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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-27 Daily Xml
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY CLUB

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Was the minister aware that Mr Ploubidis was consulted on confidential issues relating to the South Australian Jockey Club that were provided to the Premier? Mr Ploubidis stated:

I was also very privileged in that Philip Bentley would also often pass on to me fairly confidential information, which included briefings to the minister, press releases that he would write on behalf of the minister and also briefings that he would provide to the Premier for my input.

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee—Minister for Police, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:36): I am not too sure what point the shadow minister is making. Really what they are trying to do is dress up the accusations that were made by Mr Ploubidis under parliamentary privilege in a select committee on Friday. What I have said in response to those is that I vehemently deny them. Any assertions that I knew about vote rigging at the SAJC is simply not true. If I had been made aware by Mr Ploubidis, or for that matter anybody else, I would have reported that as a matter of urgency to the Independent Gambling Authority. I do not know any other minister who would have done any differently. That would have been a natural course of action.

We should not ignore that already Mr Ploubidis has form on this topic. Previously—it is all on the public record—Mr Ploubidis has made similar assertions about Mr Bentley, which were vehemently denied. He has also made similar assertions about the Director of the Office for Racing, Denis Harvey, which was vehemently denied. Of course, what I did at the time that the Lipman Karas report was announced is that I acknowledged it and I called for it to be made public to me. It subsequently was made public to me in March. As a result of the recommendations within the Lipman Karas report, I then referred it, as I should, to the police and the police are continuing their investigations.

Interestingly, if you have a look at the Lipman Karas report, and I quote them direct, this is what they have to say:

Lipman Karas called it membership stacking. Mr Ploubidis played the dominant role in the membership stacking activities leading up to the 2008 election. He undertook these activities in a clandestine fashion.

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