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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-05 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

MINISTER FOR HEALTH'S REMARKS

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:21): Yesterday in this place the Minister for Health, John Hill, deliberately smeared the name of Dr Jim Katsaros. There was a clear inference that Dr Katsaros was the source of the leak of the Macquarie Bank documents that have been circulated. This is an outrageous inference.

The police minister, by interjection, said, 'He leaked it, he leaked it,' and when I challenged him across the chamber, 'Say that outside,' the police minister again said, 'He leaked it'—a direct reference to Dr Jim Katsaros. If you doubt my word, go and watch ABC television news last night because you can clearly see what the police minister was doing there yesterday. In the chamber yesterday, and I will read from Hansard, the health minister said:

I do not have a copy of the Macquarie document. Unlike Jim Katsaros, I am not a subscriber to the high wealth group who are provided with this document.

How did the minister know who was provided with a copy of this document? How did he know this? Was he making this up? Was this a lucky guess? Did he make this up or did he or one of his staffers contact Macquarie Bank and say, 'Who has got the document?' We know this is 'Retribution 101' by this government. They chase people down, they try and they try, and they run them into the ground.

So, what did he do? There are two choices. He made it up or he phoned Macquarie Bank. If he phoned Macquarie Bank and they gave the minister that information, that is a disgraceful thing for Macquarie Bank to do. The minister, by releasing Dr Katsaros's name as one of a 'high wealth group who are provided with this document', is again slurring Dr Katsaros and is a clear breach of Dr Katsaros's confidentiality if he has subscribed to this document—if he has.

If the minister is making this up, that is an absolute disgrace and he should resign. If the minister has contacted Macquarie Bank or his staff have contacted Macquarie Bank and because of the information acquired from the Macquarie Bank he is then able to slur Dr Katsaros under privilege in this place, he should resign. It is an outrageous breach of Dr Katsaros's confidentiality in this matter that the minister comes in here and continues the slur campaign, which we saw go right back to before the last election. They try and slur and disparage the character of the good Dr Katsaros. We saw it again in this place today.

The minister must explain to this house whether he or his officers contacted Macquarie Bank. He has to come and explain that. He needs to explain to this house how he knows, as he said on ABC TV yesterday, that this leaked document was different from the original document.

The minister said on ABC radio yesterday afternoon, 'It's a refabrication of the original document because it doesn't contain the watermarks which would identify the person who leaked it. I haven't seen either of these documents.' What? Was he told to avert his eyes when his officers said, 'Don't look, minister. We've got the documents. They're not quite the same as the original documents. Don't look. Don't watch. Don't listen.' This is typical crisis management: deny, deny, deny; deflect, deflect, deflect.

The outrageous slur that has been maintained by the health minister and the police minister is completely debunked by Dr Katsaros himself. This morning, I went and saw Dr Katsaros, and I have here a statutory declaration signed by Dr Katsaros this morning. I will read from it:

I, James Katsaros

Of 174 Ward Street North Adelaide South Australia 5006 do solemnly and sincerely declare

That I did not release, leak or divulge information contained in the Macquarie Private Bank document 'New Royal Adelaide Hospital Equity Information Presentation'.

And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of provision of the Oaths Act, 1936, as amended.

Dr Katsaros did not release this document, so this minister must apologise. He needs to come in and apologise and do it today.

I also spoke to Dr Ken Rollond this morning—another person who has been implicated by this government. I spoke to Dr Ken Rollond and Ken Rollond has not even seen the document. How could he spread this document? He has not even seen the document. Here again, we have this government, this minister and the police minister doing their very best. They come in here and tell lies about people's reputations; they smear, they disparage. It is just an absolute disgrace. The minister either needs to resign or come back in here and apologise forthwith. It is not good enough for him to just walk away, use coward's castle to have a go at Dr Katsaros once again. We know he has a track record on this. He needs to stop it. He needs to come clean with South Australia and admit the fact that there is this massive blowout in this hospital's cost, and we need to make sure that South Australians get the picture.

Time expired.

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