Public Service Association

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:18): Thank you, Mr President. Does the honourable Treasurer acknowledge that the head of the Public Service Association, Mr Nev Kitchin, has apologised to the people of South Australia for the behaviour of that small group of people?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:18): I welcome the fact that eventually Mr Nev Kitchin, as a result of the widespread condemnation and outrage that had been expressed late on that particular afternoon, did issue a public apology for the behaviour of those particular members. I welcome the fact, but the challenge for Mr Kitchin, and indeed others, in terms of the leadership of that particular movement, is to manage protests in a responsible way.

This government, as I said, accepts the fact that every employee has the right to lawful protest against actions of a particular government. If we wanted to be churlish, we might say that some of the privatisation decisions of the former government might have been responded to in the same way, but I won't. We accept the fact that employees have the right to lawful protest. But the challenge for Mr Kitchin is to ensure that his members respond in a responsible way in terms of their protest and don't bully and intimidate public servants who want to go about their task and may well have a slightly different view.