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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-14 Daily Xml
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PAROLE BOARD

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): My question is to the Attorney-General. What does he understand by the term 'intimidation' and does he accept that members of the Parole Board would have been intimidated by his public statements that their positions were under review in light of the Shane Andrew Robinson case?

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: The Attorney-General wrote a comment just after midnight last night (one might say: get a life!) on the news website, Adelaidenow, that:

Frances Nelson's claim that I have used intimidating and threatening language is false. I defy Frances Nelson to produce any such words from anything I have said.

On Monday on ABC Radio, the Attorney-General was asked by presenter David Bevan during an interview relating to the Robinson case, 'What are you going to do about this?', to which the Attorney replied, 'I think it might be time for some new members of the Parole Board.'

On radio this morning, Ms Nelson said that government comments about the board were 'unfortunate', and, '...to hold that sort of threat over people is wholly unfair and totally inappropriate'.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:55): The new Liberal leader is true to form: she is sticking up for the criminals and against the victims. She is with the Parole Board in making a spectacularly mistaken decision. Now, let us deal with being on the Parole Board. Let us get the Parole Board into perspective. I appoint judges, and lawyers all over town are saying 'Pick me, pick me, pick me,' but no-one ever says, 'Appoint me to the Parole Board—pick me, pick me.'

The Hon. I.F. Evans: Tim Bourne did.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Well, he didn't, actually, and I will come to that. The fact is that positions on the Parole Board are lowly paid. It is tremendously stressful work. I know that the members of the Parole Board work very hard indeed. Very few people in Adelaide want to be on the Parole Board. This is the first government to have looked beyond lawyers and appointed to the Parole Board retired police officers and representatives of victims of crime, and Law Society types pillory us for that. They say, 'Oh, yes, these retired police officers, these victims' representatives, they can't do the work.' It's exclusively legal work, they think. Well, that is not right, and I will be pleased to appoint more people of that kind—lay men and lay women—to the Parole Board.

I was asked by David Bevan on ABC Radio what I was going to do and I said, 'It might be time for some new members of the Parole Board.' Well, strike me pink! Blow me down! They'd be quaking in their boots about that, wouldn't they? Attacking them with the comfy pillow! Given how lowly paid and difficult working on the Parole Board is, I think that many of them will be happy to be relieved of their duties at the end of their appointed term.

One meaning of that—and I think the principal meaning of that—is that we can appoint more people to the Parole Board, create a new panel and get people onto the Parole Board who believe that people such as Shane Andrew Robinson should not be released early from prison when they have failed five drug tests in a row. Those kinds of people, that is who I am thinking of.

For Frances Nelson to say that I was using intimidating and threatening language is completely false, and she should be held to account for saying something that is completely false. Indeed, yesterday, the substrata of fact on which this was based were media reports saying that I had called for heads to roll on the Parole Board and that I had called for the Parole Board to be sacked. Of course, the Leader of the Opposition and her ever trusty staff, John Lewis and Kevin Naughton—

An honourable member: Are they still there?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —I believe they have been renewed for a fortnight—no doubt went through the transcript of what I said, and the best they could find of intimidating and threatening language was, 'It might be time for some new members of the Parole Board.' Is that all there is, Leader of the Opposition?

As to the question of Tim Bourne, what I can tell you is that when Tim Bourne was first appointed to the Parole Board the cabinet submission for that came from the late Terry Roberts: it did not come from me. The first I knew of it was when I opened that particular cabinet submission, and I immediately retired from cabinet deliberations on the matter. When Mr Bourne was reappointed, it was by minister Zollo: it had nothing whatever to do with me, and being appointed to the Parole Board is not a reward for anything.

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