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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-09 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Deputy Premier

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:18): The Deputy Premier of South Australia goes by a number of gazetted titles: the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science; the Minister for Defence and Space Industries; the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. But you could add some more to that: the minister for incompetence, the minister for dithering, the minister for taking leave, the minister for laziness, the minister for hush money, the minister for—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The leader will resume his seat. There is a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member has used what I consider unparliamentary language, accusing the Deputy Premier of being the minister for hush money. I ask that he apologise and withdraw. I also point out standing order 127: personal reflections on members.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The leader has transgressed. He will withdraw and apologise.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I am happy to withdraw and apologise. I meant to refer to the Conservation Council.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You have just made it worse by doing that, leader.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I withdraw and apologise.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey, you are on your third warning. Leader.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Perhaps the title best suited for the Deputy Premier following today's revelation is the minister for secrecy. This has become exceptionally clear as a result of public remarks made by South Australia's Ombudsman.

The Deputy Premier has a legislative role to fulfil when it comes to reviewing the decisions of her departments; yes, her office, which can, from time to time, be subject to freedom information requests, but also with regard to her departments. It has come to light that her internal review decisions have been overturned 92 per cent of times by the Ombudsman of South Australia.

The Ombudsman has taken the view that 92 per cent of times the minister, the Deputy Premier, refused documents, these decisions should be overturned. That is, 12 out of 13 decisions made by the Deputy Premier have been overturned, forcing the release of documents that she wanted to keep secret.

The Ombudsman has said that the Deputy Premier was dealing with a very low number of FOI applications. She said she was inundated. The Ombudsman takes a very different view. The Ombudsman says that many agencies—and, of course, we are dealing here with the ministerial office and the Department for Environment and Water—will receive more than the number the Deputy Premier has received (which is 55 over nine months). The Ombudsman says that many agencies will receive more than that in just one month.

The Ombudsman goes on to say that if the Deputy Premier is struggling to fulfil the obligations, she and her department ought to source more resources and get on with their legislated duties rather than keep things secret. Further, the Ombudsman has stated that the reasoning of the Deputy Premier and her department for not disclosing information was 'fanciful' and 'far-fetched', and that he has 'concerns regarding the manner in which the Deputy Premier has applied out of scope redactions', including that:

…it is far more likely that the Deputy Premier has formed the view that it would not be desirable to release various names and information and has simply opted to state they are 'out of scope' rather than attempt to justify a claim of exemption.

The minister for secrecy is in full swing. However, it is not just secrecy; it is dithering, delaying, subjecting decisions, projects, initiatives, policies to review after review, pushing responsibility out to commissioners, outsourcing the management of the River Murray in South Australia to a Labor mate interstate and paying him $150,000 a year for a part-time gig. It might even be less than part-time; we do not even know, because we have seen no outcomes from the Commissioner for the River Murray to date.

We have seen the Deputy Premier's great Hawaiian moment: four weeks overseas at the point in time when the River Murray floodwaters reached their peak. We know that the member for Chaffey, the member for Hammond, the member for Finniss and the member for MacKillop have been working hard to support their communities; in fact, some on the other side have done that as well. Meanwhile, the minister with legislated responsibility for the River Murray in South Australia was on the other side of the world on holiday. That is an abrogation of responsibility, and we are seeing that time and time again from this Deputy Premier.

The delay in the landscape board elections, which were required to be held by the end of 2022 by law, were deferred on the basis of special circumstances. The threshold for special circumstances is written high, and in time the Deputy Premier may well have to answer for why she made that decision on such tenuous grounds. However, rest assured we are working hard to hold this government to account and end the laziness of the Deputy Premier of South Australia.

Time expired.

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