Liberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that Premier Rann and Treasurer Foley had refused for almost five months to answer questions in Parliament about frequent flyer points collected from travel by Rann Government Ministers.
Last week in Federal Parliament all Federal Members were required to provide details of all frequent flyer points collected on official travel and whether any of the points had been redeemed for official travel. This information was included in an annual report tabled in parliament which showed that only four members had used points for official travel despite spending $8.7 million on travel.
“However since February this year Mr Rann, Mr Foley and the overwhelming majority of Rann Government Ministers have refused to answer the following question on the Parliamentary notice paper:
“Since March 2002 –
1. How many frequent flyer points has the Minister accumulated from any taxpayer
funded travel?
2. Has the Minister used frequent flyer points accumulated from any taxpayer funded travel
for travel by the Minister or any other person?
If yes—
(a) Will the Minister provide details of any such travel undertaken by the Minister?
(b) Will the Minister provide details of any travel undertaken by any other person?”
“Thirteen out of 15 Rann Government Ministers have so far refused to provide answers to these questions. Ministers McEwen and Rankine have replied with Mr McEwen indicating he had collected 147,000 points and used some to upgrade a senior public servant to business class.
“This is just another example of the arrogance of Mr Rann and Mr Foley who obviously don’t believe they should be held accountable publicly in the same way that Federal Members are required to be kept accountable,” Mr Lucas said.
“This comes after Mr Rann has refused to answer almost 600 other questions on the Parliamentary notice paper and the Rann Government has refused to provide hundreds of documents under supposed Freedom of Information legislation on a range of issues.
“Mr Rann made many promises prior to his election about openness and accountability so now he needs to justify publicly why he has refused to answer these questions on frequent flyer points.
“If there is nothing to hide, then Mr Rann should have no problems in releasing the answers!”