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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-07-03 Daily Xml
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CHILD PROTECTION INQUIRY

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:52): Supplementary, sir. That is a very selective response.

The SPEAKER: Of necessity, since I would not want the Premier to read the entire report to us.

Mr MARSHALL: I would just like to ask whether he agrees with Mr Debelle's finding only a few paragraphs on, which states:

That is not an adequate answer. It is entirely inconsistent with his earlier answers that one of the duties of a ministerial adviser is to alert the Minister to matters that he thought might attract media attention...Mr Blewett's judgement was sadly at fault.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:53): That is because we are talking about two different things. We are talking about—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We are. We are talking about two separate observations about what Mr Blewett said. One is an observation about the reasons why he did not pass the information up and also an observation about why he was entitled to rely upon these matters.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, there are two separate matters at stake here.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I have been asked questions about the chief of staff's conduct and what the Leader of the Opposition is very keen to do is focus on one element of the findings of Mr Debelle. What I am seeking to do is to say there are two elements in it. I fully accept that a mistake was made about one element, but one cannot consider what the appropriate response is to the chief of staff without considering the whole of the context, and the whole of the context is that, even if the memorandum had been provided to me, this is a further finding made by Mr Debelle later in his reasons, namely:

Even if it is assumed that Mr Weatherill had been informed of the content of the e-mail of 2 December and his ministry either had ascertained the true position, he was, in my view, entitled to assume the department had taken the appropriate action. That was especially so in the light of the fact that the department did not provide any further information, either orally or by way of e-mail or in any other form of briefing.

So, when considering how to respond to this matter, all of that needs to be properly taken into account. I did take it into account.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It was a mistake. It was an isolated mistake, and I made a judgement about what should happen. I have made that judgement.

Mr Marshall: You backed your mates.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader and the leader are warned for the second and final time. The member for Mount Gambier.

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