House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-17 Daily Xml

Contents

Question Time

POLICE MINISTER, ASSAULT

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Police. What role did the Premier's personal security team or ministerial protection unit have following the second alleged assault on the police minister in the Royale bar or its subsequent investigation?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Police, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Motor Sport, Minister Assisting the Premier with the Olympic Dam Expansion Project) (14:28): To be honest, Madam Speaker, I don't understand the question. What is the question?

Mrs REDMOND: I will repeat the question: what role did the Premier's personal security team or ministerial protection unit have following the second alleged assault on the police minister in the Royale bar or its subsequent investigation? If you caught up with Adelaidenow, there are reports about the involvement—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: Have you read Adelaidenow?

The SPEAKER: Order! I don't think the Minister for Defence is responsible for comments on Adelaidenow. He can choose to answer if he wants to, but I don't think he needs to.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I do choose to answer that. I would have thought, from my ministerial statement just given to the house, that one would be very circumspect—particularly one who would be an alternate premier—about the quality of the statements made to the court today by the person representing the person who hit me in the city. Madam Speaker, all I will say is this—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: That is the exact point: that you read it on Adelaidenow. I will say this—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am police minister and I will say this and only this: that South Australia's police officers have the best integrity and the best record and the highest standing of any police officer in this nation. One only has to look at what occurs in other police forces around this country. If there is any assertion or accusation implied within what the member has just said, that somehow police have not acted appropriately, then that matter should be taken up with the police commissioner.