+18 DAYS LEFT: GOV'T NOT ANSWERING QUESTIONS- LIBS

The Rann Government, and in particular Transport Minister Pat Conlon, were left ‘red-faced’ after today’s question time, managing to answer 9 of 15 questions from the Opposition, says the Liberal Party.

The State Oppostision claims that Minister Conlon avoided full answers to a series of questions about the government’s actions in the lead-up to, and after, the tragic Eyre Peninsula bushfires in January.

Liberal Leader Rob Kerin said the review of the circumstances surrounding the fires had raised a number of issues that must be addressed by the government. He also pointed to a farcical question from Cabinet Minister Karlene Maywald to Police Minister Kevin Foley regarding operating hours for the Loxton police station.

“Parliamentary convention is that Ministers do not question their Cabinet colleagues in Parliament – that is what Cabinet meetings are for,” Mr Kerin said. “Nonetheless Mrs Maywald felt compelled to plough on with the question. However, in an embarrassing twist, Minister Foley also revealed that the information had been conveyed to Mrs Maywald several months ago in a letter!”

Today the government failed to answer the following questions:

• Liberal Member for Mawson Robert Brokenshire asked Mr Conlon when he first became aware that the Wanilla brigade captain had requested aerial support to control the Eyre Peninsula bushfire on the Monday night?

Furious that the Opposition would dare question the government over its handling of the tragic bushfire, Mr Conlon debated the question, refusing to answer the substance.

• Mr Brokenshire then asked Mr Conlon what action had been taken to identify why two requests for fire-bombing support had not been passed on to the State Emergency Operations Centre.

Mr Conlon attacked the Opposition for asking the question, and would not detail what action, if any, had been taken.

• Mr Brokenshire then asked Police Minister Kevin Foley a supplementary question to a government Dorothy Dixer – whether he or any of his staff had instructed Loxton Police Station’s operating hours be Monday to Friday full-time.

Mr Foley criticised Mr Brokenshire and the former Liberal Government, before stating he would seek clarification from his office before the end of question time. He later returned, but would not state whether he or any of his staff had requested the change in hours.

• Mr Brokenshire asked Attorney-General Michael Atkinson why the coronial inquiry into the Eyre Peninsula bushfires been delayed until November 2005 – after the upcoming bushfire season.

Mr Atkinson avoided a straight answer, rambling-on that his government would perform the inquiry quicker than the former Liberal Government would have.

• Mr Kerin asked Mr Conlon to explain why at least two people who played significant high level roles at the Adelaide control centre for the Eyre Peninsula bushfires on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th January were not interviewed as part of the bushfire report that was tabled in the house yesterday?

Mr Conlon could not give an answer, and stated he would ask Investigator Bob Smith why ‘he chose to conduct the investigation in that way’.

• Asking a supplementary, Mr Brokenshire called for Mr Conlon to table all the names of the people who were interviewed in the inquiry.

Mr Conlon refused, instead telling the Opposition to speak with Dr Smith.

• Liberal Health spokesman Dean Brown asked whether a potentially dangerous patient had escaped from Glenside, and why the patient was kept in a non-secured area of the hospital.

Although confirming a patient had ‘left’, she would not explain why he was not being kept in a secure area of the hospital.

• In a supplementary question, Mr Brown asked Ms Stevens to confirm that the mental health patient was the same person who caused a rampage at Glenside Hospital last year causing the lock-down of a nearby school and daycare centre while STAR Force officers attended.

• Mr Brown then asked the Health Minister whether it was correct that a Cabinet meeting planned for Gawler in October has now been shifted to Port Augusta because of the obstetric crisis at the Gawler Hospital.

The Opposition claims that in 6 sitting days, the State Government has answered 36 questions out of 80