Public Sector Expenditure

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:42): Thank you, Mr President—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Lee is on her feet.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, please show some courtesy to the Hon. Ms Lee.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: My question is to the Treasurer about a matter raised in the Ombudsman's report. Can the Treasurer please provide an update to the council about the government's response to the concerns expressed in the Ombudsman's report into public expenditure of the former CEO of the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Michael Deegan?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:42): I am delighted to be able to respond to the honourable member's question in relation to this very important issue that has been raised by the Ombudsman. The background to this report was a freedom of information request I first submitted more than three years ago, because at that particular time—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: That's accountability for you.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Exactly. At that particular time, I had been informed by public sector sources that ministers of the former Labor government, because their credit card expenses were being FOI'd by opposition members, had decided to have their chiefs of staff or their chief executives take them out to the best restaurants in town, or overseas, on the taxpayers' purse to get around the freedom of information requests for their own expenses. I note that the Ombudsman in his damning report said, and I quote:

I am all the more concerned by DPTI’s practice of funding restaurant meals between the Chief Executive and other public officers. I note, in particular, that DPTI appears to have funded at least two CBD restaurant meals between Mr Deegan and the Minister responsible for this Department—

I interpose: that is the current member for Lee, Mr Mullighan, the shadow treasurer—

at least one meeting of which involved the purchase of alcohol using departmental funds.

The Ombudsman was also critical of $860.50 spent at The Barn Steakhouse at a community cabinet meeting in Mount Gambier because the minister or ministers had left their credit cards in their rooms. I think that's a—my comment here—novel excuse from Mr Deegan and the ministers who were involved, including the member for Lee former minister Mullighan.

After more than three years of trying I have now been able to establish some of these invoices that former minister Mullighan and the Labor government were so desperate to conceal for almost three years, fighting the release of these particular documents. The invoice for The Barn Steakhouse for $860.50 on the receipt, for some reason, has 'Mullighan'. Given that it was on Mr Deegan's credit card, I'm not sure why.

The preferences of the former minister are eye watering: two special Wagyu fillets at $69 each; four eye fillets–this was a group of ministers—for $154; four filet mignons for $168; bottles of Herbert Pinot Noir; two bottles of Majella wine, $65 each; a total of $318 on beverages, mostly alcoholic. A cosy little dinner with Mr Deegan and former minister Mullighan at Press Food and Wine, one of our finest establishments in South Australia, at a total cost of $247.40. A nice little Estrella Damm lager brewed in Spain was enjoyed by one of the two of them. Two Scotch fillet steaks at $48 each, two glasses of Yangarra shiraz from McLaren Vale at $14 each, and crispy potatoes, coquettes and morcilla, which I am told is a blood sausage, often called blood pudding in Britain.

But the minister's enjoyment at taxpayers' expense spread overseas as well: a total cost of $1,490 for a lovely evening with a number of people at the Grill Royal in Berlin, with the minister, the chief of staff and some other officers involved there. Top 10 Berlin states of the Grill Royal:

The celebrity restaurant in Berlin no matter if it is Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, the late Karl Lagerfeld or many top models, all of them have been there. The Grill Royal is currently the celebrity restaurant in Berlin.

The Lonely Planet writes:

The Grill Royal ticks all the boxes of a true metropolitan restaurant. A platinum card is a handy accessory if you want to slurp your oysters and tuck into aged prime steaks in the company of A-listers, power politicians and pouty models.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Pouty models. Former minister Mullighan and others—we are not sure who had what—one porterhouse steak for €119 (or $173), it must have been a nice piece of porterhouse; Chateaubriand, €70 (or $102); half a kilo of prawns; three bottles of Klumpp Syrah pinot noir from Germany, €96 (or $140) each, three bottles; six glasses of Diel Auslese, German riesling, for €84. That was at the Grill Royal.

The PRESIDENT: We are coming very close to four minutes, Treasurer.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Yes, Mr President. Thank you, Mr President, I will be very quick. The Spice Market, described as an alluring enclave awash with indulgent pleasure, is a restaurant in New York where $US370 was expended. Finally, the Eatery Bar and Restaurant in Hamburg—we are not entirely sure whether the minister was a guest there, but the minister was travelling with Mr Deegan—where $359 was spent, together with the obligatory euro rib eye steaks and two Aperol spritzers at €10 each at those particular establishments.

In conclusion, it is concerning that the former minister and now the shadow treasurer treated public expenditure in such a cavalier fashion. As I said, it is a shame and a travesty that has taken three years of an Ombudsman's inquiry to finally get the detail of these particular invoices. They were successfully concealed prior to the most recent election.

The Ombudsman has asked me—or the government, I should say, and I, on behalf of the government—to look at what various options there might be in terms of tightening up, on behalf of the long-suffering taxpayers of South Australia, public expenditure of this particular form indulged in and engaged in by the former minister and the shadow treasurer, Mr Mullighan.