Treasurer Rob Lucas says Labor MP Jayne Stinson’s former staffer raised ‘some concerns’ over treatment

A recently departed staffer of former Labor frontbencher Jayne Stinson has aired “some concerns about her treatment”, says Treasurer Rob Lucas.

MP Jayne Stinson resigned from the Opposition frontbench last week. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

A recently departed employee of former Labor frontbencher Jayne Stinson has raised “some concerns about her treatment” in the MP’s office, says Treasurer Rob Lucas.

In a statement to The Advertiser, Mr Lucas also says “a number of issues have been raised by staff in Ms Stinson’s office” who have subsequently left, resulting in “some turnover”.

The former employee in Ms Stinson’s Badcoe electorate office has now been assigned to another Labor MP’s office.

Ms Stinson resigned from the Opposition frontbench last Friday to deal with “deeply personal matters”, which The Advertiser has been told do not relate to the staffing matter raised by Mr Lucas.

Responding to Mr Lucas, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said his office had been told last week that a trainee from Ms Stinson’s office was “looking for an opportunity to work in an alternative Labor MP’s office”.

It is understood the female trainee has been reassigned to the office of West Torrens MP and Labor government accountability spokesman Tom Koutsantonis.

Responding to questions about staffing in the southwestern Adelaide electorate of Badcoe, Mr Lucas said: “I have been advised that it is correct that an employee did recently leave Ms Stinson’s office and has now been assigned to another Labor MP’s office.

“I have also been advised that the employee did raise some concerns about her treatment in the Member’s office but, at this stage, I don’t propose to ventilate publicly the details of these concerns out of respect to the employee involved.”

Mr Lucas said he had been assured that “appropriate support” was provided to the employee before she left the Badcoe office and was redeployed.

“ … It was only when a satisfactory resolution could not be achieved that she was assigned to the other MP’s office,” Mr Lucas’s statement says.

“I am also advised that over the last three years, a number of issues have been raised by staff in Ms Stinson’s office to the Electorate Services section of DTF (Department of Treasury and Finance).

“These staff have subsequently left, which has resulted in some turnover in Ms Stinson’s office.”

Mr Malinauskas said he last week discussed with Ms Stinson the trainee looking for an opportunity to be redeployed when she “revealed she had been grappling with a personal issue which had been very traumatic for her”.

“This has understandably been a very difficult time in Jayne’s life – juggling this personal matter with the responsibilities of being a Shadow Minister,” the Labor leader’s statement says.

“We agreed the best course of action was for her to stand down from the front bench so she had the time to deal with her personal issues and I accepted her resignation.”

Ms Stinson, a former TV news journalist, in 2018 won Badcoe, an important marginal seat, which has a margin of 4.6 per cent.

Asked to respond, Ms Stinson said: “I have made the difficult decision to step back from my Shadow Ministry to deal with some distressing and deeply personal matters.”