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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-19 Daily Xml
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Premier and Cabinet Department

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:18): My question is to the Treasurer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Let the Leader of the Opposition speak.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Was the Treasurer present at a meeting on Tuesday 20 March this year, attended by Cabinet Office executives, the Premier, the Premier's chief of staff, James Stevens, and the Premier's adviser, Richard Yeeles, where the impartiality of Cabinet Office was discussed? What exactly was discussed about the impartiality of Cabinet Office at that meeting?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:19): I have already answered this question and indicated I did attend a meeting. I think it was on the Tuesday after the election, but that's already on the record. I have already been asked that particular question. In relation to the discussion, I am advised—although I don't have access to the transcripts—that these issues were well and truly canvassed yesterday by the Leader of the Opposition in this chamber and other members. As I am advised, they were more than adequately answered in relation to the nature and substance of those particular conversations.

I might just say in relation to this issue that it could only be the Labor Party that would have any concerns about a government and a premier that would say something as outrageous as, 'I want to be assured about the impartiality of the Cabinet Office.' What a shock! Imagine having a premier who actually says, 'I would like to be assured of the impartiality of the Cabinet Office.' What an outrage! It would be an outrage to the Labor Party, because for the last 16 years they have treated the Department of the Premier and Cabinet as the Victoria Square sub-branch of the Labor Party—as the Victoria Square sub-branch of the Labor Party! It is shameless the way they have looked at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Rik Morris, a former Labor candidate and the Labor candidate for this last election, a former staffer from the Labor Party in the Northern Territory, was in a senior executive position. Paul Flanagan, almost a wholly owned subsidiary of the Labor Party over the years, in and out of various ministers' offices, was in an executive position there, as were Kym Winter-Dewhirst, a former Labor Party staffer, and Don Russell, a former speechwriter to a former federal Labor prime minister.

A former chief of staff to former treasurer Koutsantonis, the bloke with the hyphenated surname, whose name escapes me—Carrick-Smith or Carrick-Hill or something; it is Carrick-something, a most unusual name for a Labor Party staffer—managed to find his way with a hyphen and a Carrick in his name right through to be the chief of staff to a former Labor treasurer, as I understand it. The list goes on.

The shock and horror to a Labor Party opposition that a premier would come to office and would actually say, 'I would like to be assured about the impartiality of the Cabinet Office.' In relation to these issues, any premier, and certainly a reformist Liberal premier like Premier Marshall, would want to be assured that what went on under former Labor administrations—not just in the Cabinet Office, but, as I said, treating the Department of the Premier and Cabinet as the Victoria Square sub-branch of the Australian Labor Party in South Australia—is not the way to conduct good government in this state.

That is not the way this Premier and this government will conduct government in this state. It will not become the Victoria Square sub-branch of the Liberal Party. It should be, to the maximum extent that is possible—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: According to the law.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: According to the law, indeed. The now Leader of the Opposition, the former minister, might explain how, according to the law, the whole of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet happened to be populated by Labor Party candidates, by Labor Party staffers, by Labor Party officers, by Labor Party fellow travellers, right across the board. How did that happen according to law?

For the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Opposition in another place, and indeed the former treasurer, to keep a straight face when they start asking questions about the politicisation of the Public Service, when you actually have a premier who has pledged, to the extent that it is possible, and all he can do is he can change chief executives because they have contracts with him—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: He knows that now, doesn't he?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Every premier has always had the power in relation to contract appointments for chief executives, and that's where his power ends. But there is nothing wrong with any premier seeking an assurance about the impartiality of the public sector.

I am shocked; I am mystified—I thank the Hon. Mr Wortley—as to how anybody could see it as an outrage or as a problem that a premier might indicate that he wanted to be assured about the impartiality of the Public Service and, in particular, what is the critical engine room to good government, which is the Cabinet Office.

This is not an outpost of a government department or agency. I am not sure how the leader and the former minister treated employment within his agencies. We know he has some rusted-on supporters right across the board, but in relation to how the Leader of the Opposition, the former minister, treated things in an outpost of government, that is one thing, but in the engine room of a government, which is actually the Cabinet Office, one has to have an assurance about the impartiality of the people who are in that particular office.

There is nothing untoward, there is nothing improper, about seeking an assurance about impartiality. After all, that is what the Public Sector Management Act is all about.

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