Question Time

Fruit Fly

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries on comments that the minister made last sitting week in this chamber.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: Last sitting week, the Minister for Primary Industries made statements in this place that my office had been ignoring her department's and office's offering of a briefing and stated, and I quote:

I am advised that it is now five weeks since we offered the honourable Leader of the Opposition a briefing on these matters, which she has failed to take up.

And again I quote:

In fact, I have the dates here on which we reached out to the Leader of the Opposition's office without response.

The minister was then asked to table those dates by the Hon. Tammy Franks, and I note that these dates have not yet been tabled in this chamber. I initially wrote personally to the minister back on 22 January seeking a briefing from her department on the fruit fly eradication program. I did not receive a response to that request until the minister formally wrote back to me on 6 February, stating in her letter, and I quote, 'My office will arrange a suitable time for a briefing with the appropriate PIRSA staff.'

After not receiving any contact from the minister's office, my office then recontacted the minister's office on 28 February with suggested dates for a briefing, and 8 March was proposed. On 7 March, my office received an email from the minister's office cancelling that briefing on 8 March due to the then recent discovery of fruit fly in the Adelaide Plains.

On 22 March, my office then received further correspondence requesting dates for the next two weeks, during which my diary was full, and a call was placed into the minister's office to get further information. That is why I completely reject the assertion that the minister made in this chamber that she has dates with which her office reached out to my office without reply. My office has tried on multiple occasions to work with her office to secure a briefing. My question to the minister is: will the minister either table a list showing the back and forth correspondence between our offices on this issue or withdraw her remarks?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:30): I am certainly struck by the level of priority that the Leader of the Opposition gives to the first question in parliament back after two weeks, that it is about comments in terms of correspondence about an appointment. My understanding is that my office was going to provide those dates for tabling. I am glad that the Leader of the Opposition has acknowledged that dates were offered. She said in her introduction that we invited her on proposed dates for the next two weeks from that date, and that she was too busy. I am happy to gain that information from my office and table it as I had thought was already underway.