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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-03 Daily Xml
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Motions

Smith, Ms A.M.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (16:32): I move:

1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into and report on—

(a) any matter arising from the death of Ann Marie Smith;

(b) any matter arising from the provision of care for those living with a disability in South Australia;

(c) any matter arising from the oversight of services provided to those living with a disability in South Australia;

(d) any matter relating to the implementation and oversight of the NDIS in South Australia; and

(e) any related matter.

2. That standing order 389 be so far suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only.

3. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.

4. That standing order 396 be suspended to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating.

This is a motion to establish a select committee and will be a crucial part of uncovering what happened in the tragic death of Ann Marie Smith. It will also identify any gaps that need to be attended to. We have heard from the government that there are a number of inquiries or investigations, including the police investigation, a Coroner's investigation and a federal judicial investigation. All of these are limited in scope to particular aspects.

The government has established a task force, but that task force, as we have found out in this chamber, has been put in an unenviable position: its terms of reference do not even mention Anne Marie Smith, and a task force member has said publicly that there is not enough time to do a good job. The task force has two more meetings before reporting to the government. They only get three meetings in total before they first report.

There are gaps and inconsistencies in the roles and the functions of the various inquiries. We need to know why this happened. We need to know what went wrong and we need to make sure this does not happen again. Different forms of inquiries bring different things to the table. Parliamentary committees have powers, parliamentary privilege and the ability to take evidence in camera. That means that parliamentary committees can uncover facts and some of the underlying issues. The committee must report to the parliament. Its findings and recommendations will be on the public record. We owe it to the community to get this done—to uncover everything we can and to make sure that this can never happen again in this state.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.

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