Labor Party

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:52): I rise to speak about two issues this afternoon. The first, which will not surprise you, Mr Acting President, is that on many occasions we see in this chamber, and in another place, ministers and members of the Labor Party prepared to say and do anything. On many occasions, they simply make up stories and accusations for which they are never held to account. On a number of occasions, the Leader of the Government in this chamber, the Hon. Mr Maher, has continued to make a statement (which he again made today during question time) when under pressure or challenged during question time, and when he does not have an answer he resorts to a form of personal abuse.

He has often used criticism on a number of occasions—I think on at least a half a dozen occasions, as you will recall, Mr Acting President. As part of his response, he has said, 'The Hon. Mr Lucas, the man who was in charge of the Fisher by-election campaign and strategy, who lost the Fisher by-election, and we thank him for that.' He then proceeds to move on to other areas of criticism. As I said, he has used that form of personal abuse on half a dozen occasions and I have just let it slip. I thought given that he raised it today, and the opportunity arose, I would at least put the facts on the table. The Hon. Mr Maher knows that claim is untrue, but continues to make that particular claim.

As you know, Mr Acting President, the Fisher by-election was held on 6 December, or in the first week of December 2014. During all of the period leading up to that particular by-election campaign, my mother was dying in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She died in the weeks leading up to that by-election campaign, and we buried her in the period in late November 2014. Subsequently, I had virtually no involvement, let alone role in terms of directing or managing the Fisher by-election campaign for reasons that are obvious. The Hon. Mr Maher, as I said, is well aware of that particular set of circumstances but continues, nevertheless, to make the claim.

As I said, it is consistent with the position of the Hon. Mr Maher and government ministers where, under pressure, they just simply make up stories and claims, and it then becomes part of urban folklore. I have seen versions of the story repeated on social media through South Australian Labor and various other fellow travellers. I just thought I would correct the record. I think it is correct that, after my mother was buried in late November and after the by-election, I was asked by the Liberal Party to help oversee the scrutineering and counting process for the Fisher by-election. I was also asked by the party to handle the media.

There was considerable interest in the media as a result of the Fisher by-election result and campaign, and certainly I was the public face of the discussions in relation to the scrutiny and the election result. I thought that, given he has continued to use this particular made-up story, knowing it to be untrue, for nearly 12 months now that at some stage, at least in this particular area, I would put the facts on the record so that at least other members will be aware when next he uses it that it is simply untrue and incorrect.

The other issue I wanted to briefly refer to, given that we are about to go into the estimates committee process in another place and we will have the budget bills before the Legislative Council in the coming weeks, is the sadness that we have seen in terms of the public defence by Treasurer Koutsantonis of aspects of his budget. In his defence of the budget, he has continued to refer to the fact that last year's budget was a jobs budget and it created 6,000 new full-time jobs. We now know the game. That claim was simply untrue and incorrect and the Treasurer must have known that that was the case.

The facts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that, in fact, there have only been about 956 full-time jobs created since last year's budget, at the time of last month's counting anyway, and around nearly 7,000 part-time jobs, and those part-time jobs, as members are aware, which can be as little as one hour a week, count toward a part-time job for the purposes of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It is just another example where we see from the Premier and the Treasurer down to the Leader of the Government in this house, sadly, ministers who know that things are untrue or incorrect, but continue to spin their political line for the purposes that they see best. In the end, the time of accountability will be at the next election.