Bernard Finnigan

Bernard Vincent Finnigan (born 1972) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the South Australian Legislative Council since 2006. He was elected as a member of the Australian Labor Party, and briefly served as a minister in the Rann government, but resigned as a minister and was suspended from the party in 2011 after being charged with child pornography offences. He currently sits in the Legislative Council as an independent.

Early life

One of twelve children, Finnigan was born in 1972 in Mount Gambier and grew up in nearby Eight Mile Creek on the family's dairy farm. He attended Allendale East Area School and Tenison Woods College in Mount Gambier before attending the University of Adelaide. In 1993 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While still at university he joined the Australian Labor Party.^[1]

Finnigan joined the South Australian branch of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association in 1995 as a union official, before becoming assistant secretary in 2000, a position he held for five years.^[1] There, he was a protégé of future Senator Don Farrell.^[2][3]

Parliament

Finnigan was appointed by the Parliament of South Australia to the Legislative Council on 2 May 2006 as the party's choice to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by the death of Labor MLC Terry Roberts.^[3] According to Finnigan, his policy interests include "economic development, industrial relations, federal-state relations, family issues and building social capital".^[1] As a backbencher he participated in a number of committees. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to Premier Mike Rann from April 2010 until he was appointed as a Minister.^[4] He was third on Labor's upper house ticket at the 2010 election and was subsequently re-elected.^[1][5]

A Catholic, Finnigan is a member of the Labor Unity faction. In his maiden speech on 8 May 2006 he told the Parliament that "I am a servant of Christ and subject of His reign in history".^[3][6] In June 2008 on a conscience vote, he was among a number of Labor MLCs who joined Liberal and Family First MLCs to vote down an amendment to give same sex couples legal access to gestational surrogacy.^[7] Finnigan has opposed the legalisation of euthanasia.^[8] In 2009 he was described as "one of the most influential figures in Parliament" and a likely backbench candidate for the ministry, after the promotion of Tom Koutsantonis.^[9]

Finnigan was promoted to the Rann cabinet on 8 February 2011. He was appointed to the ministerial portfolios of Industrial Relations, State/Local Government Relations, and Gambling, and also to the position of leader of the government in the Legislative Council.^[10] Ironically,^[11] he also served as acting police minister while Kevin Foley, the serving police minister, was overseas.^[2]

Partial resignation and criminal charges

Finnigan resigned as a minister and as a member of the South Australian Executive Council on 21 April 2011.^[2][12] The night before his resignation, Finnigan was arrested and charged with four child pornography offences.^[13][14] Premier Mike Rann requested that Finnigan be suspended from the Australian Labor Party while his case was before the courts, with the suspension endorsed by the party's state executive on 3 May 2011.^[15] As the alleged offences are considered a sex crime, South Australian law prohibited publication of his name in connection with the charges until he had entered a plea. He was committed for trial pleading not guilty,^[16] and remains a member of parliament.^[17]

The four charges he originally faced were dropped in favour for seven counts of obtaining access to child pornography and five for possession, some counts of which are aggravated by the alleged age of the children depicted.^[18] On 29 June 2012, Finnigan was charged with 14 additional counts of obtaining access to child pornography, seven of them aggravated to be heard in the District Court of South Australia before a jury.^[19]

On 24 September 2012, Finnigan was committed to stand trial on five aggravated counts of taking steps to obtain child pornography and one aggravated count of obtaining child pornography,^[20] at which point the statutory suppression on naming the accused within South Australia expired.^[21] Eight other charges were dropped.^[21] Five of the six charges of taking steps to obtain access to child pornography were dismissed by the magistrate handling the case on 13 May 2013, but Finnigan will stand trial on the remaining charge.^[22] In June 2013 prosecutors refiled previously dismissed charges against Finnigan.^[23]

Finnigan continues to receive a $148,000 p.a. salary for being an occupant in the South Australian Legislative Council, and will do so until his term expires in 2018, unless he is convicted.^[24]

References

External links

• Snelling and Finnigan on 891 Breakfast- 891 ABC Adelaide, 9 February 2011