T2D bikie links failing to ‘satisfactorily’ unravel
Another week of intense questioning over bikie links to the state’s largest infrastructure project has Mike Smithson taking stock.
The tangled web surrounding possible Torrens to Darlington project corruption, a fire-bombing allegedly linked to it and who knew what, is not satisfactorily unravelling.
The Premier’s simmering fury over being hung out to dry by two government ministers, who should have known better, shouldn’t be underestimated given the circumstances.
There’s also little sympathy from the chief of the SA’s Independent Commission Against Corruption and where she stands as this storm gathers strength.
Emma Townsend happily told ABC radio listeners that her ears pricked up as soon as she heard the allegations swirling of possible bikie involvement in the $15.4 billion tunnel project.
As she was closely following the unfolding story in her own time, her immediate thought was whether this should be an area where her official powers and functions could be utilised.
In her own words, it would have been remiss of her not to, meaning she was instantly cognisant of all the alarm bells and warning signs.
Her observations have been shared by most South Australians.
So, with Ms Townsend across the issue and looking to the future with a view to act accordingly, where were government ministers Joe Szakacs and Alice Rolls?
Now, they’re both having to tread a treacherous path of being on the wrong side of the Premier on this tricky issue.
Szakacs has copped the larger whipping from Peter Malinauskas, albeit with a feather duster.
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He’s clearly not impressed with his minister but is far from relieving Mr Szakacs of his portfolio.
After a month of silence on the issue, Rolls is now trying to dig her way out of the mess using all the tricks of the trade she’s learnt as a lawyer.
Unlike Szakacs, she was in the fateful meeting of September 11 where the lines became blurred about what was discussed and in what order.
It was initially thought that, as the local MP, she was hearing complaints from a constituent, on behalf of his client, about alleged standover tactics and thuggery from those trying to muscle in on the T2D project.
There’s still no concrete evidence of that.
In turn, that matter is now headed for civil action in the Supreme Court, where one of the accused, Jamie Brown, has already promised the government that a legal circus will unfold.
So, what didn’t Ms Rolls understand about what she was hearing?
A car wash in her electorate had been firebombed in the months beforehand, shots had been fired at the owner’s home, and now there was an alleged link to corruption on the tunnel project.
If these claims didn’t stir the passions of the local MP, who also happens to be an astute litigation legal eagle, then what do?
She chose to sit on her hands and let someone else partially blow the whistle to the tunnel project’s authorities and assume an existing police report and investigation might join some of the crucial dots.
Now the “proverbial” has hit the fan, she’s singing like a canary to the Premier.
She admitted speaking to him at a cabinet meeting on Monday and then again on Tuesday morning shortly before her radio explanation which turned into more of a legal argument than a mea culpa.
It’s not clear whether she was seeking his permission to go public, or his forgiveness for her tardiness.
ICAC says anyone in public office, let alone a Minister of the Crown, has a duty to raise the issue with it as a matter of concern.
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I personally posed the scenario to Peter Malinauskas last week, that if I was a minister and had heard such damning allegations, he would have been the first person on my contact list.
He told me that would have been a wise choice in hindsight.
I even suggested a possible conspiracy theory that he’d been deliberately kept in the dark in an orchestrated bid the keep him squeaky clean.
That didn’t go down all that well and was flatly denied.
So, let’s assume Alice Rolls made a rookie error with the Premier, but that doesn’t explain why she failed to discuss the issue with Minister Szakacs.
She must have seen him, perhaps even sat near him, on at least half a dozen occasions around the cabinet table or in the caucus room since the original meeting.
She also must have known that he was aware of the allegations because she was the one who invited his chief of staff to bear witness to the bombshell September 11 event.
It is unlikely Ms Rolls would have summoned Daniel Wills – his chief of staff – to the front line unless she was forewarned and forearmed about claims of a fire-bombing, standover tactics and a threat to the integrity of the tunnel project.
Rolls seemed more composed than Szakacs when they both were vigorously put to the sword during parliamentary Question Time.
I’m also certain they were both cringing when listening to the ICAC commissioner’s take on events earlier in the week.
Their collective actions were far from their finest moments.
This saga has undoubtedly dented their confidence, and they will carry that burden for some time to come.
There’s bad and good news, in that order, for them in the immediate future.
State parliament sits again during the second week of November and then again two week later.
They can expect more relentless questioning from Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn as she, and her team, dig up anything else on this issue.
But the good news for the duo is that parliament then rises and is in recess until next February.
But their ministerial tenure could come into question if the ICAC commissioner decides there is a case to answer over alleged corruption on the tunnel site and conducts a full investigation.
Rolls and Szakacs will be held responsible for not speaking up earlier if any damage has been done whilst they remained silent.
I doubt that it will cost them their ministerial positions, but they’ve created an atmosphere the Premier detests.
If, and when, events spin further out of his control, because he’s been kept in the dark for weeks, jovial Pete might be anything but.
Mike Smithson is also weekend newsreader and political analyst for 7News.
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