Governor asked to sack Attorney-General Vickie Chapman after no-confidence motion passes

SA’s Governor has been formally asked to sack Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman as Attorney-General a day after unprecedented political turmoil engulfed SA’s parliament.

Speaker Dan Cregan has presented the Governor with a motion asking for Attorney-General Vickie Chapman to be dismissed from the ministry after an extraordinary day of mayhem in State Parliament on Thursday.

The Advertiser understands Mr Cregan, met with Governor Frances Adamson on Friday morning and presented her with a ribbon-tied copy of the parliamentary motion.
It is understood that was the only document Mr Cregan presented to the Governor.
It is further understood that the Governor received the document and Mr Cregan subsequently left, without the Governor giving any indication as to her likely response to the motion, which passed on Thursday, 23 votes to 22.

The motion demands she sack Ms Chapman from the ministry.

Speaker Dan Cregan arrives at Government House to present the Governor with the parliamentary motion. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Mr Cregan carrying a copy of the document. NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

It won the support of crossbenchers Sam Duluk, Troy Bell, Frances Bedford and Geoff Brock, while former Liberal-turned-independent MP Fraser Ellis abstained.

However, the Attorney-General may avoid demotion because, by convention, the governor acts on the advice of the Premier, who has repeatedly thrown his support behind his deputy and has already declared he will not sack her.

A spokeswoman for Ms Chapman, who is also Planning Minister and has consistently denied any wrongdoing, confirmed on Thursday afternoon she would not resign.

Ms Chapman may not escape unscathed. She is still facing the prospect of being suspended from parliament over an inquiry into her conduct and is also now the subject of a state ombudsman investigation.

The no-confidence motion stated the lower house “no longer had confidence in the Member for Bragg” to continue as Deputy Premier, Attorney-General and Planning and Local Government Minister.

It also called on Mr Cregan to present Ms Adamson with a copy of the motion expressing the lower house‘s will that Ms Chapman no longer serve as deputy premier, attorney general and minister.

An original motion also called on Premier Steven Marshall to immediately remove Ms Chapman from the front bench.

However, minister and manager of government business Dan van Holst Pellekaan successfully moved an amendment to remove this clause.

In a day of drama in the lower house, a scathing select committee report handed down its recommendations from an inquiry into Ms Chapman’s conduct in rejecting a seaport proposal for Kangaroo Island.

It found Ms Chapman had an actual and perceived conflict of interest, breached the ministerial code of conduct and misled parliament on three occasions.

The report recommended she be suspended from parliament for nine days and publicly apologise for her conduct.

Vickie Chapman enters parliament for question time on Thursday. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Those recommendations are set to be considered by the lower house on November 30.

The state government moved on Thursday evening to shut down parliament for the remainder of the term, which would have thwarted any potential censure arising from the report’s recommendations.

But the attempt failed, so Ms Chapman will likely learn her fate by the end of the month.

Two Liberal MPs who sat on the inquiry committee are steadfastly backing Ms Chapman, saying they did not agree with the report’s findings.

The report stated that Peter Treloar and Matt Cowdrey “dissent to the entirety” of the report.

“Our view is that the attorney maintained an open mind on the matter during the whole time she had responsibility for making the final decision,” they said.

The inquiry was looking into whether the Attorney-General had a conflict of interest, breached the ministerial code of conduct or misled parliament in rejecting Kangaroo Island Plantation Timber’s application to build a $40m seaport at Smith Bay.

The investigation had previously heard Ms Chapman owned a property, which was leased as a private rental, across the road from a forest from which haulage trucks would have collected timber to take to the seaport under the proposal.

Labor leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Keryn Stevens

In handing down the report, inquiry committee chairwoman and Labor MP Andrea Michaels described Ms Chapman’s denials of any wrongdoing as “Trumpesque at best”.

“Simply repeating that no one has done wrong does not make it so,” she said.

The Premier defended his deputy, saying the inquiry was “not based upon facts” and there was “no way whatsoever” he would urge the governor to dismiss her.

“I do not believe for one second that there has been any breach of the ministerial code of conduct and there is absolutely nothing which has been provided in evidence, whatsoever, to the select committee which would make me change my mind,” Mr Marshall said.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said it would be “unprecedented” if Ms Chapman refused to resign from the front bench or Mr Marshall did not sack her.

“There is no record in our state’s history of a minister losing a vote of confidence in the house and keeping their job,” he said.

The matter has now been referred to State Ombudsman Wayne Lines, who has greater powers than the committee to investigate Ms Chapman and other members of the government and public service.