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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-22 Daily Xml
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Members, Accommodation Allowances

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier cautioned and reprimanded his ministers for their conduct?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:26): I made it very clear to every single member in my team, whether they be in this house or whether they be in the other place, that they are responsible for any allowances which they claim and the accuracy of those. I asked every member of my team not only to look at what had happened in the last month or three months or six months or since we came to government—

Mr Malinauskas: Yes, but what if they did the wrong thing?

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but to look over the last 10 years. This was the standard which we set. Members have done a huge amount of work to go through all of those, to check them against their diary and, if there were any administrative errors, to immediately identify those, report them to the Clerk, and immediately rectify that situation.

I can't speak for what has happened with any direction from the Leader of the Opposition to members in the ALP both past or present, or other members of this parliament, whether they have gone through and looked at every single one of their transactions over a 10-year period, but what I can say is that on my side I have made it very clear: members are responsible—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for the accuracy of those applications. We have a responsibility to every member of the public—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Apparently they are not responsible.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to make sure that those applications for moneys from the public are done so in strict accordance with the guidelines.

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Deputy leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It is true that there have been some administrative errors over the last 10 years. We are talking about tens of thousands of transactions which have needed to be checked, dates for members that have existed in this place for the last 10 years, and there have been errors and they have been identified.

Mr Brown: And what's happened to them? Nothing.

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What we don't know at this stage is whether there are any errors—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: They had to attend the birth of Jesus.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —on the accounts of any members of the Australian Labor Party.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee can leave for 20 minutes.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have heard absolutely nothing from the Leader of the Opposition with regard to what threshold he has set, what expectation he has set for his members. He has not made a public statement about his members. He has not made any public statement whatsoever.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left, with all respect, I am not going to tolerate that level of interjection today, so if it continues members will be departing the chamber. We've got the question; I would like to hear the Premier's answer, and then I will come back to those on my left. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. I have not heard any public statement from the Leader of the Opposition whatsoever requiring his members to go back and check every single one of their transactions. I'm not sure whether I just overheard something then—I will check Hansard—but the reality is, we have made that expectation on this—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —side of the parliament. More than that, more than going backwards for 10 years—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —what we have done on this side of the chamber is ensure that going forward there is absolute scrutiny on this issue with monthly publication of information. More than that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we have also, as a government, written to the Auditor-General to have far greater scrutiny of this issue going forward. In fact, we have even suggested that maybe it is time to have random audits on individual members. We do this because we need to assure the people of South Australia that we have tightened up the arrangements that existed for decades and decades, certainly over the full 16 years of the previous government. We have tightened up those arrangements going forward.

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