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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-08 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Gibson Electorate Office

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer regarding electorate services.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: As the Treasurer alluded to in his ministerial statement, there has been an issue with employees at the Gibson electorate office. The opposition has received a copy of a resignation letter from a former member of the member for Gibson's electorate office. The letter is dated 5 January 2018 and in part says:

Since April 2017 I have been subject to bullying, harassment and abuse within the workplace which I am no longer prepared to tolerate. I consider your behaviour during this period to have been inappropriate and inconsistent with community expectations and safe workplace practices...

These patterns of behaviour emerged in April 2017 after I first raised concerns in relation to your decision to make an offer of employment to one of your family members, Mrs Tui Comas. Your behaviour towards me became increasingly intolerable after I subsequently refused to be a party to the dishonest practice of recording her time in a manner that did not accurately reflect the hours that she worked, including occasions when she did not work at all.

The verbal abuse and physical aggression I was subject to on 20th November, witnessed by other staff members, have rendered an office environment in which I no longer feel physically safe and cannot return for fear of physical harm and psychological distress.

My question to the Treasurer is: will the Treasurer commit now to a full investigation of these claims?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:21): No. The former Treasurer, Mr Koutsantonis, the member for West Torrens, was the Treasurer at the time these claims were made. He was the minister responsible for managing these particular processes. As my ministerial statement advises, I am advised that no action was taken by the former Treasurer or officers reporting to him against the then member for Mitchell about any of these claims.

I also refer the Leader of the Opposition to the other part of my ministerial statement today, which says that, in response to those claims made in that letter that the Leader of the Opposition is quoting from, the acting manager of electorate services (that is, the manager responsible for managing these things and reporting to the former Treasurer, Mr Koutsantonis) in replying to that particular letter which accepted the resignation, stated as the employer's delegate (that is, on behalf of the employer, the government, the Under Treasurer, the former Treasurer, the former Labor government) that he refuted those claims, and this is a direct quote, 'as they have no basis'.

That's the advice I have been provided with. I wasn't the Treasurer at the time. I wasn't engaged at the time in relation to these particular issues. I further note in the ministerial statement the acting manager went on to say that, if these claims were pursued by the staff member, 'the Department of Treasury and Finance will defend them vigorously'. That is, the advice available to the former government was that the claims had no basis, and if this particular staff member wanted to pursue them, the Department of Treasury and Finance, representing the former Labor government, would defend them vigorously. That is, they refuted the particular claims.

The former Treasurer and officers reporting to him had every power available to them, that if they believed that these claims required independent investigation or indeed any investigation they had the capacity to do so, and my advice is that no action was taken. So the simple answer to this question is, no, I am not going to institute a formal investigation into issues that occurred before I was actually the Treasurer, when the former Treasurer had the capacity, if he wanted to, to take particular action, or advice from officers who reported to him could have recommended such action as well.

In concluding my comments in relation to this particular issue, I have said on a number of occasions that my experience in public life is it is not uncommon for members of parliament, Labor or Liberal or indeed crossbenchers, to on occasion have a difference of opinion or a dispute with an individual staff member. That has occurred with Liberal members, Labor members and crossbenchers. However, when there is a pattern of behaviour and a series of complaints are made against a member, that becomes more serious.

There has been much recent publicity, and if the leader would like me to go into the detail I will, in relation to complaints made against the Labor members for Light, Reynell and Badcoe. If he wants details of those—because those issues have been raised with me during the period that I am now the Treasurer—I am happy to provide further detail and responses on those particular matters to the leader.

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