OPPOSITION deputy leader Vickie Chapman made a “Wookiee” mistake when she criticised Attorney General John Rau in State Parliament yesterday.

Borrowing lines from animated American TV series South Park, Mr Rau accused Ms Chapman of using the “Chewbacca defence” after she questioned his move to allow the Governor authority to appoint an acting Chief Magistrate.

Ms Chapman had suggested there were ulterior motives for the changes but Mr Rau used the comical quote to dismiss the claims as a “red herring”.

“This is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor,” Mr Rau recited in Parliament.

“Now think about that. That does not make sense… Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor with a bunch of two-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense.

“What does that have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case. It does not make sense.”

Getting her own back, Ms Chapman later said Mr Rau himself used the “Chewbacca defence” when he tried to avoid answering a question she posed about why the Government had not yet acted to stop staffers using private email accounts for government business after the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption had raised the issue.

Mr Rau responded with a film reference before admitting that he did not know how to use emails.

His omission followed an earlier announcement yesterday that the Government would become paperless and make paperwork available to the public using smartphones, tablets and computers.

“I am generally regarded by my staff as having several shortcomings and one of them is a very poor grasp of technology,” Mr Rau said.

“I am not a user of that particular medium and ... I am pretty sure the Premier does not

go around sending lots of emails either.”

Mr Rau, went on to joke: “Some time ago, I discovered that there was a thing called ‘email’ and it was on the ‘interweb’ and I had steps taken to remove it.”

Premier Jay Weatherill also conceded: “I am not very further advanced ... on matters of technology.”