SAs Deputy Premier makes defamation threat in attempt to halt conflict inquiry
South Australia's Deputy Premier, Vickie Chapman, has threatened to sue an opponent for defamation in a bid to halt a parliamentary investigation into whether she has a conflict of interest.
Key points:Ms Chapman issued a lawyer's letter to Labor frontbencher Tom Koutsantonis on Friday, the penultimate day of a fortnight-long parliamentary inquiry into whether she had a conflict of interest in blocking a timber port on her native Kangaroo Island.
The inquiry has heard several public servants and even Ms Chapman's own adviser had prepared themselves for the possibility she would recuse herself from the decision as Planning Minister, but did not, because she had deemed no conflict existed.
It is understood her legal letter includes a demand for an apology and damages for what Ms Chapman alleges are defamatory comments made in a series of tweets posted while Mr Koutsantonis was a member of the committee examining her conduct.
"It is well past time for the matter to be removed from this Kangaroo court to a competent court," Ms Chapman said in a statement.
"I consider Tom's behaviour to be a stain on the reputation of the parliament. No one calls him out."
The statement intimated Ms Chapman was seeking to use the threat against Mr Koutsantonis to try and stay the inquiry's findings, which are due to be delivered to parliament next Thursday.
Earlier this year, Ms Chapman adopted a different approach รข€" arguing that a parliamentary inquiry into explosive claims by former Labor MP Annabel Digance should proceed, even after Ms Digance was charged by police with blackmail.
Ultimately, Labor and the crossbench blocked that inquiry from proceeding.
Mr Koutsantonis indicated he would seek to defend his statements.
"This appears to be a last-ditch, desperate attempt by Vickie Chapman to distract from the inquiry and save what's left of her political career," an Opposition spokesman said.
Public servants, adviser, Crown lawyer discussed potential conflictIn the latest parliamentary committee hearing on Friday, multiple public servants and Ms Chapman's own planning adviser all confirmed they had discussed the possibility that the Attorney-General had a conflict.
Ministerial adviser Oliver Luckhurst-Smith told the committee he had emailed the Crown Solicitor's office, asking for a document to be prepared that would allow Ms Chapman to delegate her decision to another minister.
"I had public knowledge of the attorney's connection to the island and as a result felt it would be worthwhile providing her with the opportunity to consider whether or not her connection to the island was worth deliberating on a conflict," he said.
Mr Luckhurst-Smith told the committee he had discussed whether his minister should delegate the port decision with the most senior bureaucrat in the Attorney-General's Department, Caroline Mealor.
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Read moreMs Mealor told the committee the question of a conflict was considered, but ultimately the question of whether to declare one was up to Ms Chapman.
"I was content that it was something she was live to and when she returned a minute saying I've turned my mind to it, there is not conflict, there will not be a delegation, I took the view that my job was done," she said.
Crown lawyer Rina Reina confirmed she had drafted a document in case Chapman needed to delegate the decision to another minister.
But she told the committee she did not advise the Deputy Premier on conflicts, and that other discussions between the pair were legally privileged and confidential.
"That's not to say that the issue of conflict hasn't been discussed so if there has been a discussion, then I'm not at liberty to disclose that discussion," she said.
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