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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-08 Daily Xml
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ST CLAIR LAND SWAP

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon) (15:54): On 3 December, on his last day in parliament and on the last sitting day of parliament before the March 2010 state election, David Winderlich alleged that I was guilty of corruption and 'worse than corruption' in connection with the Charles Sturt council's St Clair land swap.

Under parliamentary privilege, Mr Winderlich, reading from an anonymous email, but sometimes making allegations on his own authority, read into the Hansard and, through it, into the mainstream media, allegations that I had corruptly offered money and benefits to councillors, bought votes on the St Clair land-swap motion, hacked the Save St Clair group's website, damaged personal property of a political opponent, spied on people, ran smear campaigns out of my electorate office and conducted myself in a way that made people fear for their personal safety.

These allegations were extensively reported in the Adelaide media. After making the allegations, David Winderlich walked to the Parliament House bar and announced, 'I've just tipped a bucket of shit on Atko!' On the same day Mr Winderlich made his allegations, the Legislative Council resolved on a party-line vote to refer my role in the St Clair land swap to the Ombudsman for a report. At the March 2010 state election, David Winderlich and Kirsten Alexander ran for the Legislative Council on a ticket entitled Independent Communities Against Corruption.

After an inquiry lasting almost two years, costing taxpayers and ratepayers more than $500,000 and using all the coercive powers of a royal commission, not only is not one of these allegations sustained but not a jot or tittle of evidence was ever put to me to substantiate any of these allegations; nor has any other authority or inquiry or investigation approached me or put any substantiating evidence to me about any of these allegations, though they have been in the public arena for two years.

No evidence, as distinct from hearsay, was presented to the Ombudsman's inquiry that I had ever, in 21 years, asked any Charles Sturt councillor to do or refrain from doing anything, other than by routine constituent correspondence. The threshold St Clair land-swap vote on 9 November 2009 was taken without any influence from me, let alone improper or undue influence. It is now clear from the report that each and every one of these allegations is false, and I can now say definitively that there is no evidence for any of them.

After the Charles Sturt council voted for the St Clair land swap, I studied the proposal and thought it was, on balance, a good idea. The topic was discussed in cabinet with a variety of points of view canvassed about how to deal with the Charles Sturt council's decision and the determination of the protesters to blame the state government and make the controversy part of the election campaign until March 2010.

On cabinet's instruction, from 11 November, in the media, I put the land-swap decision in the context of transit-oriented developments and the Labor government's plan to electrify the Outer Harbor and Grange railway lines and run light-rail vehicles to Semaphore Beach and West Lakes. I participated in radio debates and blog sites and I wrote the first draft of letters supporting the land swap to constituents.

The fallacy applied by David Winderlich and Kirsten Alexander to my role in the St Clair land swap was known to the Romans as post hoc, ergo propter hoc: after this, therefore because of this. For daring to disagree with the Save St Clair group, David Winderlich and Kirsten Alexander, I have been subjected to the smear campaign outlined above. I have no recourse, other than for journalists and presenters who ran the original defamations under parliamentary privilege to run the outcome of the investigation into these allegations.

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