David Penberthy: The Oakden scandal rested entirely with the former minister Leesa Vlahos

IF you were to devise a spectrum of ministerial oversight in relation to the Oakden nursing home scandal, with one classified as incessant micro-management and 10 as not giving a damn, you would award the Weatherill Government a 9.9, says David Penberthy. TAKE OUR POLL

• Response: Spy cameras and investigations unit to be set up
• How SA’s health system failed the vulnerable
• Lander: Leesa Vlahos tried to blame others and take credit
• All who mattered failed to stop shameful abuse
• Damning ICAC report: Bruce Lander names and shames

IF you were to devise a spectrum of ministerial oversight in relation to the Oakden nursing home scandal, with one classified as incessant micro-management and 10 as not giving a damn, you would award the Weatherill Government a 9.9.

It says plenty about the modern culture of blame evasion that not knowing what was going on is now defined as a pass mark for state government ministers. Put simply, the thing that saved successive ministers from both the Rann era and current Weatherill administration from being fully slotted in the ICAC report is that they had no idea what was happening at this aged care facility.

A reasonable person would counter – isn’t it their job to know what is going on with the services they are responsible for delivering? If not, what the hell are we paying them for?

Miserably enough, there are not one but two examples this week of this culture of blame evasion. The first and most spectacular is Oakden.

It involves nothing less serious than the brutalisation of people aged in their 80s and 90s who were so frail and mentally unwell that they barely knew night from day.

The second involves the death of a good man and beloved husband who was simply going about his job as a construction worker at the new RAH site and never came home from work that day.

What was once the ministerial standard in the Westminster system – the buck stops here – has been replaced in this state with the buck stops somewhere over there.

These days, when a crisis erupts, the reaction seems less a policy-driven one aimed at identifying failures and ensuring they are not repeated, but a politically-driven wagon-circling exercise, aimed at covering the sorry arse of the relevant minister.

Unless you’re Bernard Finnegan, with your predilictions for child pornography, you’re half a chance of toughing anything out. The standards have been lowered to suit those failing to meet them.

While the former mental health minister Leesa Vlahos was cleared of maladministration by ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander, he makes it clear this outcome was a close-run thing.

Mr Lander named Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer Jackie Hanson as “the only person who took positive action upon becoming aware of the true state of affairs at the Oakden facility”.

And despite the fact that Jay Weatherill – repeatedly – hailed Ms Vlahos for “shining a light” on conditions at Oakden, Commissioner Lander makes it clear she deserved not a skerrick of credit for that process.

“She was not a leader in righting the conditions at Oakden,” he says. “Mrs Vlahos was a follower.”

Being cleared of maladministration is in no way an endorsement of the competence of the former minister, especially given that her credibility suffered further when she was named by Commissioner Lander as one of three people who attempted to prevent him from naming them in his final report, causing “distraction” and “delay”.

Further, Commissioner Lander painted a picture of Ms Vlahos as a petulant sook who was irritated that she had to endure the ignominy of a closed-doors interview at ICAC to get to the bottom of this scandal.

She was “sometimes belligerent and aggressive, at other times she was sullen and surly,” he said. “She became angry and on occasions she shouted at me.”

Far out. What a piece of work.

It is tempting to conclude that in the midst of a crisis where older people were being mistreated in the autumn years of her lives, Ms Vlahos was spending an inordinate amount of time worrying about herself.

Meanwhile, at the same time as the Oakden report was being released, State Coroner Mark Johns was blowing his stack as he was thwarted by the State Government in his inquest into the death of construction worker Jorge Castillo-Riffo at the new RAH site in November 2014.

The State Government has flat-out refused to put forward a public servant to give evidence about time pressures at the new RAH, denying the Coroner the chance to explore whether politically-driven construction deadlines could have contributed to Mr Castillo-Riffo’s death.

Jorge Castillo-Riffo

Mr Johns was told that Infrastructure Department chief Michael Deegan had simply provided a statement to the court, saying the administration of the project was in the hands of “another entity”.

Counsel assisting the Coroner, Kathryn Waite, told the inquest she did not have a single name for anyone employed at that other entity.

At this point Mr Johns erupted. It is worth recording his comments at length as they reiterate the above points about ministerial accountability.

“Over the past five years, I have heard the (former) minister of health (Jack Snelling) answering questions on various radio programs about the scheduling of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital,” he said.

“I never once remember any suggestion on behalf of the minister for health that he had no involvement whatsoever in the timing of that matter. It appeared to be a matter that the minister had some interest in and some desire to emphasise control over. Are you telling me the minister of health never showed any interest in that matter? Are you suggesting the State Government had no interest in the date of completion at all?

“What you’re telling me is that there is no one from the State Government who can deal with the matters that I’ve asked to be dealt with – is that what you’re asking me to accept?”

Um, yeah.

So there you have it. The new gold standard of ministerial accountability. It comes not from the Westminster tradition, but is drawn from the pages of Mad magazine, courtesy of Alfred E. Neuman: “What, me worry?”

■ DAVID PENBERTHY HOSTS BREAKFASTS ON FIVEAA WITH WILL GOODINGS