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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-09 Daily Xml
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INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:41): Further to the happenings during question time today, the Rann Labor government has continually dismissed calls that an independent commission against corruption—an ICAC—is needed in South Australia. It has put forward myriad reasons outlining why, the main one being the costs associated with setting up such an anti-corruption agency. The Liberal Party's plan for an ICAC estimates that the cost would be about $15 million annually. However, the state government says that our plan to set up an anti-corruption commission in South Australia will be a waste of money.

I think the money spent by the Rann government's spin team is a huge waste of money. It is an absolute disgrace, and the government should be ashamed. If there is money for the government to employ 294 staff in its ministerial offices and the Premier's media unit, compared to 191 staff employed in the ministerial offices under the former Liberal government, there is money to fund an ICAC for South Australia. Taxes have increased since Premier Rann came to office, and he has an extra $4 billion to spend every year compared with what we had just six years ago when we were in government. However, he says that we cannot afford an ICAC at a cost of about $15 million annually.

An anti-corruption commission would investigate allegations of corruption in the police, government agencies and planning authorities, and so on. It would provide transparency for all South Australians. It would deliver decisions that could stand up against public scrutiny. As my colleague the member for Heysen said earlier, for people to have confidence in our decision makers, it is imperative that they are free from corruption. As always, he or she who has nothing to hide has nothing to fear.

It is interesting to note that South Australia is one of the few states and territories that does not have an independent body to investigate claims of corruption. New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland all have one. Premier Rann needs to start thinking about what the people of South Australia want—their tax dollars spent on massive spin teams or an independent body to investigate claims of corruption—because, come 2010, he may find that he has been mistaken in his assumptions about how important South Australians rank this issue.

The State Coroner, Mark Johns, this week backed up our plan to review the Police Complaints Authority under our model for a proposed anti-corruption body. Following his investigation into the death of Christopher Stuart Wilson, he handed down a recommendation that the secrecy provisions in the Police Complaints Act be amended so that relevant evidence can be disclosed in the Coroner's Court.

Last year, when Ken MacPherson retired as auditor-general, he called for an independent commission to be established to deal with corruption—and we were never fans of his. These are two men of notable standing in South Australia, and they are calling on the state government to introduce an anti-corruption commission. However, all Premier Rann and his government appear to be concerned about is the cost—'dollars', 'funding', however, you put it, it means the same.

What it boils down to is that Premier Rann prefers to spend money elsewhere: on his spin team. He chooses to mesmerise people, not show them that all in government is honest, professional and straight. The state government has collected $30 billion in state taxes since being elected to power in 2002, including a record tax take of an estimated $3.4 billion this year. That is a huge amount of money by anyone's standards.

It is not right that taxpayers' funds are being spent on public relations outfits and spin teams, which are only there to try to make the government look good and cover the truth. An ICAC, on the other hand, will ensure that corruption is investigated immediately, efficiently and in fairness to all concerned. The fact that we have an ICAC will keep the outfit honest and certainly will be a huge incentive to those who may think about straying off the track. It is not hard to see which option I think the people of South Australian would want.

It is just hard to believe that the Premier and his government are too oblivious to see it. I think that it is naive in the extreme if the government thinks that there is absolutely no corruption within its operations and also if it thinks that the arrangements it has in place—the Auditor-General and the Police Complaints Authority etcetera—have a blanket process to detect it. So, cut your extravagant PR spin-team outfit by half and, with the money saved, set up an ICAC. We on this side strongly believe that, if you have nothing to hide, why do you fear it?

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