Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly refuses to answer KI seaport questions

KI Mayor Michael Pengilly has hung up on a parliamentary committee investigating Vickie Chapman’s rejection of a seaport, declaring it a “waste of everybody’s time”.

Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly has derailed a parliamentary committee by refusing to answer questions from senior lawyer Rachael Gray QC and hanging up on the hearing.

Mr Pengilly, appearing in a committee investigating whether Attorney-General Vickie Chapman had a conflict of interest in rejecting plans to build a deepwater port at Smith Bay, declared he would not answer questions from Ms Gray.

The committee on Friday adjourned briefly to try to convince Mr Pengilly, appearing remotely, to answer her questions. But, when it resumed, Mr Pengilly still refused to participate.

“I cannot be bothered with this, I’ve got better things to do with my time,” he said.

“I am not putting up with this charade.”

He then hung up on the committee, calling it “a circus and a waste of everybody’s time”.

“So, I’m sorry, goodbye,” he said as he ended the call.

Ms Gray, a respected Adelaide Senior Counsel, was appointed by parliament to lead the inquiry.

The committee was forced to adjourn after KI Mayor Michael Pengilly refused to answer questions.

She asked Mr Pengilly, a former Liberal MP, if he accepted that his property was on the same road that would have been used by trucks driving to and from Smith Bay if the port was approved.

“That is a lie,” he said, shortly before deciding to leave the hearing.

In a fiery opening statement, Mr Pengilly, said he had always been opposed to the port due to environmental concerns.

“I formed the view from day one that it was a ludicrous, badly thought out port location,” he said.

“The land side was too small (and) it was adjacent to a floodplain.”

After his opening statement, Mr Pengilly refused to answer questions from Ms Gray “or whatever her name is”.

“I’m prepared to take some questions from members, but I will not take questions from (Ms Gray),” he said.

“If members of parliament can’t ask questions, I don’t have to answer hers and I won’t.”

The parliamentary inquiry is investigating whether Ms Chapman had a conflict of interest, breached the ministerial code of conduct or misled parliament in rejecting Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers’ proposal to build a $40m seaport at Smith Bay.

On Tuesday, the inquiry heard Ms Chapman owned property “across the road” from a forest from which haulage trucks would collect timber to take to the seaport under KIPT’s proposal.

Ms Chapman has denied any conflict of interest and previously described the inquiry as a “witch hunt”.

Opposition spokesman and committee member, Tom Koutsantonis, said Mr Pengilly was “one of Vickie Chapman’s closest political allies and one of her oldest friends”.

“The way he behaved in the committee was appalling,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

“This behaviour is contemptuous of the parliament and it lets the people of Kangaroo Island down terribly – and he has done Vickie Chapman enormous political harm.”

Originally published as Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly refuses to answer KI seaport questions