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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-02 Daily Xml
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Matter of Privilege

Matter of Privilege

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (12:25): Mr Speaker, I seek to raise a matter of privilege. In response to questions on Wednesday 18 November, I asked the Minister for Emergency Services, the Hon. Tony Piccolo, a supplementary question concerning the SES and CFS charters.

The SPEAKER: He is the Minister for Emergency Services. We do not need a subordinate clause with his baptismal name.

Dr McFETRIDGE: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your guidance. I asked a supplementary question concerning the SES and CFS volunteers charter being put into legislation, not just regulation. On the following day, Thursday 19 November, I again asked the minister a question along the same lines and quoted from a document that had been released as part of the emergency services sector reform. In both of his answers the minister denied that he intended to incorporate the volunteers charter in the Fire and Emergency Services Act, but rather keep them as regulation.

It is my contention that the minister has knowingly misled the house by denying his former intention to place both of these charters in the Fire and Emergency Services Act. Any reasonable person would understand that when a minister talks about legislation, that means incorporation into an act of parliament, not a regulation attached to that act. This was the understanding of both volunteer associations and many others I have spoken to.

I have documents here, Mr Speaker, that clearly show where the intention was to have the charters placed in legislation, which, as I have said, was interpreted by everyone who read these documents to mean incorporated into the act. For the minister to now say that he does not mean that, to say it was only regulation, means that he has, at the very least, misled 14,000 CFS volunteers and 1,600 SES volunteers.

It is my contention, and I have people from the volunteer associations willing to appear before any further investigation of this matter, that people clearly understood the minister to mean incorporation into the act. I believe the minister was intending to put the charters into the act, hence the term 'legislation'. To turn around and say 'just regulation', I think, is very hard to believe. I believe there was indeed a breach of privilege and I seek your ruling on this matter.

The SPEAKER: On its face it just appears to be political argy-bargy, but I will study the documents and see if, as the member for Morphett asserts, the minister has deliberately or knowingly misled the house, and I will get back to the house with a ruling, as I have in the past.

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