Channel 7 Today Tonight (Adelaide)

The DPP and the Auditor-General - Thursday 7 December 2006

In order of appearance

Leigh McCluskey, Presenter
Graham Archer, Producer and interviewer
Mr Ken MacPherson, Auditor-General
Stephen Pallaras, Director of Public Prosecutions

Program

Leigh McCluskey

Tonight Graham Archer updates the development in the ongoing difficulties between the Auditor-General and the DPP.

Mr MacPherson, Auditor-General at Parliamentary Committee

Anybody who contests this man – he just declares war on them.

Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

I have been painted as the protagonist in these events – mysteriously declaring war on anyone who comes within arms length.

Graham Archer

What is it? Round 5 in the battle between the DPP and the Auditor-General – with the Pallaras press conference this afternoon at which TT was excluded. Something which we’ve become used to.

 Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

You will notice that I did not resort to the courts to obtain an injunction. You will notice that I did not appear before the Economic and Finance Committee and refer to either God Almighty or indeed to Adolf Hitler.

Graham Archer

And could the high dudgeon rise much higher with the DPP still claiming that his office should be free of interference.

Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

This Auditor-General seeks to extend the argument to suggest that he now has the expertise and authority to involve himself in any and or all questions of prosecutorial decisions.

Graham Archer

Whilst its easy to characterise this as just a clash of egos, Ken MacPherson yesterday summed up just how serious his role of watchdog is by putting this question.

Mr MacPherson, Auditor-General at Parliamentary Committee

Do you believe that the DPP should always act lawfully? Should always act with propriety? Now, if the Auditor-General can not opine on whether that is happening can I ask you who else can?

Graham Archer

It’s a compelling point – and one that South Australians need to take very seriously. Because there is no one else. Unlike every other state we have no anti-corruption agency and we desperately need one.

Mr MacPherson, Auditor-General at Parliamentary Committee

There is nobody else in the constitutional framework who can ask this fellow or the police commissioner what they’re on about.

Graham Archer

What the Auditor-General has been questioning is why the DPP has used his public budget to employ a PR firm and if his staff have had access to its services for personal use.

Mr MacPherson, Auditor-General at Parliamentary Committee

There is a massive conflict in this and you should never intermingle with personal and private arrangements because this is one of the things that may have happened and this is one of the things we are looking at. If you intermingle with personal and private, where do you draw the line and say who pays for this and who pays for that, and this is one of the very issues that has come out of all of this.

Graham Archer

Even more concerning is that the AG has asked police if they misused DNA evidence they should have destroyed in charging an offender in 2005 – itself a criminal offence; and what the DPP knew about this and why it took them 6 months to inform the person’s solicitor.

Mr MacPherson, Auditor-General at Parliamentary Committee

We are the default mechanism

Graham Archer

Today, Mr Pallaras was determined to present himself as more sinned against than sinning by reading to a selected media and associated staff his entire report to Parliament.

Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

What I have done is to reply to an allegation which was wrong in law.

Graham Archer

But unfortunately, his determination to convince people he is in the right means he is blinded to the bigger picture.

Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

This whole episode underlines the fact that an independent DPP SA style is entirely undefined.

Graham Archer

That at some point along the line everyone on the public payroll, no matter who they are is accountable for their actions.

Stephen Pallaras at media briefing today

At this point in time, no one’s checking Mal Hyde [the police commissioner], no one’s checking what’s his name, except us who are asking hard questions, and that’s not popular. Now, I’m not running a popularity contest. I’m here to do a job.

Leigh McCluskey

Graham Archer with that report.

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