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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-29 Daily Xml
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BURNSIDE COUNCIL

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief statement before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question about the Burnside council.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: I understand that over the past four years the Minister for State/Local Government Relations has received a number of complaints about the Burnside council. In particular, I understand that over the past 2½ years approximately 40 complaints have been made by councillors and members of the community, with one councillor lodging 44 highly detailed complaints.

Further to this, I have been contacted by a constituent who made a number of complaints to the minister outlining their concern that it appeared to them that an external person had been controlling and manipulating a number of councillors and council staff for a number of years. It would seem that the minister's first course of action in response to these claims was to call for an investigation into the council by Mr Ken MacPherson, which commenced in 2009, some three years after the first complaints were made. My questions to the minister are:

1. If the minister or her predecessor did respond to the complaints over the past four years, can the minister give details as to what action was taken or what response was given?

2. Why has it apparently taken four years for any action to be taken, especially given the nature of the complaints relating to external influences?

3. Why did the minister not request an interim report from Mr MacPherson when an extension of time for the investigation was requested?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:48): I thank the honourable member for his questions. The answers to these questions I have put on the record many times previously in this chamber, so all the information that answers these questions is well and truly on the record. I have gone into considerable detail on a number of occasions here in this chamber and gone to some lengths to provide detailed responses to the matters raised by the honourable member.

In relation to past complaints, I have detailed the investigations and inquiries that took place in the past, and the results of those I have put on the record in the past, as well. I have already explained at some length why it would be ill-advised for me to have requested an interim, and virtually incomplete, report at any time and how that could be seen to be prejudicial to my final findings and any recommendations that may or may not come out of those. So, all of that is well and truly on the record.

Clearly, I have been very careful in the way I have answered these matters today. Given that related matters are before the court, it would be ill-advised, most imprudent and most inappropriate of me to be discussing these matters that are before the court. I advise the honourable member to go back through Hansard: all the answers are provided in detail on the record.

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