Networked Knowledge – Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 23 August 2007 Adelaide Now reported “Labor rejects corruption watchdog”

It said Premier Mike Rann has rejected calls to set up an independent corruption watchdog in South Australia, saying it would be just a "carnival of lawyers." Mr Rann said he would prefer spending the money on more police, teachers and nurses. "We've seen it in other states where multi-millions of dollars are being spent every year on a festival of lawyers - paying massive salaries to lawyers and QCs," the premier said. "I would rather the money be spent on more police, on more doctors and nurses than on a carnival of lawyers."

The premier's stand puts his Labor government at odds with the Liberal opposition, the Australian Democrats and Family First who all want an anti-corruption commission established in SA. Opposition leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said today he would introduce a bill for a corruption watchdog to state parliament early next year. "A growing list of unresolved cases involving the Rann government makes this a must-do for South Australia," Mr Hamilton-Smith said. "This is the only way we can demonstrate to the community that corruption will be investigated immediately, efficiently and in fairness to all concerned."

The Liberals were proposing a framework similar to that in NSW, he said. But Mr Rann said what the opposition was proposing was to spend more each year on an anti-corruption group than the government currently provided to the office of the director of public prosecutions. Australian Democrats MP Sandra Kanck called on Mr Hamilton-Smith to introduce his bill in the upper house where the opposition and minor parties held the balance of power. "That will leave Labor exposed as the only party in the state that is against setting up a corruption watchdog," Ms Kanck said.

Source: 23 August 2007 Adelaide Now / AAP “Labor rejects corruption watchdog”

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