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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-08 Daily Xml
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ROBERTS, MS R.

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Can the Premier advise the house, in relation to Ms Rowan Roberts' new position in the Premier's office, whether the position was advertised, how Ms Roberts made her application, or whether she had to apply at all?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier.

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) (14:38): Can I just say, it is really interesting today, the government was told this morning that the questions today would be about the proposed Adelaide Oval, but they have had a big falling out. Where do you stand on the Adelaide Oval proposal?

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order, point of order. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. I.F. Evans: Good deflection!

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. Rann interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Premier!

Mr WILLIAMS: Standing order 98: the minister needs to answer the question.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I uphold that point of order. Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I guess the point is relevant, because all the matters relating to Rowan Roberts and John McTernan were in last week's Advertiser, and they just scrambled around with their clippings, hoping that the television stations would think, 'Oh, well, we've got to run with something today.' As for John McTernan's help in the election campaign, we did not need help: we had Stephen Griffiths and Vickie Chapman working for us.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Absolutely working for us—helped us out brilliantly, totally put the kibosh on your election victory. Now, back to Rowan Roberts. The fact that you leaked to us to tell us that you are all over the place on the oval we really appreciate, by the way.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Yes, that's right; there are plenty of appointments we can talk about in terms of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —the Leader of the Opposition's office, or for the big increase in funding for the Leader of the Opposition's office that you requested from me. In terms of Rowan Roberts, the current employment contract for ministerial staff came into effect—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Honestly, we really appreciated Vickie Chapman's help during the election campaign, and we really appreciated Stephen Griffiths' help. We will give them honorary membership of the Labor Party one day.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: No, let's not go too far. They are their thinkers in residence.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That's right. They are the thinkers in residence for the Liberals. They are thinking, 'We can't let Isobel win so we will come out for the other side in the last week.' The current employment contract for ministerial staff came into effect following the introduction of the Public Sector Management Act of 1995—who was in office then?—

The Hon. K.O. Foley: The Liberals.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —and has been in use since 1997. Who was in office then? The Liberals. The payment provision—that is, the payout provision, the termination provision—was actually put in place by the Liberals. The payment provision has always been contained in the contract and was also a provision in contracts prior to 1995. The standard ministerial contract contains a provision (clause 12.1) that specifies that if the contract terminates by reason of the expiration of the term and the Premier does not provide at least three calendar months' notice of a contract expiration date then (subject to the conditions of clause 12.2 of the contract) the employee is eligible to be paid 16 weeks' salary plus any accrued leave.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Clause 12.2 is specific in that it states that if a recipient of a 16-week payment (made pursuant to clause 12.1) commences employment during that period in an office of profit under the Crown (whether in the Public Service or otherwise) then they forfeit any entitlement to such payment or to such part thereof. Repayment of the appropriate amount must be made in such cases.

These are the same arrangements that applied under the Liberal government. So the opposition is criticising arrangements that the Liberal government set up in this—

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: I have a point of order, Madam Speaker. The point of order is relevance to the question. The question was about the re-employment, not about the original payout.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold that point of order. The Premier is talking about conditions of employment. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: These are the same arrangements that applied under the Liberal government. In fact, the current form of the ministerial staff contracts was adopted in 1997 under the Olsen Liberal government, and they are the same arrangements that apply to opposition staffers. So, following the March 2010 election—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: And you asked me specifically for more money. You wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars of more money for the opposition to employ more staff—and we are, of course, at the same time, bankrolling the case of Kevin Naughton. Following the March 2010 election, the 16-week period has now expired. Therefore, any former employee who is to be re-contracted would not be required to make any repayments.

Rowan Roberts worked in my office as the economic adviser and received a termination payment in accordance with her contract following the 2010 election. The position of economic adviser was advertised nationally in April 2010 but no suitable candidates were identified. Ms Roberts has been re-employed in my office since 1 February 2011. The terms of her employment are consistent with the previous terms and conditions but taking into account standard movement in relation to public sector salaries.

Ms Roberts is an exceptional public sector officer, and her contribution to public policy development is valued both in government and the private sector. She has a first class honours degree in economics from the University of Adelaide and a master of economics from the Australian National University. She has extensive public policy experience at the Australian Treasury as well as in domestic and international policy institutes.

The payment of a sum of money on termination without notice is not a novel employment arrangement. You set it up and used it in opposition and also in government. So it should not be confused with the payment of an amount of money on account of a redundancy arrangement. Where public servants are paid on account of redundancy, the position is abolished and the former employee receives a payment based on years of service. This can be up to 116 weeks in the public sector compared to a termination of ministerial staff, who do not have permanency, of 16 weeks.

Employees whose positions are declared redundant and the position abolished cannot be employed for several years. This position reflects the size of the redundancy but, more importantly, acts as a check on the abolition of jobs without proper justification. Ms Roberts' positive contribution can be contrasted with the contribution of Liberal staffer Kevin Naughton, who peddled—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —dodgy documents, lies, fakes and forgeries—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —while on the public payroll—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order. The Premier is clearly debating at the moment, Madam Speaker.

The Hon. M.D. Rann interjecting:

Mr Williams: It's clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy leader, sit down. It is straying close to debate. Premier, I am sure you are going to finish your answer shortly.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Thank you, ma'am. So, did we advertise? Yes. Did we get anyone as good as Rowan Roberts? No. Did we know that she was coming back? No. She is back, and we are really pleased to have her. She makes an outstanding contribution, but we are using exactly the same provisions as were set up by the Liberal Party in government. You hope that the television cameras will ignore that all this has been in the newspapers because you could not get your act together for question time today. Where do you stand on the Adelaide Oval? If you support it, say so now.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PEDERICK: Point of order: relevance, 128.

The SPEAKER: I think the point of order is irrelevant because I think the Premier has finished his answer. He is sitting down.

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