Oakden ICAC report: Government ministers condemned but escape without sanction

ANALYSIS: South Australia’s leaders stand collectively condemned for allowing the disgrace of abuse and neglect at Oakden — but ministers at the top of the pyramid escape without sanction.

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SOUTH Australia’s leaders stand collectively condemned for allowing the disgrace of abuse and neglect at Oakden, but ministers at the top of the pyramid escape without sanction.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander’s report comes to many of the same headshaking conclusions of despair that many South Australians made months ago.

Put simply, he says: “The evidence I have received makes it quite clear that, to a large extent, what was occurring at the Oakden facility was unknown to ministers and chief executives”.

“To me that is astonishing. They ought to have known.”

But the modern interpretation of ministerial responsibility, accepted by Mr Lander and embraced by Premier Jay Weatherill, is that ignorance alone is not enough to convict.

Former mental health minister Leesa Vlahos has already been struck off the top of Labor’s Upper House ticket for an election to be held in just 17 days’ time.

It was seen by many as a pre-emptive strike aimed at minimise the political risk of what could be revealed today.

Leesa Vlahos with Premier Jay Weatherill after a swearing-in to Cabinet. Picture: Michael Ramsey/AAP

Mr Lander’s report shows she came within a whisker of an official negative finding.

He reports that she was “saved from a finding of maladministration” by a senior health official who acted on complaints from the family of a resident and triggered a full inquiry.

But Mr Lander’s commentary on Ms Vlahos’ behaviour is savage.

“She (Ms Vlahos) was not a leader in righting the conditions at Oakden,” he says.

“Mrs Vlahos was a follower.”

He goes on to say that she attempted to keep her name secret in the final report, a decision which “inevitably led to a delay in the finalisation of the report”.

Ms Vlahos’ former Cabinet colleagues will be ruing that decision, which means the report has lobbed on election eve.

As a witness to the secret inquiry, Mr Lander says Ms Vlahos was “sometimes belligerent and aggressive. At other times she was sullen and surly.”

“She became angry and on occasions she shouted at me,” he said.

“She was evasive in many of her answers and she frequently did not address the questions asked of her. She tended to make speeches.

“Much of her evidence was inherently inconsistent.”

Labor will want to put this all behind them as quickly as possible.

For weeks, Mr Weatherill has been preparing the ground by pointing to all that the State Government has done since the issue blew up over a year ago.

That includes closing down the condemned facility and opening a new one, plus the exit of key individuals involved.

The political risk heading into today was that the report would explicitly find against individual ministers, and potentially send blame up the chain to a culture set by Cabinet.

It has not.

But voters have been reminded, very close to voting day, of a disgrace which went unchecked and under the nose of elected officials for more than a decade. Responsibility has been smeared across everyone, meaning almost no one is directly accountable.

The political battle in the next few days becomes whether Opposition Leader Steven Marshall can convincingly argue that this has been a failure flowing from the top, or not.

He will seek to make this about leadership, grounds on which Mr Weatherill has been strong.

Voters may accept these findings and move on, or pass their own final judgment.

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