Brokenshire ‘won’t hide’ from inquiry
Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire says he won’t “hide” from a State Government-led inquiry into two recent by-elections, despite describing the process as a “political exercise”.
Premier Jay Weatherill late yesterday gave notice of Labor’s intention to establish a select committee into “matters related to the recent by-elections for Fisher and Davenport”.
The terms of reference are couched to target Labor’s political opponents, investigating “the independence or otherwise of candidates who use the word ‘independent’ after their names on the ballot paper” and “whether candidates who claimed to be local or reside in the state district actually did so”.
Fisher candidate Robert de Jonge had previous stood for Liberal preselection before running as an independent and was ordered to withdraw non-compliant How To Vote cards that preferenced the Liberal Party, while Labor was admonished on polling day in Davenport for claiming Liberal Sam Duluk did not live locally.
The inquiry will also explore “the use of parliamentary privilege to try and affect the outcome of the by-election”, a veiled reference to questions aired by Brokenshire in the Upper House before the Fisher poll about a million-dollar grant to Labor candidate Nat Cook’s Sammy D Foundation.
In her maiden speech to parliament yesterday, Cook tearfully announced she had resigned as a director of the foundation, as “the good it’s done must never be threatened in any way”.
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Brokenshire conceded the committee “may well invite me to give evidence (and) I’ll consider that”.
“I don’t hide behind things like Government ministers do when they’re called before a committee,” he told InDaily.
Last year, Brokenshire chaired an inquiry into child protection failures under the Department of Education and Child Development, but neither then-minister Jennifer Rankine nor Weatherill consented to give evidence.
“The Government for some reason have got in a knot over something, when there’s been blatant skulduggery by the Labor Party in previous elections,” Brokenshire said.
“It’s interesting that the Government can dress their supporters up in Family First T-shirts and hand out dodgy How To Vote cards and there’s no issue as far as the Government’s concerned, but when someone raises a matter of importance to the parliament as a duty requirement, they’re not happy.”
Brokenshire said the inquiry “looks like just a political exercise to me”, warning he was “not going to back off raising matters of concern”.
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“I didn’t talk about any individuals; I raised issues of probity, transparency and process in the grant,” he said.
“I don’t care who it is – there should be a process.”
There is an ongoing select committee inquiring into “electoral matters in South Australia”, but Labor MPs have refused to participate in it.
“If the Government was serious they could perhaps request that committee broaden its terms … this is just another political diversionary tactic,” Brokenshire said.
The inquiry – announced in the same week the Premier sought to outline a big-picture policy ‘vision’ – will also look at the “effectiveness of electoral laws against false or misleading statement or other electoral misconduct”.
It’s understood the Liberals will not oppose the committee, as they intend to use it to air their own grievances about Labor’s campaign material and inquire into the political affiliations of independent contender Daniel Woodyatt, who ran a narrow third in Fisher and admitted to having been a past member of the Labor Party.
Liberal leader Steven Marshall said his party was “happy to participate” and had “nothing to hide”.
“It’s disappointing … this is a Government that won’t even participate in the current select committee into electoral matters; they want to set up their own Government-controlled committee,” he said.
“The Liberal Party certainly will be putting people in this.”
Marshall said there still had not been “adequate investigation into the Habib material put out in Elder” in the 2014 state election, when Labor distributed a contentious flyer – widely perceived as racist – targeting Liberal candidate Carolyn Habib.
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