Adelaide Mayor Stephen Yarwood says allegations he verbally abused Liberal MP 'untrue'
Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood has been given the opportunity to reply to an accusation by Liberal MP Isobel Redmond that he verbally abused her.
Ms Redmond used parliamentary privilege recently to accuse Mr Yarwood of swearing at her during an encounter on their way to a function at Government House last year.
Ms Redmond told Parliament that in 2013 she was running late for a function at Government House when she ran into Mayor Stephen Yarwood, who was heading to the same event.
She said she made a provocative comment to the Lord Mayor blaming the council and the state government for delays in getting into the city.
Ms Redmond said Mr Yarwood responded with a "tirade of abuse" and called her an "effing c".
She also claimed it made him unfit for office, ahead of local government elections.
Mr Yarwood's reply, inserted in Hansard, said Ms Redmond's accusation that he called her an abhorrent name was "untrue".
House of Assembly Speaker Michael Atkinson told the ABC earlier this month Mr Yarwood was entitled to respond to the Liberal MP's comments through Parliament.
"The Lord Mayor can exercise the citizen's right of reply under our sessional orders, which is available to all people," he said.
"He could write me a letter giving his version of events and, after a meeting of the standing orders committee, we could insert that in Hansard."
Parliament's Standing Order Committee said in agreeing to insert the response that "it has not judged the truth of any statement in the House of Assembly or the submission of the person making the response".
