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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-02 Daily Xml
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MINISTERIAL CODE OF CONDUCT

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Health. How is the minister's conduct not a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct when the minister told the house yesterday that the reason he asked the health department specifically to prepare material for the minister's use in the election during the caretaker period was '...blindingly obvious: so that we could find out the cost of the propositions the Liberal Party were putting to the public of South Australia', and '...to find out what the cost of your policies were so the public were better informed.' The Ministerial Code of Conduct states:

Public servants should not be asked to work on party political matters. They should not be asked to specifically prepare material for ministers to use in the election when the government is in caretaker mode after an election has been called.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:37): Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has asked the same question multiple times. I know she wants to keep fighting the last state election, but, as I said in my answer to the first question that was asked, discussions may include the administrative and technical practicalities—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —and procedures involved in implementing policies proposed by the opposition parties. It is entirely—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order.

Mr PISONI: The minister is obviously confused. We are now talking about the Ministerial Code of Conduct.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order there. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It does not matter which document the opposition refers to—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Members on the other side might listen and give me the courtesy of listening. It does not matter which of the documents they refer to. The facts are that I asked factual questions. I did not ask my department to do anything improper. In fact, I did not ask them to do anything. My staff asked the questions, and, in fact—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman: That is pathetic, John!

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bragg, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I was not blaming the staff at all. I have never done that.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Let us be clear about what is happening here. I am saying you said this. I am just being factual. Members of my staff, who operate under my instruction—and I said that yesterday—asked questions of departmental officers of a factual nature. That information was provided factually by the departmental officers; and, in fact, Madam Speaker—

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Davenport, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: In fact, Madam Speaker, the emails that the opposition released yesterday to the media omitted several emails which were provided to them under FOI and which were initiated prior to the caretaker period when the original questions about costings were asked; and, in fact, the later emails sought clarification about some of that earlier information. So, if you want to be pedantic about it, that is exactly what happened. I know they are angry, I know they are still fighting the last election. My conscience is completely clear that I acted properly on all counts.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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