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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-28 Daily Xml
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Gibson Electorate Office

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:00): My question is to the Premier. Could the Premier please inquire, in his capacity of representing the Treasurer, in total how many individual claims are made in documents held by the Department of Treasury and Finance about issues raised by the staff of the member for Mitchell and member for Gibson in the electorate office? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The opposition submitted a freedom of information request to the Department of Treasury and Finance asking for:

…a copy of all documents that relate to allegations of intimidation, staff complaints and concerns, conflicts or disputes, avoidances, requests for transfers, workers' compensation claims or mediation raised by staff in the member for Mitchell or member for Gibson's electorate office.

The FOI response to the opposition was that there were 28 documents that were identified in answer to the terms of the request. They were denied.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (15:01): Again the member for West Torrens is referring to an application for freedom of information at which clearly he has failed. I think he has received one document and he is obviously very unhappy about that. This is a process which is set out in the law as to how it works.

Firstly, the independent officer that is appointed under the Freedom of Information Act is required to give consideration to all the matters in the act which, just to remind the member, include personal particulars of parties that may be disclosed for which consent may be obtained, for example. They are there for good reason. I don't need to revisit them. The parliament has made that decision as to what is necessary that shouldn't be disclosed under that freedom of information process.

The member for West Torrens well knows this process, and he knows also that there is a review capacity—not by the Treasurer, not by the Premier, not by you, Mr Speaker, not even by the parliament. It is actually by a process which starts with the chief executive of the department and, of course, then follows through ultimately to administration by a tribunal. That is the process. It seems that the member for West Torrens insists on somehow or other the government requiring, demanding in fact, information which has been the subject of an assessment by an information officer.

I just remind all members of the house, including the member for West Torrens, that there are also provisions in the Freedom of Information Act for interference with the processes in relation to the operations and duties of an authorised freedom of information officer. He might want to think about that very carefully.

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