions, and our congratulations go to him in undertaking this very important role. I would like to thank the honourable member opposite, the Hon. Stephen Wade, for bringing this motion to the chamber. I am delighted to be able to join all members in congratulating these three committed public servants on their outstanding contribution to the betterment of South Australia.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (21:40): I rise briefly on behalf of Family First and also from my own personal point of view to strongly support this motion from the Hon. Stephen Wade with respect to the retired chief justice the Hon. John Doyle, the soon-to-be retired (as of tomorrow) police commissioner Mal Hyde, and the retired former director of public prosecutions Mr Stephen Pallaras.

I admired Mr Pallaras and had a great deal of respect for him because, as the director of public prosecutions, it is very important that you are totally independent, that you have good knowledge of the justice system and that you are very determined to ensure that the work of prosecutions is done properly and unfettered from the government of the day. I believe that Mr Pallaras did a wonderful job on that and I also believe that Mr Pallaras had the full confidence of the South Australian community. Seven years is quite a time to serve as director of public prosecutions. He is a relatively young man, a knowledgeable man with international experience, and I personally would have been very pleased to see Mr Pallaras continue in that role for at least another seven years.

I am not sure that life was always made easy for Mr Pallaras. Notwithstanding that, Mr Pallaras as a strong and independent man, a knowledgeable, highly trained and experienced man, got on with the job. His job was not easy and he did publicly come out on occasions and express concerns he had about aspects of the law and the justice system and also about resourcing. I am not sure that this government actually appreciated the situation when Mr Pallaras spoke out but certainly as a member of parliament and a South Australian citizen and behalf of Family First, we did appreciate his honesty, his integrity and also the fact that he was not frightened to come out and speak on what he believed was important to deliver proper justice under the Westminster system. Mr Pallaras has now moved on. He has been a great asset for South Australia and I wish him and his family well in the future as he continues to practise overseas.

With respect to chief justice the Hon. John Doyle, along with colleagues in this house, I had the privilege of watching him for the whole of his time in that appointment. He was an exemplary chief justice. He was very committed to ensuring that the practices of the Westminster system were carried out properly and appropriately. He is also a very committed South Australian with strong values and very strongly and ably supported by his wife. On several occasions I saw both chief justice John Doyle and his wife out publicly supporting each other and supporting the South Australian community.

I have never heard a bad word about chief justice the Hon. John Doyle. I believe that we are in better shape as a state in respect of our justice system as a result of the many years we were privileged to have John Doyle as our chief justice. I think it is fair to say that on a multipartisan front all members of parliament and parties had incredible confidence and respect for the chief justice. I heard him speak at a Prison Fellowship function one night in 2011 and, whilst I had heard him many times before, that just reinforced to me the quality of the man to sum up in a few words.

He certainly has been a quality man in respect of his knowledge capacity, his integrity and his commitment to the justice system. I wish him and his wife every success in the future. It would be a very difficult job. It is just beyond our comprehension to imagine the complexity of a lot of the deliberation that he would have been involved with over that time, and I think he has not only left the justice system in good shape but he has set the justice system up for further modernisation and enhancement with the new Chief Justice.

The final point I will make is that, prior to the Hon. John Doyle becoming the Chief Justice, we did not really hear much about the Chief Justice in general public life, as they were generally very cautious in going into the media. Chief Justice John Doyle changed that and was very available to the community in the media, particularly on radio. He was happy to take talkback calls and the like and explain to the community more about the justice system. I commend him for that and I hope it will continue.

I know that his disappointment and frustration was that he did not achieve the capital works he wanted for the justice system in South Australia. However, having sat around the cabinet table, I would say that, whoever is Director of Public Prosecutions and whoever is Chief Justice, they will struggle to get capital works and improvement and that they will be expected to work in substandard conditions and with limited resources.

At the end of the day, particularly now with a very tight budget, whoever is in government will not see any votes in supporting that area of the justice system, but I hope I am wrong. I hope that whoever is in government—this government in the next couple of years, or whoever is in government after 2014—will prove me wrong on this occasion, but I think it will be a challenge that the government will struggle with.

You only have to look now at the backlog in the Remand Centre and the cases in the courts to realise that we are failing miserably. Even if you move the justice system aside for one moment, you will find that the cost of not being able to process those people through the courts is quite considerable for the South Australian community. I, for one, commend Chief Justice John Doyle for arguing for better resourcing, and I hope that the new Chief Justice will continue to exert the same pressure.

Finally, and equally as importantly, I would like to commend and thank Mal Hyde, the South Australian Commissioner of Police for 17 years. I was privileged to have the record for serving with Mal Hyde in my capacity as police minister for the longest time of all police ministers. From memory, I think Mal Hyde had seven police ministers, but I had the privilege of working with him for—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Who was the best one?

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I don't know, but—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: No, I think probably it would have been someone not far away from you, John, but it is not for me to say. What I want to talk about is the police commissioner. The police commissioner came over here at a time when resources were tight, at a time when there needed to be additional recruitment and at a time when, to protect the integrity of what I think is the best police force in the world and the third oldest police force in the world, we needed to modernise the police department and its way of thinking. Mal Hyde did that, and he did that very well.

If you look at his achievements, not only did he increase police numbers from 3,000 to just over 4,000 police, plus civilians, but, as difficult as budgets were through the whole time he was there, he also managed to put enormous capital works into the police department. As a fitting tribute to his efforts over that period of time, he completed that with the two most important capital works projects, which I commend this government supporting the commissioner on: first, the new Police Headquarters and, secondly, the new Police Academy. Both were completed in the last year or thereabouts.

Every now and again you would see the police commissioner come out publicly in the media and raise concerns. He was very careful and calculated when he did, but whoever was police minister, Attorney-General, or Premier at that time knew that if the police commissioner was on the front page he had very good reasons for being there. One of the things he did need from the parliament and the government was the right legislative tools for the police to be able to do the job. In the last several months, he highlighted that again with issues such as outlaw motorcycle gangs.

I also want to put on the public record Family First's and my personal appreciation of the support provided to Mal Hyde by his wife, Marcia Hyde. She has been an absolute stalwart for the commissioner not only for the 17 years he has been our police commissioner but during his whole career throughout their marriage, going back to his days in Victoria. It would not be easy to get one degree let alone two degrees when you are already working and building a career in policing. Mr Hyde, prior to becoming our police commissioner, achieved both a law degree with honours and also an MBA whilst a senior police officer in Victoria. He had all the integrity, experience and qualifications required to come to South Australia.

In answer to the Hon. John Dawkins' interjection earlier, I want to congratulate the Hon. Graham Ingerson, who had a difficult job when he was considering who he would recommend as police commissioner; I will not go into the other senior people who nominated at that time. Graham Ingerson made the decision to recommend the appointment of Mal Hyde, and I can say quite strongly and with knowledge that that was an excellent decision.

Since that time, I had the privilege of reappointing Mal Hyde on one occasion. Then, when this government came to office, it again reappointed Mal Hyde and then again gave him an additional period of time. The point I am making when I put that on the public record is that, irrespective of who was in government, this commissioner was strongly supported by both Liberal and Labor governments. It is a feather in the cap of the commissioner that he had the respect of the major parties when they have been in government.

Mal Hyde had one goal, and that was to ensure that the South Australian police department grew in a proactive and respectable way and that he increased the resources to back up the men and women of the force and to supply the right infrastructure for them. He also wanted to ensure that there was a reduction in crime. He can retire with pride because, whilst there are areas of concern in relation to crime, the fact is that quite a lot of the crime statistics have come down considerably over the 17 years that he was in office.

I would suggest that part of the reason for that is the review he did for local service areas, for Focus 21, for intelligence-based policing. At the time, some people had a question mark over that. I was well briefed on that at the time, and I was convinced that what he was doing was right. He supported John White, in particular, who drove a lot of that agenda with Commissioner Hyde. As a result of that work, today we see that crime in many areas is down, and we see a strong, vibrant, positive and proactive police department.

In my opinion, Mal Hyde has retired very young and could have kept going if he had wanted to. I want to conclude by saying that I had the privilege of working with quite a few CEOs, some of whom were reluctant to build opportunities for those around them and to have proper transition arrangements in place when they chose to retire. In the case of Commissioner Mal Hyde, when he retired he left many people capable of being police commissioner. As we know, three assistant commissioners and the deputy commissioner applied for that position. It is another feather in the cap of Mal Hyde that he was able to develop so many people around him who were capable of becoming the commissioner.

Gary Burns, who I have also had the privilege of working with over the years, is an excellent replacement, and I wish him much success and enjoyment in his new position as police commissioner. I also have to say that assistant commissioners Harris, Stevens and Kilmier had, have and will have incredible capacity to deliver at the very peak of the South Australian police department. With those words, Family First strongly commends this motion and particularly congratulates Mal Hyde on what I think can be described only as an outstanding and very successful career as South Australian police commissioner.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (21:55): I thank the Hon. Carmel Zollo and the Hon. Robert Brokenshire for their informed and warm remarks in support of this motion. It is noteworthy that the motion was addressed and supported by three members, one from each of the three parliamentary groups in this council: the opposition, the government and the crossbenchers. I believe the breadth of support in this chamber reflects the breadth and depth of the respect and appreciation in the South Australian community. We thank all three men for their service and wish them and their families all the best for the future. I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.