House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-18 Daily Xml

Contents

Member for Waite

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Attorney-General. Did the Attorney-General inform the Premier that the member for Waite had slapped the Hon. Connie Bonaros MLC?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:17): I thank the member for the question because it does give me the opportunity to confirm, in relation to this matter, that I had received a text message from the Hon. Connie Bonaros to contact her on 16 December last year. I did so. She conveyed to me particulars of some of the matters that she had experienced on the 13th. What was described was unwelcome and unacceptable.

Consistent with what the Premier has just indicated, I conveyed my concern that should any person who was involved and present and had been in a similar position at that event, she could provide them with my mobile phone number and I would be happy to provide whatever support they would need. That is entirely consistent with what I have done, frankly, on a number of occasions in the time I have been in the parliament.

I have maintained a position of ensuring that the particulars of what is conveyed to me by anyone who has been aggrieved by conduct remains confidential. I don't propose to traverse what information was provided. I just indicate to the house that I was satisfied that the information was of the circumstances of that event—that there were unwelcome approaches and they were unacceptable.

Whilst that may be a subjective matter, in relation to whoever might be aggrieved by that, it was not for me to either inquire into or make a judgement on. What's important in these circumstances is that there is some follow-up, which is what I had offered to do and which was agreed to be done. It was done.

Dr CLOSE: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: I will move to the member for Heysen and then I will come back to the deputy leader.