Premier Jay Weatherill has refused a parliamentary committee’s request for his ministerial staff to answer questions relating to the handling of a school sex abuse case.
The Upper House committee, established with the support of minor parties and the Opposition, has been inquiring into aspects of the case involving the sexual assault of a child by an out-of-school hours carer at a public primary school.
“The Westminster system holds Ministers to account, not their staff,” the Premier said in his letter to the committee.
He said he had instructed his staff not to appear before the committee.
A Royal Commission conducted by retired judge Bruce Debelle’s was highly critical of the Education Department’s handling of the issue, particularly its failure to tell parents about the man’s arrest in December 2010 and conviction in February 2012.
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The Debelle inquiry found that Weatherill, who was education minister at the time of the man’s arrest, was not told about the case.
It also concluded that two of his staff – chief-of-staff Simon Blewett and adviser Jadynne Harvey – had been told and that Blewett had passed on an email to an unknown person.
Another Weatherill staffer, media adviser Kate Baldock, received an email about the matter but was not called before the Royal Commission.
The Upper House Committee had written to all three staffers requesting they appear before the committee.
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In a letter released today, the Premier reminded the committee that “ministerial staff are responsible to the minister and the minister to the parliament”.
The six page letter details the responses already made as a result of the Debelle Royal Commission into the matter.
“This Royal Commission lasted 239 days and considered more than 8000 pages of evidence from the Education department alone.
“It produced a report totalling 328 pages and cost the South Australian taxpayer approximately $1 million.
“The Commission’s report has been widely regarded as thorough and comprehensive.”
Weatherill said that if the committee decided to compel his staff to attend it would set a new precedent and should “consider this carefully before doing so”.
Read the full letter here
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