Premier Jay Weatherill has denied suggestions that his staff investigated making a government representation to the Parole Board over the release of the offender whose crime led to the Debelle royal commission.

The man, who was jailed for the sexual assault of a child at a western suburbs school, can reportedly apply for parole in February 2014 – only weeks before the state election.

According to documents obtained by Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni under Freedom of Information laws, Weatherill’s chief of staff Simon Blewett asked for advice from the Attorney-General’s office on July 1 – the day the Debelle report was released.

In an email, Blewett asked “if any representations can be made to the Parole Board about its discretion to release him on parole, and if so by whom and by what process?”

You might like

Archive

The one-legged guide to ageing well

Archive

Reserve Bank tipped to hold interest rates despite inflation fall

Weatherill said today that the government was not planning to make a representation to the Parole Board about the offender’s release.

He said his staff were preparing for questions from the media and the public about the issue.

“Given that this incident has been a matter of significant public discussion, it was reasonable to assume that questions about parole might be asked by the school community or the broader community,” he said.

“The Premier’s office was merely putting itself in a position to answer anticipated questions about what the process would be if a person wished to make representations to the Parole Board on this matter.

“Mr Pisoni sought this information through FOI and then has chosen to use the information to politicise issues of child sexual abuse, even though this was a routine inquiry to enable the Government to respond to questions that may be asked of them by the community.”

Earlier, Weatherill told ABC radio that the inquiry was to “put ourselves in a position to answer questions that we anticipated would be asked about us because it’s such a notorious case …”

“So we’re simply putting our Ministers in a position to know how to answer questions should they be asked,” he said.

When asked by announcer Matt Abraham about former Premier Mike Rann’s approach – “that he was not averse to putting pressure on the Parole Board both directly and or publicly to ensure that people did not get granted parole if the Government felt they did not deserve it” – Weatherill answered bluntly: “I’m not Mike Rann.”

The Debelle inquiry made a number of damning findings about the behaviour of the Education Department in the wake of the offender’s arrest in December 2010, particularly its failure to communicate with parents at the school.