Oakden ICAC report: Former Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos tried to blame others and take credit

THE minister formerly responsible for the Oakden aged care home sought to blame others for failings while taking “more credit than she was entitled to” for key decisions, the state’s corruption watchdog says.

• Vlahos showed “nothing but contempt” - victims
• “A shameful chapter in SA’s history” - Bruce Lander
• Labor and Liberal respond

THE minister formerly responsible for the Oakden aged care home sought to blame others for failings while taking “more credit than she was entitled to” for key decisions, the state’s corruption watchdog says.

ICAC boss Bruce Lander describes evidence given by Leesa Vlahos to his inquiry into the facility as inconsistent, evasive and “sometimes belligerent and aggressive”.

At one point, Mr Lander considered that “not all of her explanations could be true”.

Ms Vlahos resigned as Mental Health Minister in September, citing “health reasons”. She was due to contest the upcoming state election as Labor’s top candidate for the Upper House, but pulled out of the race last month so as not to “become a distraction” to the party when Mr Lander’s report was released.

It is scathing of her conduct and handling of the crisis, saying she “took every opportunity available to deflect any possible criticism of her onto others”. “She blamed others for mistakes or failings whenever and wherever possible. Much of her evidence was inherently inconsistent,” Mr Lander wrote.

“At other times she was sullen and surly. There were times whilst giving evidence when she became angry and on occasions she shouted at me. She was evasive in many of her answers and she frequently did not address the questions asked of her.”

Former mental health minister Leesa Vlahos.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander.

Mr Lander said: “It would be open to find that Mrs Vlahos deliberately overstated her involvement in the bringing about of the Oakden Report (by Chief Psychiatrist Aaron Groves) and that she claimed more credit than she was entitled to.

“The evidence overwhelmingly supports the finding that the Oakden Report was a consequence of the initiative of (Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive Jackie) Hanson.”

Dr Groves provided a preliminary report to SA Health in February 2017 but Mr Lander said he did not think Ms Vlahos “took the trouble to read the report until just before she gave her evidence” to the ICAC. He also questioned why Ms Vlahos did not comply with an obligation to table a different report which raised concerns about Oakden, prepared by the Principal Community Visitor Maurice Corcoran by September 30, 2016, before Parliament within six sitting days of receiving it.

Instead, she tabled the report on the final sitting day of the year, on December 1, 2016.

“In light of the evidence, it is open for me to infer that she made a conscious decision after reading the report in October, to delay the tabling of Mr Corcoran’s Annual Report to avoid the scrutiny of Parliament of the contents of the report,” Mr Lander says.

Ms Vlahos did not return calls.