Social Media

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:52): I rise to speak in my MOI about some twits who tweet. In the late afternoon or the early evening of 17 August, some government spin doctors and some MPs were excited at leaked news they had received that The Advertiser was about to run a story about ICAC charges against the member for Mount Gambier to be lodged in the following week. Just prior to that story being published online by The Advertiser, Speaker Atkinson tweeted at 8.04pm that particular evening, 'Nothing leaks like ICAC.'

It is interesting to note, in looking at Speaker Atkinson's Twitter profile, that it had been almost a year since Speaker Atkinson had tweeted anything which included ICAC in the text of the tweet; yet, miraculously, just minutes prior to the story appearing online, 'Nothing leaks like ICAC' is tweeted by Speaker Atkinson.

At some later stage, unknown, Mr Atkinson deleted that tweet. We now understand that he was challenged by ICAC by way of correspondence from the commissioner and that the Speaker then backed down in relation to the claim. So, it is reported in The Advertiser that the commissioner wrote to the Speaker of the House of Assembly in respect of the comment allegedly made by the Speaker on social media. The Speaker replied to the commissioner in writing. The Speaker indicated that he did not intend to suggest, nor did he have information to suggest, that a person working at the ICAC had leaked confidential information. That was Speaker Atkinson's new position.

Speaker Atkinson was obviously severely embarrassed about this particular issue, but some sections of the media have continued to pursue the Speaker for some explanation in relation to the now-deleted tweet.

What has occurred since then has been shameful, because the Speaker has now tried to claim different texts for the tweet. What he is now claiming is that, rather than the tweet which actually said, 'Nothing leaks like ICAC' singular, he is now claiming that he was talking about leaking from 'ICACs plural', not the South Australian ICAC.

The problem for Speaker Atkinson is that the Liberal Party and some other people actually kept copies of the now deleted tweet from Speaker Atkinson, which makes it clear that he was referring to an ICAC singular.

Two Labor MPs with whom I have discussed this issue have burst out laughing and shaking their heads at Mr Atkinson's claim that he was not referring to the South Australian ICAC, and their views, as expressed to me, were that they did not believe him either.

The reality is it is impossible to believe Speaker Atkinson's explanation of the situation. It is completely implausible in my view that minutes before The Advertiser puts online a story about this particular issue, Speaker Atkinson tweets, when he has not tweeted for years, in the text of his tweets, in relation to the ICAC story. If you believe Speaker Atkinson's construction of the story, you probably believe that shows like The BachelorThe Bachelorette reflect the real world.

Given the significant claims and allegations that have been made by Speaker Atkinson against ICAC, I believe those claims have the potential to demean the office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly. They also have the potential to demean the parliament generally, not only the context of the nature of the tweet that Speaker Atkinson issued but then his attempt to reconstruct the tweet and to explain away the tweet by claiming that his tweet was in fact different from what the reality was.

In those circumstances, I believe that Speaker Atkinson must, before the parliament rises at the end of the year, stand up in the House of Assembly and explain the background to his original tweet, the reason why he deleted the tweet and why he has been wrongly and untruthfully claiming that the tweet referred to ICACs in plural as opposed to a singular ICAC as the original tweet indicated here in South Australia. That is the challenge for Speaker Atkinson between now and the end of the session. I hope he has the courage and the guts to stand up and do it.