Electorate Offices

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:18): My question to the Treasurer is:

1. For the benefit of the people of Hurtle Vale and Wright, will the Treasurer indicate when they can expect to visit their local member in their electorate, rather than four electorates across?

2. Will the Treasurer also confirm that the new member for King will stay in her current electorate office beyond the expiration of the lease next month and, indeed, for the duration of this term of parliament?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:19): I am delighted; I have been waiting for three weeks—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Let the minister answer in silence.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I have been waiting for three weeks for someone to ask this particular question, and I am delighted to put on the public record the actual facts in relation to the issues that relate to the electorate offices for the members for Wright and Hurtle Vale. So I thank the Hon. Tammy Franks for doing us the courtesy of asking that.

I will get the detail of the exact date, but some 12 months prior to the state election the former treasurer, Mr Koutsantonis, the member for West Torrens, was advised by Electorate Services, the body within Treasury that has responsibility for electorate offices, in general terms—and let me explain the nature of the memo I have seen—that there had been a redistribution and some electorates did not have electorate offices and that some electorates would end up having two electorate offices.

Irrespective of who won those particular seats, whether Liberal, Labor, Greens or the Nick Xenophon team—whatever he was called.

The Hon. F. Pangallo: SA-Best.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: SA-Best, sorry—there would be the need for each electorate to have an electorate office. The recommendation that went to the former treasurer was that now was the time to actually start doing the work in terms of finding electorate offices for each electorate—one would have thought an entirely sensible proposition; one would have thought an entirely reasonable recommendation to go to the government. What did the former treasurer do? Not approved! Not approved!

So the responsibility, the Hon. Ms Franks, for the dilemma of the member for Wright, who is a former senior adviser and spin doctor in the former Labor government (so he would understand these processes), and the member for Hurtle Vale rests solely and entirely on the fact that the former treasurer, their own colleague, refused to accept the advice of Electorate Services to get off his backside and actually do the work that needed to be done to find electorate offices, because you can't just find an electorate office the next day or the next week.

Electorate Services advised me—and they are working as we speak, because we have inherited this mess—that they are working as expeditiously as they can within the general framework that I have given them, and that is an entirely defensible position, that is, that a member of parliament who represents an electorate has first dibs on the electorate office that exists in that particular electorate.

We don't have a situation where two people are claiming a particular electorate office and we say, 'Well, the person in the neighbouring electorate office gets first choice of the electorate office in that particular electorate.' There is nobody in the community who accepts the particular proposition that, if you have one electorate office in an electorate that it should not be the member for that area or electorate who should have first priority in relation to that particular office.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I am delighted—I have waited three weeks for this particular question—that at last the Hon. Ms Franks has asked the question, because I will now dig up the actual date of the memo and the terms of that particular memo that was given to the former treasurer and indicate the background in greater detail than I have today of that particular recommendation, which was not approved. If that work had been done at that particular time, we wouldn't have had the set of circumstances that confront us at the moment.

I can assure the Hon. Ms Franks, as I have assured the two members—and we do have other difficult sets of circumstances as well, although not quite as problematic as the two members that have been referred to. The members for Gibson and Black happen to have electorate offices in the same electorate, but the issue is that it's at least neighbouring and is next door, and those sorts of issues will have to be resolved as well. It's not just these two electorate offices causing difficulties, but they are the ones that have caused the most grief because the nearest available electorate office that was vacant, other than coming into Parliament House, was some distance away.

In relation to the member for Hurtle Vale, we gave her the option of choosing the electorate office in Hurtle Vale but there is another member who is currently in that particular office. I said to the member for Hurtle Vale—exactly as I said to the member for King and the member for Wright in relation to that, but the one in relation to the southern electorates as well—that she should have the entitlement, if she chooses, to go into that electorate office. However, I understand she does not want to have her electorate office in Morphett Vale or Reynella, which is in her electorate, she wants to move to a different suburb in her electorate. She also said she did not want to move her colleague out of her office.

I accept that, that is her choice; but, having made that choice we had to find the nearest available electorate office for her to work from in the circumstances. Her argument was that if she took the office that was in her electorate her colleague would have to move to the next remaining electorate office.

Electorate Services tell me they are working as expeditiously as they can trying to find new electorate offices within the electorates for the members. There is no go-slow from those particular staff; they going through a process. In some cases, as in relation to Wright, there is a lack of available office space, and the new member did not like one of the new offerings in terms of its location—it was in a suburban street and not on a main road. Those sorts of issues are still being resolved with the member for Wright, so there is a discussion with members about the suitability of offices found. I conclude—

The Hon. T.A. Franks: You haven't answered the question about the member for King and whether you will sign off on her moving. Will she stay there for the duration of her term?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: In relation to the member for King, if I remember correctly the lease goes well into next year, and she will be expected to stay in the electorate office until the end of the lease. The greatest priority is trying to find electorate offices for members who do not have them. There are some others where Electorate Services have said to me, 'These offices are entirely unsuitable for occupational health and safety reasons and their leases are coming due. We need to find new offices for these particular members.' That is the next order of priority that Electorate Services have given me.

Only then would we look at a range of other circumstances. Some have said that it is not big enough and they want to have a look at bigger offices, or they want them in a different part of the electorate. We will look at those sorts of requests from members as a third order priority, but the first order priority is members who do not have electorate offices within their electorate, and it is not just the two the member has referred to, there are a number of others we also have to accommodate.

In relation to the member for King in particular—although not just in relation to the member for King—my recollection is that the lease goes well into next year and I have said to the member for King that that is her office and she will be there until the end of the lease on that particular office. Only then would we consider whether to renew the lease there, depending on the term—

The Hon. T.A. Franks interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I can only rule out the length of the term of the lease. I am sure the Hon. Ms Franks would be aware of leasing arrangements: the landlord has to be interested in extending the lease and we would then need to look at what the cost of that lease extension might be compared to other costs. We would address that issue at that time.

However, in relation to the honourable member's question, the member for King will be staying in the current leased office at the very least until the end of this particular lease extension. We would then sit down and negotiate with the main stakeholders—the landlord and the MP—and with Electorate Services within Treasury to decide whether to extend the lease there or look for alternative accommodation.