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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-16 Daily Xml
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Black, Dr Q.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:37): I rise to refer to a story in today's Advertiser, headed 'Fears for gambling addicts as lauded program dumped. $1m health deal for Labor man's firm'. The story by Richard Evans starts with:

A business run by a former Labor candidate has been awarded a $1 million-a-year government contract to treat gambling addicts, despite experts claiming he lacks the qualifications to offer effective treatment.

The person to whom they refer is Dr Quentin Black, a former Labor Party candidate, and the service is Statewide Gambling Therapy Services. Members will be aware that the AMA and a number of senior medical practitioners and clinicians who practise in the area had expressed concerns at the loss of this particular service and have asked questions publicly of government minister Bettison and the government as to the reasons behind the change in service direction.

In addressing this issue, it is interesting to look at exactly who Quentin Black is. He is clearly a creature of the Australian Labor Party in South Australia. In political terms, I would refer to him as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Labor Party and, more recently, the Labor right, the controlling faction. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the state seat of Hartley against the Lion of Hartley, Joe Scalzi, and at that stage I believe he was an unaligned faction member. In 2002, he jumped into the ruling right faction and has remained a member of the right faction since.

The importance of that, of course, is that minister Zoe Bettison, the minister responsible for this particular area, is too a creature of the Labor right and owes both her position in parliament and position in cabinet to the patronage and support of the heavyweights within the Labor right. Michael Brown, who is the chief of staff to minister Bettison, is also a creature of the Labor right. Not only was Dr Black a candidate in 1997 and 2002, he was also interested in the vacancy subsequently filled by the Hon. Mr Malinauskas recently, replacing the Hon. Mr Finnigan for the vacancy here. Clearly, Mr Brown and Dr Black are potential contenders for upcoming Labor right vacancies in the Legislative Council, which adds an additional area of interest in relation to this particular contract and the possible ramifications of it.

In his LinkedIn summary, Dr Quentin Black describes himself as Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide, although he has no formal qualifications in psychiatry. It documents almost 30 years of what he says is market research and strategic consultancies, also crossing over clearly into lobbying. Amongst his former clients he lists the ALP National Leadership Group, the ACTU, Graham Richardson, Paul Keating, Kim Beasley, Simon Crean, Bob Carr, Steve Bracks, Wayne Goss, Paul Beattie, Mike Rann, and various others. He indicates that he was a former chief of staff to the South Australian premier and an adviser to the shadow finance minister at a federal level.

The questions that minister Bettison must answer now in terms of transparency and accountability are: how often over the last 10 years or so has the statewide gambling service been put out to tender? Who recommended on this occasion that it should go to tender? Was there any lobbying by Dr Black? Was the idea initiated initially by the minister or her office, or was it raised initially by the department? Were there any discussions between Dr Black and Mr Brown in the minister's office or any other ministerial staffer prior to the tender being finalised? Did minister Bettison have any discussions at all with Dr Black prior to the tender being announced? Who did the supposed review of the appeal that was lodged? Who was appointed? Who was interviewed in the conduct of that particular review? Was that review conducted by someone independent of the department?

On behalf of the Liberal Party I have lodged freedom of information documents to the department and the minister because it is clearly in the public interest that there be some transparency and public accountability on an issue which is of great concern not only to the AMA but many other senior clinicians and practitioners in this important field.

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