Channel 7 Today Tonight (Adelaide)

Announcement of Inquiry into Eugene McGee case - 29 April 2005

This version of the transcript has been edited by Dr Robert N Moles

In order of appearance

Leigh McClusky, Presenter
Mike Rann, Premier
Graham Humphrey, brother of deceased Ian Humphrey
Rob Kerin, Leader of the Opposition
Nick Xenophon, Independent Member of the Legislative Council

Program

Leigh McClusky

Hello. Welcome to the program. Thank you for joining me. First tonight, as the outrage over the lenient treatment of hit-run killer, lawyer Eugene McGee, intensifies, the Rann Government has finally acted. In a dramatic afternoon, Premier Mike Rann announced an independent inquiry into the way the McGee case has been handled, but is he going far enough? First, what Mr Rann had to say, then the reaction from Opposition leader Rob Kerin and, probably most importantly, the family of Ian Humphrey, the cyclist killed by Eugene McGee.

Mike Rann

In my view we need to have a judicial inquirer into this matter. I want an independent inquiry and I want a judicial officer. And I'm thinking at this present time of actually approaching or seeing if we can find an eminent judge or retired judge from another State. I know that if I was to come here today and say we're going to ask a judge or QC in South Australia people would say 'okay, well this is - again it's a local person', so I think there should be a judge from another State asked to come in and actually do an inquiry into this matter.

Graham Humphrey

The family welcomes Mike Rann's comments and reactions, and I think it's a positive step. Unfortunately it will be too late for our family, but there's still questions have got to answered, and just in the long term I think that it'll help everybody else. You know, there's a lot of public support behind this and they want answers as well, and it's to help the next person that ever gets into this situation.

Mike Rann

We need answers on how McGee, a lawyer and a former police officer, with plenty of knowledge of these types of offences, managed to avoid a breath test or blood test following his arrest. We want the inquirer to look into this and other issues such as what the Zisimou brothers told the police - and why they were not called to give evidence in the trial. I also want the inquirer to find out why expert evidence was not presented to the court during sentencing to reject the defence psychiatrist's evidence.

Rob Kerin

I think that today is a step towards inquiring into the McGee case, but it may well be that out of that comes grounds for a bigger inquiry into the broader system.

Graham Humphrey

I mean you just have to look at the history of events that have come out of that court and the court system in South Australia on other events, and its' - there was questions asked before in the Aitken case - and every other case. I just think questions should have been put forward then and been fixed - but unfortunately they haven't - and there's public outcry again, you know, they're in damage control again.

Rob Kerin

People are saying, “what the hell is going on?” And basically your show's been able to drag together several cases where it all points in a very worrying direction. I think the government needs to respond to that - not ignore it.

Graham Humphrey

Just to look at everything across the board - not just the case that unfortunately we're involved in - the whole system needs to –

Nick Xenophon

South Australia is too small to look at itself in terms of the judicial system, so I would like to think that whatever answers we get from this particular case will be a way we move forward for law reform to ensure that it doesn't happen to other people.

Leigh McClusky

And let's hope that is indeed a productive step forward.

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