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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-02 Daily Xml
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WORRALL, MR L.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Premier a question about Mr Lance Worrall.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Members will be aware that Mr Lance Worrall was a long-term economics adviser to the Premier, and they may also recall that the thesis for his degree at the Adelaide University Department of Politics went under the title 'Marxist theory and the state'. In the middle of last year, he was appointed to a senior position (CEO in charge of the Public Sector Performance Commission) and questions were asked about the process that was utilised for that.

To that end, I submitted an FOI and received a range of information as follows: Mr Worrall resigned from the position of senior economics adviser to the Premier on 1 August 2008. In his letter to the Premier, where he expressed sadness about having to confirm his resignation, Mr Worrall stated:

The terms of my contract reflect those earlier discussions [that is, taking on the position of interim CEO of the Public Sector Performance Commission]....the terms of my contract reflect those earlier discussions, in incorporating a right of return to the position of Senior Policy Adviser in the Premier's office after the completion of six months service with the PSPC.

I wish to indicate that I did not apply for this position. Rather, an approach was made to me by the CE of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet following an exhaustive national search for a CEO, that apparently did not yield up an acceptable candidate or one available on terms acceptable to the selection committee.

Further, I have a copy of an e-mail dated earlier this year, when the six-month contract was to conclude, asking the senior officer to arrange to extend Lance's contract for up to three months—that is, to the end of May 2009. Finally, a copy of the initial six-month contract through to February states:

The term of any re-appointment to the Position will be subject to a new agreement with the Chief Executive and will be for a term not exceeding five years...if the Executive is not re-appointed to the Position at the expiry of this Agreement it is noted that the Premier intends that he will return to his substantive position of Senior Adviser, Economic Policy in the Office of the Premier.

My questions are:

1. Given the reference to an exhaustive national search for this position, can the Premier indicate who conducted this exhaustive national search, when did the exhaustive national search commence, and what process was used for this exhaustive national search? Was the position that is now being filled by Mr Worrall advertised and, if not, why not?

2. Was the three month extension (to which I referred in the email) to the contract given to Mr Worrall to take him through to May 2009?

3. Has Mr Worrall been given a further extension of that contract or has he now been appointed to a five year term in that position? If he has, when was that decision taken, what is the length of that contract and what are the terms of the appointment made for Mr Worrall?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:21): I will refer those questions to the Premier in another place and bring back a response. I think it is interesting to note that, at a time when speculation is rife that the Hon. Mr Lucas might be returning to the front bench of the Liberal Party—presumably he is going there to try to give the Liberal Party some more focus on issues—we have just seen a snapshot about what might happen and what sort of issues the Liberal Party is concerned about.

Apparently, the burning issues facing South Australia today are not the release of the water plan or the planning issues, but issues about somebody who happened to be contaminated because, at some stage in the past, he happened to work with the Premier, and because he wrote a thesis at university 30 or 40 years ago that happened to have the name Marx in it. That apparently makes him completely unsuitable.

Frankly, with the recent policies of some members opposite (the anti-development policies of the Liberal Party these days), they are beginning to look more Marxist every day. So, maybe the Hon. Mr Lucas has been going back and reading that thesis and deciding to apply it. I will take those questions on notice and bring back a reply.

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