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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-04 Daily Xml
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:40): My focus on this matter of interest is similar to the Hon. Rob Lucas' because this is a very serious issue facing the Legislative Council. In fact, from the investigations I have made, I think it is unprecedented in the history of this parliament that we have a situation where we have only one minister when there has been a resignation.

I understand that there have been previous situations like when there is a leave of absence as someone is unwell, but when a minister has resigned and is not replaced and we are left with one minister, it defies democracy and the opportunity to conduct this parliament properly. By convention, up until when the Premier wanted to get rid of the Legislative Council because it was there preventing the dictatorship that he would have preferred, we actually had three ministers in the Legislative Council.

I feel very sorry for the one minister who is here now because no minister, as good as she is, can carry the workload of three. It is hard enough with two ministers trying to carry the workload of three. Minister Gago herself has said in the last week or so that this is the house where the work is really done. By that, the minister is saying, as I understand her, that we are seeing more and more rubber stamps occurring in the House of Assembly because the government is using its numbers there and we are getting more and more messy legislation coming up into this house. Even by the admission of one of the senior ministers within their own government, this is where it is sorted out. It is impossible to sort it out with one minister.

The South Australian public are very focused and support the Legislative Council as the house of review. The Premier finally found that out when his qualitative and quantitative surveys showed that his policy of abolishing the Legislative Council was actually exactly against what the South Australian community wanted. Indeed, I say that even his own rank and file Labor members did not want to see this house of review abolished.

We cannot function with one minister in this house. We heard the answer from the President today. I feel sorry for the President, but the bottom line is that this house will close if minister Gago is unwell. It will close because, as I understand it, we cannot work in this house without a minister. We would have no question time, and who would be responsible for handling the government's legislation? The only way it can work is with a minister.

If that minister then cannot go to ministerial council meetings because she is the only minister in this house, then this state suffers again. I had to be withdrawn from ministerial council meetings because, when I was a minister, we could not trust the pairing arrangements of the then leader of the opposition, and I know that South Australia missed out on important business in those police ministerial council meetings. So, this is an unacceptable situation.

We have two very capable former ministers here now, in minister Zollo and minister Holloway, who could be brought in here tomorrow, taken across to Government House and sworn in. They were very capable ministers who were highly respected right across this state. They are sitting here; they could be sworn in.

We have the Hon. Russell Wortley. The fact of the matter is that you do not know how good someone may or may not be at the job until you give them a chance. Here is someone who has been democratically elected by the Labor Party to serve in the Legislative Council, who is a member of the right, who is keen I am sure to become a minister and, because there is so much factional fighting and dysfunction within the government at the moment, the South Australian community suffers.

I emailed the Premier on Monday, urgently calling for him to swear in a second minister in this house so that we can be guaranteed that the business will continue. As I take it from the answer from our honourable President, who I very much think does a good job, the fact of the matter is that we would not be able to function and we would have to close this house down and shut down the business of the parliament. This state deserves absolute focus and attention from both houses of the parliament. There are very serious issues facing South Australia at the moment, and the Premier, his cabinet and his caucus cannot sit there and leave this job to one minister only. It is an indictment on the government.

Time expired.

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