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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-14 Daily Xml
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Darlington Upgrade Project

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Were any of the 46 DPTI employees who received targeted voluntary separation packages involved in the oversight or project management of the Darlington project?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:47): Finally, he actually tells us where this figure comes from. Over the last week, in the media the member for West Torrens has been using a figure that somehow 46 senior executives from the department are no longer there, and that is why there is something wrong with the place. We could not for the life of us work out where this figure came from.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: It was tabled in parliament.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Laugh, sure—but now we actually understand—

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —where the figure has come from, and we are talking about targeted voluntary separation packages.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Yes, the member is correct—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —that there are 46 members, across the entire organisation of 3,000 people, who have taken TVSPs. I kept thinking that I don't even have 46 senior executives within the department, and I must admit that I don't know where they went.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Again, I was wondering whether or not he was speaking about the mass exodus of departmental staff who left when the former chief executive Rod Hook was sacked and the whole host of senior executives at that time I now come across—because a lot of them are working in private industry—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and tell me about what happened during that time. Now we've got to the heart of the issue, and I can categorically rule out that there have been 46 senior executives who have gone anywhere in the department. But I can say that the staff who are working down there—the senior project leads as well as the people those project leads then report to within the department—are all still there. They are all the same people. They were there under the former government and they still exist there under the new government.

At the lower levels, there may have been some personnel change, but certainly the people who report to me are very much still there and they are very much going to continue to be there because of the host of knowledge they have in relation to building projects across our state. We are dealing with our Hindmarsh clay soils, we are dealing with a lot of very specific issues that are unique to Adelaide, and they have a history with the projects the department has previously undertaken. They are still there, and I certainly hope they continue to be there well into the future.

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