Angry Weatherill slams media over Debelle
In a rare show of public anger, Premier Jay Weatherill has slammed media reporting of Debelle inquiry documents released by the State Government after an Opposition FOI request.
Weatherill yesterday accused the media of defaming his staff and behaving in a way which “borders on harassment”.
Former Supreme Court justice Bruce Debelle conducted an inquiry with Royal Commission powers into the State Government’s handling of a case in which an out-of-school hours carer at a public primary school was arrested, charged and jailed for the sexual assault of a child under his care.
Debelle’s report was highly critical of the Education Department’s handling of the issue, particularly its failure to tell parents about the man’s arrest in December 2010 and conviction in February 2012.
Information about the man’s crimes were only conveyed to parents late last year after Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni asked questions about the case in Parliament.
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The Debelle inquiry found that Weatherill, who was education minister at the time of the man’s arrest, was not told about the case, despite the department informing two of his staff – chief-of-staff Simon Blewett and adviser Jadynne Harvey.
Debelle criticised Blewett and Harvey for their failure to tell Weatherill about the case, but the Premier has refused Opposition calls to sack the pair.
Documents released by the Government last week, which were considered by Debelle in his inquiry, showed that another Weatherill staffer, media adviser Kate Baldock, was included in an email chain from the Department in February 2012, which talked about the man being sentenced for his crime and a proposed approach to dealing with media inquiries.
Then Education Minister Grace Portolesi, to whom Baldock was assigned in February 2012, has said that she wasn’t informed about the man’s crimes until March 2012.
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Media reporting of the issue over the past week has focused on the apparent gap between Baldock receiving the email and Portolesi first being informed about the case. The Government has not answered specific questions about whether Baldock discussed the email with Portolesi, instead arguing that Debelle had reviewed the material and made no criticisms of Portolesi or her office.
It was an approach repeated by Weatherill yesterday when he was asked whether he had questioned Baldock about whether she had informed Portolesi or anyone else in Government about the information contained in the departmental email.
“The Debelle inquiry considered the substance of that communication and made no criticism of either Minister Portolesi or of any adviser in her office,” Weatherill said in response.
“Now, the context for that communication was many, many months, in fact years, after the initial event and I think, properly understood, the Debelle inquiry has comprehensively dealt with this matter.
“And frankly the way in which it is being pursued by both the Opposition and by some of the reporting of it is frankly defamatory and I think the way in which some of the staff of my office have been pursued about this matter borders on harassment and is utterly unacceptable. I have nothing further to say.”
Weatherill did not name any particular media outlet or journalist.
The FOI documents considered by Debelle are available online.
Disclosure: David Washington worked as a media adviser under Jay Weatherill’s premiership in 2011/12. He was assigned to Attorney-General John Rau.
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