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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-10-17 Daily Xml
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Renewal SA

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:47): My question is to the Attorney-General. Did the Attorney-General ask the Crown Solicitor to provide her with legal advice regarding whether she personally had committed a criminal offence? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain. Yesterday, in the house I asked the Attorney-General and in response to a question she said, and I quote:

…I obtained legal advice—and the member for West Torrens is well aware of that—from the Crown Solicitor's Office. It has not been disclosed for obvious reasons. I have read it. I have taken the advice, and I am satisfied that I am not in breach of any part of the act.

The SPEAKER: The question is within order. The Deputy Premier.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:48): I thank the member for West Torrens for the question. I think I made it clear yesterday that I had sought advice from the Crown Solicitor's Office. That, as the member for West Torrens knows, followed his presentation to the Crown Solicitor requesting that the Crown Solicitor undertake an inquiry in relation to the events surrounding this matter.

I don't know whether the member for West Torrens had forgotten that he had lost office in March 2018 or not but, as I think was clearly pointed out to him, the Crown Solicitor's Office actually works for the government and therefore it's not an agency which is responsible to the other individual members of parliament: it is actually the solicitor for the government. The member for West Torrens is not in the government, thank goodness. I think that he will have received correspondence from the Crown Solicitor advising him that that was not within the remit of the Crown Solicitor; indeed, he was responsible to the new government.

Accordingly, I requested that he look at the question in respect of the applicability of the ICAC Act in relation to all the circumstances surrounding the events of the previous week. I have received that report. I have read it and I am satisfied, in respect of the question that I have been asked, that I am not in breach of the ICAC Act.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings. Do you have a further question?

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Yes, I do.

The SPEAKER: You have the call.

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