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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Oakden Mental Health Facility

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): Supplementary to the Attorney-General: has the Attorney-General made any inquiry or is he satisfied that no-one in respect of the Oakden matter has been using private email facilities?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:39): Again, thank you for that question. At the moment, if we just take stock for a little while, we have a joint select committee of this house and the other place which is looking at the broader question of elder abuse and, in particular, as I understand it, is currently considering an amendment specifically to enable that joint house committee to inquire into matters arising from the publicly noted matters of grave concern regarding Oakden.

Secondly, again, as I am advised through the media, the Coroner is presently conducting an inquiry into a particular matter and it remains to be seen whether the Coroner determines in due course whether other matters require his attention. We have, as recently as the last couple of weeks, noticed that the commonwealth government has sought a partnership with the states in a broader inquiry into the question of appropriate treatment of older people.

At a meeting of attorneys-general a couple of weeks ago, at my request that was broadened out to include questions such as accreditation and audit, which specifically were directed towards aged-care facilities of a type such as Oakden. The South Australian government is cooperating fully in that and, indeed, is co-chairing with the commonwealth in relation to that particular inquiry.

We had the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, who is acting in this instance as the Ombudsman, announce today that he is conducting an inquiry. We have the Hon. Stephen Wade in another place who wishes, it would seem from the Notice Paper, to replicate the inquiry of the joint house committee in relation to elder abuse by in effect lifting an element of that inquiry—namely, the element to do with Oakden—and dealing with that as a stand-alone proposition, notwithstanding the fact that, as I understand it, the Hon. Mr Wade is in fact a member of the joint house committee.

They are the ones that pop into mind presently, although I do understand that there was some talk this morning about the possibility of a federal royal commission or possibly yet another inquiry by the Senate to be directed towards, amongst other things, Oakden. In those circumstances, it seems to me that it would be prudent for me as the Attorney-General to offer such cooperation and reasonable assistance to those respective inquiries as I possibly can.

It would probably be both counterproductive and potentially, in the minds of the suspicious amongst us, most of whom sit over there, that my being involved in any way was in some way attempting to muddy the waters. I am not going to give anybody that satisfaction. We are not interested in muddying the waters. We are interested in cooperating. As best I can tell, as currently advised, there are something like five inquiries into this matter going on.

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill: All triggered by us.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Triggered by us or this parliament, with the federal parliament being involved with us as recently as a few days ago, offering our assistance to the commonwealth to participate.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: So, I don't think I should be adding any further confusion to what might conceivably be quite a concoction of multiple and overlapping inquiries.

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart is called to order and warned a first time.

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