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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-09 Daily Xml
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Gibson Electorate Office Staff

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:51): My question is to the Premier, representing the Treasurer. Is it common practice for the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure's electorate office staff to work from Parliament House, rather than the electorate office, for their personal safety? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The opposition has obtained an email sent to the honourable Minister for Transport and Infrastructure from a member of his staff on Friday 1 December 2017 at 8.59am:

Corey,

I will not be working from the Electorate Office today and will be working from the Parliament House office as has been routine over the past few weeks.

I no longer feel physically safe alone in your presence and feel the requirement to reach out to Electorate Services once again to seek support. This situation has culminated following your aggressive and threatening comments in our meeting on Monday 27 November and subsequent phone call which was aggressive, unprofessional and disrespectful. I have raised concerns with you about these two events in writing and have only seen an acknowledgement to these emails when arriving at work this morning however, I have not received a response to the questions I raised in these emails.

These patterns of behaviour have become increasingly common since I first raised ethical concerns in relation to your conduct back in April/May.

Under your management, you have condoned behaviour in the Mitchell Electorate Office that I feel breaches ethical standards and supports a culture that attempts to bully and harass staff who do not support this culture.

I have raised numerous concerns with you in writing over the past several months and have not had the courtesy or respect of a response to these. Your response to the concerns, questions and issues I have raised with you in writing would be appreciated so there can be an assurance for my safety in the Mitchell Electorate Office so there can be clarity to my role in your office.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:53): I think the Treasurer has already tabled a statement in the other place with regard to this matter, which had been well canvassed in this house and in the other place this week. It relates to incidents that occurred prior to our government coming into power, prior to our sitting on the treasury bench. It relates to a performance management issue, and a performance management issue which occurred back in the electorate office at that time. That was subject to some comment by the Treasury team at the time, and they found that there was no basis for—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the allegations at that time and didn't take it further. I note that that was, of course, under a different minister—not the current Treasurer, but the former Treasurer, now the member for West Torrens.

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