Daniel Wills: Premier Jay Weatherill embraces a culture of conceal and deny
WHEN Jay Weatherill became Premier in 2011, he declared “good governments have nothing to hide”. Six years later, he has switched to a default position of conceal and deny, writes Political Editor Daniel Wills.
- Labor bans Liberal push for open ICAC hearings
- ICAC watchdog lambasts ministers over toxic secrecy culture
- ICAC to investigate what ministers knew about Oakden
- Yet another case of abuse at Oakden
GOOD governments have nothing to hide. They should be open and accountable, and South Australians who play by the rules should be confident that elected officials are doing the same.
Don’t take a journalist’s word for it. Instead, wind the clock back six years and ask a bright-eyed new premier determined to convince the state that things would be different under his rule.
Just four days after seizing control of the Labor Party from his unpopular predecessor Mike Rann, Premier Jay Weatherill called a press conference to announce SA would finally get an Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Amid swirling unease about a series of land deals and a cemented perception of arrogance within government, Mr Weatherill pledged a reset.
The press release of October 24, 2011, in his name, was an adrenaline shot for the disenchanted.
“We want to present a government that is open and accountable,” Mr Weatherill said.
“We need to maintain public confidence in government at all levels.
“The vast majority of South Australians play by the rules and they must be confident that their public officials, elected or otherwise, are also doing the right thing.
“Good governments have nothing to hide.”
Six years on, and with a fiercely independent ICAC crawling all over the State Government’s handling of the Oakden and Gillman scandals, Mr Weatherill is now hiding everything he can.
Despite a unanimous demand from the Opposition, minor parties and public at large, there will be no open hearings into possible maladministration at Oakden. Nor will the ICAC be given access to Cabinet documents, which were critical sources when it probed the Gillman debacle.
With the bunker mentality that infected the final years of former premier Mike Rann’s tenure, Mr Weatherill has announced and is now defending two serious offences against transparency.
He was wrong this week when telling Parliament that: “No Cabinet in the Westminster system releases Cabinet documents. It simply won’t”.
Ignoring the hilarious irony of his new-found rigid respect for Westminster tradition, the simple fact is that Mr Weatherill’s own government used to regularly release Cabinet documents until the political discomfort of doing so became unbearable.
In the wake of the Gillman humiliation, where the ICAC used Cabinet documents to reveal maladministration, Mr Weatherill quietly changed rules.
We learnt by chance in an Auditor-General’s report last year that Cabinet had seized a complete power of veto over releasing documents, but assured by Mr Weatherill and his ministers that they would use it honourably.
We now know it’s become a blanket ban, and Cabinet play by the rules of Fight Club.
Rejecting public hearings, which the ICAC says are critical for public confidence in the integrity of its inquiries, just builds the case to change SA’s numberplate slogan to “the secret state”.
The ICAC’s final report on Gillman, a $100 million deal, painted Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis as an evasive witness who was “inclined not to answer direct questions directly”.
Voters will be denied the right to examine the body language and demeanour of ministers in the Oakden hearings, and make their own judgments about how open and accountable they truly are.
This may just be what happens to any leader after six bruising years of rolling scandals and scathing reports, as political survival instincts overwhelm ideals about open democracy.
It’s also possible those inspiring words of six years ago were never genuine, and just a calculated political play that threw contrast between Mr Weatherill and the man who came before him.
Either way, it’s unarguable that this foundational promise has been broken.
A culture of cover-up continues, and the gnawing question remains of just what this “good government” has to hide.