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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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Question Time

BUDGET LEAK

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): My question is to the Premier. What security measures has the government put in place, or will it be putting in place, following the biggest leak in South Australia's history regarding the budget, and how will the Premier—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order. I think it is standing order 97: a member cannot use comment or debate in a question. To describe something as 'the greatest leak in the universe', or whatever it was, is plainly comment and debate.

The SPEAKER: I uphold that point of order. Leader of the Opposition, can you finish your question?

Mrs REDMOND: I am just quickly having a look at standing order 97 to make sure that it does state that. Standing order 97 does not say that at all, but notwithstanding that and notwithstanding that it was the biggest budget leak in South Australia's history, I am happy—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport has another point of order.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: It's their time; they've got all the questions. I do apologise: it is 'argument or opinion'. Can I say, not only is 'the greatest budget leak in history' an opinion, it is also a false one.

Mrs REDMOND: I'll happily reword my question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, continue with the question.

Mrs REDMOND: Madam Speaker, I will happily reword it, because, really, I am interested to see whether we get an answer. What security measures is the government putting in place and how will it ensure that such a leak (with no adjectives) will never happen again?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:08): It's time for reflection on the leaks of the past. It's time that I told nearly the full story of the biggest leaks in the history of this parliament. There was a day back in, I think, the early 1980s when I was working for John Bannon in this very building, as leader of the opposition, and a young man came into the office with the entire—

Mr PISONI: Point of order. Can I ask that the Premier direct his answer to the substance of the question?

The SPEAKER: I understand your point of order, member for Unley, but I think we need to give him a little bit of time, because I am sure he is going to get to the point.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Of course, if—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No, this is exactly to the point, Madam Speaker, because I was asked a question about the biggest budget leak, and I am going to answer a question about the biggest budget leak, and then she said, 'The biggest leak in history.' I will answer those questions. So, this young man came in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —and I was able to knock on the door of John Bannon's office and say, 'Here's the budget papers.' There was basically a wheelbarrow full, and that caused some degree of excitement. But then, of course, Labor returned to power for some years, and then, of course, there were 8.3 years, I imagine, of Liberal government. What happened is that one day I had a phone call, and that phone call was for me to go to a cafe in North Adelaide called Scuzzi. Scuzzi was the name. I am now revealing it. I was told by a very senior cabinet minister to be dropped off at Scuzzi Cafe in North Adelaide.

The Hon. J.D. Hill: He wasn't that senior.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No, that one, not the other one. Then I was told—

Mr Marshall: He's laughing about security leaks.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I am. I am laughing about security leaks.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Then I was asked—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: They don't like it. It's okay; no-one has seen your embarrassment. Then I was asked to walk in a zigzag fashion—sort of Inspector Clouseau, maybe Maxwell Smart—through the streets of North Adelaide to this house. I knocked on the door not knowing whose house it was and who would open the door. Suddenly, after knocking on the door, I heard a certain noise, which I won't go into—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —and the door opened and I was led down a hallway to a kitchen.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: And there I was given a set of documents that brought down one Liberal minister—bang! Then, as I was leaving, just incidentally, I was given a cabinet bag—a very large cabinet bag, larger than the ones we have these days because we are a bit more concise—and in that cabinet bag were 880 pages of cabinet submissions, including the government's polling, including details of their privatisation plan. So, don't talk to me about the biggest budget leaks or biggest leaks in history. However, there was tighter security, because I was told that as leader of the opposition, 'Please can you bring it back exactly 24 hours from now so we can put it in the back of the van.' So, what I did is that I took it into work. I read it until three in the morning—it was riveting reading. They actually had the documents—

Mr PISONI: Point of order. Standing order 98 specifically requires that the minister answer the substance of the question. You ruled out of order the description as being comment, yet the Premier is debating the comment that you ruled out of order. I ask that you bring the Premier back to the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold your point of order because standing order 98 talks about no debate. He is not debating; he is expanding a point, and I am sure that he is going to finish shortly.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I am going to finish.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition.

Mrs REDMOND: The question was about security measures and what security measures the government was putting in place to prevent leaks. That is the substance of the question, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: I am very aware of that, Leader of the Opposition, and he is getting to that point very shortly, I am sure. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: What happened is that mayhem ensued, but some of the documents—and you should know about this if you are interested in the biggest leak. We had an FOI request in through the courts—

Mr PISONI: Point of order. I ask that you bring the Premier back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I am getting onto the subject.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I am sure you are getting onto the subject very soon. You have been going for seven minutes now.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The member for Unley knows all about documents. He knows all about the security of those documents.

Mr PENGILLY: Point of order. This trip around Blue Hills is fantastic, but I would love to know—he is keeping us in suspense and will not tell us who the minister is. Can he tell us, please?

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: If I told you the names of the two ministers, you would have one from each faction. I reckon you know who they are. Okay? So, anyway, I was in the court, the vibe of the Constitution—of course, a family that has hundreds of years of involvement in criminal law in Great Britain. I was in the court, but I actually got the documents that I was fighting in the courts to secure. So, we made sure the court case was settled, the government paid the costs, and then we released the documents, so it was okay. But the point of the matter is this: there was no security. How can you have security when the Liberals' own cabinet ministers were handing the leader of the opposition documents, when they were ringing up and asking us on the phone—writing, 'Here's a question to ask in question time today.'

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That is what you are all about. It is about your jobs, not the jobs of South Australians. The security measures that will be—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Mr WILLIAMS: The Premier has now left fairyland and entered debate land.

The SPEAKER: I thought he was finally getting to the point.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I hope that is not in any way reflecting on my response, because it was not meant to be that way. What I am going to say in conclusion is this: some of you thought a UBD was a directory for roads, but the key thing is that we have—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I know yesterday, by the way, we went from commentary that said this was a disaster for the government to later in the day that this was actually a brilliant move. It was by the same commentator, actually, but we get used to that. I guess my point is this: the security of the budget has been secure because there has not been a leak of the budget. There has been a leak of a draft some time back of recommendations for various cuts and closures. As I said yesterday—and I will repeat—the job of the boffins and the experts is to make recommendations for cuts based on costs. We in government will make decisions on value.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: We have had 10 minutes of question time and one question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I think we need to move on.

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