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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) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Will the minister advise the house how many requests for transfers, workers compensation claims or mediations have been raised by staff in his electorate office since his election in 2014?

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order from the member for Heysen.

Mr TEAGUE: Standing order 96(1).

The SPEAKER: Very well. There is a point of order in relation to standing order 96(1):

questions relating to public affairs may be put to Ministers…

And, of course, a second section to standing order 96 states:

2. questions may be put to other Members but only if such questions relate to any Bill, motion…

I defer to the member for Heysen's expertise. It is considerable. I respect his contributions enormously. May we have the question again, please?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Do you want me to rephrase it, sir, or ask it again?

The SPEAKER: If you ask it again, and then I may invite you to rephrase it after that.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Will the minister advise the house how many requests for transfer, workers compensation claims or mediation have been raised in his electorate office since his election in 2014?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He can ask me to rephrase it. Sit down!

The SPEAKER: It is a matter of fine judgement, particularly because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey! Member for Chaffey, there are interjections on both sides. It is a matter of fine judgement. I understood that the Leader of Government Business—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Very well. I make two points. First, of course questions relating to public affairs may be put in this place. It is a matter of fine judgement as to whether these issues are matters of public affairs. What is important and maybe decisive is that there is a minister in another place that is responsible for these matters. I ask you to rephrase the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: My question is to the Premier representing the Treasurer. Will the Premier advise the house how many requests for transfers, workers compensation claims or mediations have been raised by staff in the electorate office of the member for Mitchell and Gibson since 2014?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:56): Sir, I am more than happy to speak to the Treasurer about the matter raised by the member for West Torrens, and it does remind me to also follow up with the Treasurer regarding some other issues relating to members of this house. I will also follow those up.

I am particularly interested in the higher than normal turnover of the staff within the electorate office for Badcoe. This is something which has been raised in this house before. We know that the member for Badcoe was handpicked by the Leader of the Opposition to be on the front bench. Now she has moved to the backbench. We still have not had an explanation for that, so that will be a matter that I follow up with the Treasurer.

I will also follow up the matter which the Leader of the Opposition himself committed to follow up, and that is the very serious allegations made by a former employee within the electorate office in Light. I think that most people will remember those issues. It was raised by somebody called Bradley Johnson, who worked as a trainee in the member for Light's office, and he said, 'I would wake up some mornings unable to face Tony in the office, so I would call in sick.'

Several months ago—many months ago, in fact—these were issues which the Leader of the Opposition said that he would follow up—

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and report back. I think that he has had more than ample time—

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order, which I will take. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98, sir. My question was regarding the Gibson and Mitchell electorate offices, not whatever the Premier thinks he is talking about.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni: You haven't spoken about Katrine yet.

The SPEAKER: Order, minister!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Interjections between members we have earlier addressed. We are on the hat-trick. Can we get there? Standing order 98, rules applying to answers:

(a) In answering such a question, a Minister or other Member—

in this case the Premier—

replies to the substance of the question and may not debate the matter to which the question refers.

The Premier, because he is the Premier, I often give him quite some latitude, and I will continue to do so.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. The question related to whether I would take it upon myself to speak with the Treasurer about matters pertaining to an electorate office, and I certainly have said that I am happy to do that.

I will also make inquiries regarding the electorate office in Badcoe and Light. I will also make an inquiry regarding Reynell. There was a very serious allegation. We still haven't heard from the member for Reynell whether those allegations—which are very serious—were about the member herself or another staff member.

I think that it would be very easy for the member to clear it up if it was not her, but they were very serious allegations, similar to allegations that we saw reported in InDaily when a former employee claimed that they had witnessed and experienced abusive behaviour, bullying and emotional manipulation from the member of parliament, for Reynell. These are very serious allegations.

Mr Brown: How about time sheet fraud? Is that serious?

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Playford!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I am very happy, on the suggestion from the member for West Torrens, to make inquiry and I am very happy to come back to house and provide full details of those issues regarding Badcoe, regarding Reynell and regarding Light. I would also encourage the Leader of the Opposition, who has previously indicated that he will be conducting an investigation into what has happened at Light, now denying it, but certainly that's certainly my understanding, and if I am wrong I am happy to withdraw it. It was my understanding that serious allegations were made and that the Leader of the Opposition had made a commitment to investigate. If he is not going to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order so, Premier, continue.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We do expect high standards of behaviour on this side of the house. We expect them right throughout the house. We are elected by the people of South Australia to represent them, and clearly there are some very serious issues that need to be answered. For those reasons, I will make those inquiries as directed—or suggested by the member for West Torrens.

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