Wade Burns elected president of SA police union by fewer than 50 votes after indecent assault allegations

A new police union president has been named following a campaign rocked by bombshell allegations of indecent assault levelled against candidate Wade Burns.

Inspector Wade Burns, who was demoted following allegations of indecent assault, has been elected president of South Australia’s police union by fewer than 50 votes – but is now facing calls to immediately resign.

An official Australian Electoral Commission declaration of results published on Thursday showed that Mr Burns – the son of former police commissioner Gary Burns – polled 787 votes, ahead of Darren Cornell on 738, Leonie Schulz on 313 and Kevin Lawton on 97.

Less than half of the union’s 4553 members chose to cast a vote in the by-election.

The campaign was thrown into turmoil 12 days after voting commenced when independent MLC Frank Pangallo used parliamentary privilege to level bombshell indecent assault allegations against Mr Burns.

On Thursday afternoon, Mr Pangallo said the result was “hardly a ringing endorsement” of his campaign.

Incoming PASA president Wade Burns. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“A lot of those votes would have been cast before all this stuff came out,” he said.

“He hasn’t answered any of the allegations... he’s just stayed silent, and that’s unacceptable. He needs to front up and he needs to be open and transparent as any leader would.”

Mr Pangallo doubled down on an earlier call for Mr Burns to resign, declaring “his position is still untenable”.

Mr Cornell had also publicly called for his opponent to resign, and, in the days after the allegations were made public, Mr Burns stood down as chair of the Basketball SA Commission and the Woodcroft College council.

Endorsements from Basketball SA chief executive Tim Brenton, Woodcroft College principal Shannon Warren and SA sport hall of famer Jenny Williams OAM were all removed from his campaign website.

But Mr Burns, who had been the Police Association of South Australia (PASA) deputy president, and outgoing president Mark Carroll never publicly addressed the allegations.

Mr Carroll’s last day in the job will be this Friday, when an invite-only function will be held to farewell him.

Invitations circulated several weeks ago said the event would feature speeches from Premier Peter Malinauskas, District Court Judge Joana Fuller and former PASA president Peter Alexander.

Mr Carroll announced earlier this year he would resign eight months out from the end of his term, triggering the by-election. Mr Burns and other elected officials will have their positions vacated and face a general election in March 2025.

Last month, Mr Pangallo said Mr Burns was demoted from chief inspector to senior sergeant in 2017 after it was claimed he indecently assaulted a then-civilian female SA Police employee at a social function.

Mr Burns told union members in a subsequent memo his campaign would continue and that “what was said – under parliamentary privilege – was factually incorrect”, and that his misconduct “was not – nor was it ever – a criminal matter”.

However, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said SA Police’s Internal Investigation Section did commence a criminal investigation after allegations were received.

Mr Stevens said that the matter was not referred for prosecution on the wishes of the alleged victim, and Mr Burns may not have been aware that a criminal investigation was commenced. He was later reinstated to the rank of inspector.

Originally published as Wade Burns elected president of SA police union by fewer than 50 votes after indecent assault allegations