South Australia’s health minister has apologised “unreservedly” for the deliberate leak of an email that the government said was from an Adelaide cancer patient whose partner recently raised concerns about ramping, but turned out to be from a different person with the same name.
The state’s premier today stuck by the minister, Chris Picton, saying there was no need for him to resign — but he conceded the failure to conduct proper checks was “not good enough”.
On Friday, Adelaide mum Bronwen Paterson spoke out about the day her late husband Stephen James King — who had terminal cancer — died in 2025, saying he had spent some of his final hours waiting for, and then ramped in, an ambulance.
In response to Ms Paterson sharing that story, Mr Picton’s office released an email to the media it said had been sent by Ms Paterson’s late partner.
But the government later said an error had been made and that the email was from the wrong person — another Stephen King.
“There was a very incorrect assumption made that that was from Ms Paterson’s partner, which it clearly wasn’t,” Health Minister Chris Picton told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.
On the weekend, Premier Peter Malinauskas denied that in releasing the email the government was attempting to discredit Ms Paterson and her concerns about the health system — a claim disputed by the state opposition.
“Even if it was the right Stephen King, they do not have the right to circulate this sort of information,” opposition health spokesperson Heidi Girolamo told ABC Radio Adelaide.
Bronwen Paterson’s partner Stephen King, who was terminally ill, died in 2025. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)
The premier today rejected suggestions the minister should step down.
“I wouldn’t accept it even if he had [offered his resignation],” Mr Malinauskas said.
He said he had spoken to Mr Picton about the matter.
“The minister was not accurate by virtue of the fact that there were two people of the same name … and that’s not good enough,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“He should have double-checked if there were two people of the same name. He didn’t, and he’s been candid about that.”
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Mr Picton was earlier questioned whether it was appropriate to be releasing emails from patients without permission from the individuals.
He rejected the suggestion the government was playing politics with a person’s death — but said the email’s release was an error that “I take full responsibility for”.
“I’m very sorry to Ms Paterson and anyone else who was offended,” he said.
“I completely apologise to Ms Paterson for this, and I do so unreservedly. I’m very sorry for any additional issues or emotional impacts that this has had on her.”
Mr Picton said he had obtained Ms Paterson’s contact details “over the weekend” after the email was released.
“I’ve had a conversation with her since,” he said.
Email release ‘absolutely appalling’, opposition says
The minister was asked about the sequence of events that led up to the email’s release, and admitted he had authorised the decision.
“I did see the email and I take responsibility,” he said.
“Whenever an issue is raised, a journalist raises a query we certainly look to see whether there’s an issue we’ve been aware of, whether somebody’s made a complaint.
“We were unable to find a complaint but had found that email.”
The state opposition said the matter needed to be investigated in more detail.
“It’s absolutely appalling what has happened to Bronwen,” Ms Girolamo said.
“Does this happen all the time, that emails are sent to the media without consent from the individual? ‘Stephen King’ probably isn’t the most uncommon name and the checks should have been done.”
Heidi Girolamo says the matter needs to be further investigated.
 (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)
Ms Girolamo said she did not accept the government’s claim that the email’s release was not an attempt to discredit Ms Paterson.
“They need to look into the processes further and make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” she said.
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The minister conceded the email should not have been released, even if it had been from Ms Paterson’s late husband.
“Even if it was the correct person and it was the correct email, in hindsight I believe we’ve made a mistake in providing that,” Mr Picton said.
The minister said he had sought to get in touch with the Stephen King who had sent the email.
“I’ve certainly sent an email personally to the account that we have. I don’t have any other contact details,” he said.
The minister said the email that was released to the media by the government did not contain confidential details, but was instead the “sort of thing that would be released under FOI”.
“This isn’t a medical record, this isn’t medical information, this was an email that was sent, praising health services, to the premier and then forwarded to my office,” Mr Picton said.
Mr Malinauskas said there was no need to internally review the matter, because “we know exactly what’s occurred here and how it occurred”.
Asked if he was going to take steps to identify which staff member found the email before it was forwarded to media, Mr Malinauskas replied “no”, before elaborating.
“If indeed it [the email] was seen by anyone, it would be a very low level correspondence public servant who just looks at an email and transfers it from one person to the next,” he said.
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