SA: SA parliamentary speaker quits in paedophile MP row

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2005
SA: SA parliamentary speaker quits in paedophile MP row

By Steve Larkin

ADELAIDE, April 4 AAP - South Australian MP Peter Lewis quit as parliamentary speaker
today, feeling betrayed by a Labor government which he said should be addressing his claim
one of the state's sitting MPs was a paedophile.

Mr Lewis, the Independent who handed government to Labor at the 2002 election with
his decisive vote of support, claimed today there was a network of "organised activity"

between a group of high society paedophiles in Australia involving politicians, the judiciary
and public servants.

The Rann government, which had since forged a majority with other independents to strengthen
its power base, was to have passed a no confidence motion in Mr Lewis as parliament resumed
today.

But Mr Lewis, a controversial MP representing a rural seat east of Adelaide, quit and
avoided becoming the first SA speaker to have been ousted by a no confidence motion since
state parliament began in 1857.

In a 20-minute address to parliament, Mr Lewis defended raising his claims of a serving
paedophile MP - allegations now under police investigation.

Mr Lewis said two gay men, since murdered, had separately told his office of an MP
who frequented Adelaide's south parklands, a known homosexual haunt.

Suggesting the subsequent murders of the men could not be dismissed as coincidence,
two volunteers who worked from Mr Lewis' office last Friday released statutory declarations
naming four prominent Adelaide people as paedophiles.

Two of those named were police officers, and Police Commissioner Mal Hyde today said
the claims were now being investigated.

Mr Lewis told parliament today: "There will never be a smoking gun ... as hard evidence"

against a paedophile network he claimed included MPs throughout Australia and the judiciary.

"Removing me will not remove the stain or the shame," he told parliament.

Mr Lewis said he would contest his seat at the next state poll, due by March next year.

"It's not over," he said.

"There is a hell of a job to do to clean up the mess.

"I guess what the government has to do, what (Premier) Mike Rann has got to do, is
understand now he won't have me to help him through it.

"It (the government) is out over the edge of a precipice, on an overhanging rock and
it thinks it's on firm ground."

Mr Lewis' resignation came as the Labor government flagged legislation removing parliamentary
privilege for naming or identifying any politician or public official as being involved
in criminal sexual misconduct.

The legislation, described by Deputy Premier Kevin Foley as groundbreaking in the Westminster
political system, would also allow a police search of Mr Lewis' parliamentary offices
for evidence regarding the paedophile MP claim.

Mr Lewis, who was expelled from the Liberal Party in 2000 for calling for the then-premier
to resign, was replaced as speaker by Independent Bob Such.

AAP sl/cdh/jlw

KEYWORD: MP NIGHTLEAD

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