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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-24 Daily Xml
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Wright Electorate Office

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:21): I seek leave to provide a brief explanation before asking the Treasurer a question about electorate offices.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: We have heard a number of allegations, both in the media and in this place, about the electorate office of the member for Wright and how he has somehow been allegedly disadvantaged. Would the Treasurer update the chamber on the status of the office for the member?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:22): I thank the honourable member for his question. As I outlined when the question was asked some time ago in this chamber on this particular issue, the solution was in the hands of the former treasurer when he was advised in I think April of last year by bureaucrats within the Treasury department that a number of electorates, as a result of the redistribution, would not have electorate offices within them and that it would be sensible to start the planning for trying to find electorate offices in these particular electorates.

For whatever reason, and I guess the question can only be directed to the former treasurer, the former treasurer did not approve that particular recommendation. As a result of that, members like the member for Wright, the member for Hurtle Vale and others, were left disadvantaged because it was really only when a new government was elected that we were able to commence the task of trying to find electorate offices for these particular disadvantaged members.

The member for Wright, for some bizarre reason, felt that he owned the office that was not in his electorate but in the Golden Grove shopping centre which was actually in the electorate of King, and seemed to think he had some God-given right to possess, own and inhabit that particular office. Whilst the member for Wright was a former ministerial staffer and adviser, he didn't realise that he was no longer—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —in the position to make decisions. He was no longer in the position to make these particular decisions.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, Mr Hunter! Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The member for Wright—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, Mr Hunter! I can't hear the Treasurer. That includes you, Hon. Mr Ridgway.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The arrogance of the member for Wright, because he happened to be a former ministerial staffer, to think that he had the God-given right to say, 'I'm going to go into somebody else's electorate and I'm going to take possession of the electorate and that particular member, who happens to be the elected member for King, can go off and find another particular office.' That's the sort of arrogance, sadly, which resulted in the former government and former ministers being turfed out of office because the people of South Australia were unprepared to accept that sort of arrogance.

The new government set about the task which should have been set about by the former treasurer when he was asked to do so in April of last year. We have found a very good office in the suburb of Salisbury for the member for Wright. For some reason, the member for Wright seems to have a preference not to be in the suburb of Salisbury. He would prefer to be in the leafier areas of his electorate, closer to Golden Grove. For some reason, he has some aversion to having an electorate office in the area of Salisbury in his electorate. We looked at another electorate office in the area of Salisbury and we offered that as a particular option, and he had an aversion to that particular offering.

We agreed, okay, it was not on as a big a road or a main road as the honourable member wanted, and we did not pursue that particular option. But, he continued to want to have an office not in his electorate but a temporary office in a neighbouring electorate, in the Golden Grove shopping centre. I don't know what the member has against the constituents of Salisbury, but I can assure him they deserve representation as much as the constituents in the other leafier sections of his particular electorate.

It is a very good electorate office, and he should be very grateful that the new government and the new Treasurer set about the task of finding him an appropriate office in his electorate. He will have an office as soon as we are able to do so, and he will be able to represent his constituents in the electorate of Wright in the manner to which they are entitled.

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