Premier Peter Malinauskas’ ministerial behaviour crackdown baffling, warns Labor rules architect

A new behaviour crackdown for the state’s political leaders is a waste of time while senior bureaucrats suffer an “ethical deficit”, the Labor architect of the rules warns.

Peter Malinauskas and members of his Cabinet and out ministry at a swearing in ceremony at Government House on April 15, 2024. Picture: supplied

A new behaviour crackdown for the state’s political leaders is a waste of time while senior bureaucrats are suffering an “ethical deficit”, the Labor architect of conflict rules warns.

Premier Peter Malinauskas ordered a review into Cabinet code of conduct rules – the first in 20 years – just weeks after winning the March 2022 election following the Vicki Chapman row.

But in a rare and outspoken intervention, Labor grandee Chris Sumner has lashed the state government over its “lack of action” for the past 2.5 years on its ministerial standards reforms.

State Cabinet meeting at the Wayville Showgrounds in 2022. Former Police Minister Joe Szakacs cropped out of. Picture: state government

Mr Sumner, a long-serving Labor Attorney-General for 11 years in the 1980s and 1990s, warned parts of the public sector suffered an “ethical deficit” as lucrative contracts acted as a disincentive for “frank and fearless” advice.

He further criticised a recent paper from former Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, Ann Vanstone, which urged an overhaul to rules protecting taxpayers from high-levels conflicts.

In a lengthy legal opinion, Mr Sumner argues the “Selway Code” he was responsible for preparing in 1993 were sound and only needed “updating”.

The stood-down Tourism Minister, Ms Barbara Wiese, pictured in the Legislative Council waiting with the Attorney-General Chris Sumner speaking as the Worthington report into conflict-of-interest allegations are tabled in parliament, 25 Aug 1992. She was later cleared of any wrongdoing. Picture: Grant Nowell

The code, which has not been changed in great detail since, was introduced after controversy that embroiled Labor’s Tourism Minister Barbara Wiese, who was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

He said the code had been in place uncontroversially for 30 years.

“I am mystified why the Government is having a problem now two a half years old in resolving what is not a difficult issue,” he said.

His opinion, which has been handed to Mr Malinauskas’ office, said Ms Vanstone’s proposal would remove perceptions of conflict of interest, which would plunge the state into “uncharted waters”.

He warned decisions from judges, ministers and public officials “cannot be infected by a perception of a conflict”.

“Don’t blunder on if there’s a potential issue,” he wrote.

He said public servants should give “frank and fearless” advice but warned of problems with hiring public servants from the private sector.

Chris Sumner was Attorney-General for 11 years, addresses a major law conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre in 1991. Picture: supplied

While such recruitment was desirable in some areas, new recruits must be wise to public sector ethics.

“More and more public servants are on contracts, some of them very lucrative,” he wrote.

“There is a disincentive to give professional and independent advice which the public servant knows the minister does not agree with.

“Part of the problem stems from the fact that increasingly public servants are recruited from the private sector and have little knowledge about what is required by public sector decision making.

“There is an ethical deficit.”

An Ombudsman inquiry cleared the former deputy premier, Ms Chapman, in May 2022 of any conflict of interest or wrongdoing in a Kangaroo Island development that she vetoed. Ms Vanstone supports this conclusion.

But that inquiry was in contrast to a parliamentary select committee’s findings that sparked a historic vote of no confidence and Ms Chapman standing down as deputy premier and Attorney-General.

Former deputy premier Vickie Chapman pictured in the lower house in Parliament House in May 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Malinauskas’ spokesman thanked Mr Sumner for his correspondence: “These are complex issues on which considered individuals can, and have reached divergent views.”

He said Ms Vanstone’s paper had been referred Department of Premier and Cabinet boss Damien Walker for Cabinet’s consideration.