<!--The Official Report of Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia are covered by parliamentary privilege. Republication by others is not afforded the same protection and may result in exposure to legal liability if the material is defamatory. You may copy and make use of excerpts of proceedings where (1) you attribute the Parliament as the source, (2) you assume the risk of liability if the manner of your use is defamatory, (3) you do not use the material for the purpose of advertising, satire or ridicule, or to misrepresent members of Parliament, and (4) your use of the extracts is fair, accurate and not misleading. Copyright in the Official Report of Parliamentary Debates is held by the Attorney-General of South Australia.-->
<hansard id="" tocId="" xml:lang="EN-AU" schemaVersion="4.0" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="hansard_1_0.xsd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2007/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
  <name>Legislative Council</name>
  <date date="2025-05-13T14:15:00+09:30" />
  <sessionName>Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)</sessionName>
  <parliamentNum>55</parliamentNum>
  <sessionNum>1</sessionNum>
  <parliamentName>Parliament of South Australia</parliamentName>
  <house>Legislative Council</house>
  <venue></venue>
  <reviewStage>published</reviewStage>
  <startPage num="8613" />
  <endPage num="8663" />
  <dateModified time="2025-05-14T15:14:25+09:30" />
  <proceeding continued="true" uid="2ec109f6f2b74dd68f017b775aedfa69">
    <name>Question Time</name>
    <subject uid="82221865e1c34bbdb42a56b691403da1">
      <name>Consumer and Business Services, Workplace Culture</name>
      <page num="8619" />
      <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000105">
        <heading>Consumer and Business Services, Workplace Culture</heading>
      </text>
      <talker role="member" id="6827" referenceid="b04d90ce5a204cc6b8913d2697f86b49" uid="ce77d74df2db4c488e8dfefa849f68a5" kind="question">
        <name>The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Deputy Leader of the Opposition</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <questions>
          <question date="2025-05-13T04:45:00+09:30">
            <name>Consumer and Business Services, Workplace Culture</name>
          </question>
        </questions>
        <startTime time="2025-05-13T14:46:42+09:30" />
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000106">
          <timeStamp time="2025-05-13T14:46:42+09:30" />
          <by role="member" id="6827" referenceid="b04d90ce5a204cc6b8913d2697f86b49" uid="ce77d74df2db4c488e8dfefa849f68a5">The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:46):</by>  I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector on departmental workplace culture.</text>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000107">Leave granted.</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="6827" referenceid="b04d90ce5a204cc6b8913d2697f86b49" uid="dfed0cbdd9ab4e5ca9cd87b1d708c604" kind="question" continued="true">
        <name>The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Deputy Leader of the Opposition</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000108">
          <by role="member" id="6827" referenceid="b04d90ce5a204cc6b8913d2697f86b49" uid="dfed0cbdd9ab4e5ca9cd87b1d708c604">The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO:</by>  The review identifies leadership behaviours within CBS, described as favouritism, cliques and decision-making based on personality and relationships rather than merit. My question to the minister is: will the government initiate a whole of public sector independent review into workplace culture and leadership accountability?</text>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000109">
          <event kind="interjection" role="member" id="3122" referenceid="c8a0c3187b2e476d8defa1809fecdf53">The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:</event>
        </text>
      </talker>
      <talker kind="speech" role="office">
        <name>The President</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000110">
          <by role="office">The PRESIDENT:</by>  The Hon. Mr Hunter obviously wants to answer the question.</text>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000111">
          <event kind="interjection">Members interjecting:</event>
        </text>
      </talker>
      <talker kind="speech" role="office">
        <name>The President</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000112">
          <by role="office">The PRESIDENT:</by>  Order!</text>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000113">
          <event kind="interjection">Members interjecting:</event>
        </text>
      </talker>
      <talker kind="speech" role="office">
        <name>The President</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000114">
          <by role="office">The PRESIDENT:</by>  Order! The Hon. Mr Hunter, it's not chat time; it's question time. Stop the chatting.</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="4697" referenceid="c1607c57d2294390bdc2b07c15f35010" uid="3df23e45eecf46a3a392ce3dcc27611b" kind="answer">
        <name>The Hon. K.J. MAHER</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Minister for Aboriginal Affairs</name>
          </portfolio>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Attorney-General</name>
          </portfolio>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector</name>
          </portfolio>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Special Minister of State</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <startTime time="2025-05-13T14:47:45+09:30" />
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000115">
          <timeStamp time="2025-05-13T14:47:45+09:30" />
          <by role="member" id="4697" referenceid="c1607c57d2294390bdc2b07c15f35010" uid="3df23e45eecf46a3a392ce3dcc27611b">The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:47):</by>  I am happy to answer the question, but I will just note, before I do, that clearly the state opposition in the Legislative Council miss their former deputy leader, who would not have ever asked almost the identical question to the leader following on. They obviously don't compare notes. While it's an almost identical question, I am happy to largely repeat a previous answer. When there have been issues identified—and each department obviously has different issues identified—action can be, and often is, taken. As I have said, Ms Rosslyn Cox, who did the review in relation to CBS, also did a review I think about a year ago in relation to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.</text>
        <text id="202505134af4c4329ed6421a90000116">I think what the honourable member is suggesting is: are all departments absolutely identical, and should you do exactly the same thing in each one? I think that's a fundamental reason and a mistake that would be made. But in relation to the question she has asked, almost identical to one of her leader's questions, when there are problems identified or concerns raised, of course action is taken, and that is shown on the reviews that have occurred.</text>
      </talker>
    </subject>
  </proceeding>
</hansard>