Estimates Vote

Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment, $57,889,000

South Australian Tourism Commission, $87,381,000

MinIster for Trade, Tourism and Investment, $5,165,000

Minister:

Hon. D.W. Ridgway, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Departmental Advisers:

Mr M. Hnyda, Chief Executive Officer, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Mr M. Baccanti, Chief Executive, Health Industries SA.

Ms N. Slivak, Director, International Engagement, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Ms S. Adlaf, Director, Strategic Operations, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Mr P. Klar, Director, Immigration SA, International Education, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Mr A. Gerace, Manager, Finance, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

The CHAIR: The estimates committees are a relatively informal procedure and, as such, there is no need to stand to ask or answer questions. I understand that the minister and the lead speaker for the opposition have agreed an approximate time for the consideration of proposed payments, which will facilitate a change of departmental advisers. Can the minister and the lead speaker for the opposition confirm that the timetable for today's proceedings as previously distributed is accurate?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I think it is accurate, but we did have a discussion between our officers about doing investment, trade, international students and immigration. Was that it?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Just to facilitate changing people if we need to.

The CHAIR: Thank you, minister. Changes in committee membership will be notified as they occur. Members should ensure the Chair is provided with a completed request to be discharged form. If the minister undertakes to supply information at a later date, it must be submitted to the committee secretary by no later than Friday 26 October 2018. I propose to allow both the minister and the lead speaker of the opposition to make opening statements of about 10 minutes each, should they wish.

There will be a flexible approach to giving the call for asking questions, based on about three questions per member, alternating each side. Supplementary questions will be the exception rather than the rule. A member who is not part of the committee may ask a question at the discretion of the Chair. Questions must be based on lines of expenditure in the budget papers and must be identifiable or referenced.

Members unable to complete their questions during the proceedings may submit them as questions on notice for inclusion in the House of Assembly Notice Paper. There is no formal facility for the tabling of documents before the committee; however, documents can be supplied to the Chair for distribution to the committee. The incorporation of material in Hansard is permitted on the same basis as applies in the house; that is, that it is purely statistical and limited to one page in length. All questions are to be directed to the minister and not the minister's advisers. The minister may refer questions to advisers for a response.

The committee's examinations will be broadcast in the same manner as sittings of the house are broadcast, and that is through the IPTV system within Parliament House and via the web stream link to the internet. I will now proceed to open the following lines of examination, being the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment and Health Industries SA. The minister appearing is the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. I declare the proposed payments open for examination and refer members to the Agency Statements, Volume 4. I call on the minister to make an opening statement, if he has one, and to also introduce his advisers to the committee.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Let me first introduce my team: on my left-hand side is Mr Mike Hnyda, the Chief Executive Officer of the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment. On my right-hand side is Ms Narelle Slivak, Director of International Engagement, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Also on my left is Mr Marco Baccanti, Chief Executive, Health Industries SA. The officers sitting behind me are Ms Sophie Adlaf, Director of Strategic Operations, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment; Mr Peter Klar, Director of Immigration SA, International Education, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment; and Mr Albert Gerace, Manager of Finance, Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr Chair. It is a pleasure to be here this morning. Thank you for the opportunity to highlight the role of the new Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment and how it will deliver against the key economic targets in trade, investment, international students and immigration. The Marshall Liberal government has a vision to grow and transform the South Australian economy with a GSP growth rate of 3 per cent per annum for the next four years.

The Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment (DTTI) will be a key component in achieving this growth target. DTTI has been created with a focus on international economic priorities, which are key to growing the economy. The whole emphasis and objective of DTTI under my ministry or leadership, and that of my new chief executive, Michael Hnyda, is to deliver key economic outputs and benefits to South Australia.

Through DTTI the Marshall Liberal government has committed to implementing a suite of measures to boost exports, grow our international students and migration, attract investment and showcase our great state of South Australia to the world. DTTI has the key components in this portfolio to achieve the economic growth, and I would like to touch briefly on each of these, if I may.

DTTI will target new foreign direct investment for our state, which will be in our key sectors, bringing new technologies, new skills and new links to academia, and will result in more capital investment and more jobs and economic benefits. One of the ways the Marshall Liberal government aims to do this is to proactively target international companies and businesses beneficial to the state by refocusing the framework for providing assistance to industry. The new industry assistance framework, announced in the state budget, will place a strong emphasis on supporting proposals that have broad benefits for an industry sector or a number of businesses, so as to maximise economic development benefits resulting from the public investment.

Three main funds will provide the basis for more rigorous economic development. They are: the $100 million Economic and Business Growth Fund; the $150 million Regional Growth Fund; and, lastly, the $27.9 million Research, Commercialisation and Startup Fund. In international trade, the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment is currently working on a strategy for the state that will define how we will grow our exports to contribute towards the Marshall government's 3 per cent growth of the economy.

In the most recent 12 months to July 2018, the value of South Australia's overseas exports totalled $12.1 billion. This was up 3.9 per cent, or $449 million, on the previous 12 months in original terms. The new strategy for international trade will grow our key sectors, companies and levels of exports. Within the strategy there will be a program of outbound and inbound missions, which will be based on the requirements of the South Australian economy and, most importantly, our companies that export, and will be focused on outputs.

As announced in the state budget, we have started works on the creation of a much more extensive overseas trade network to establish a stronger footprint in locations of the highest potential for our exporters to attract more investment into our state. We have budgeted $12.8 million for the opening of new trade offices, with recruitment underway for a regional director for China, which will be in the new business investment hub in Shanghai, and which under our election commitments will open in November. The final four offices proposed are in the United States, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai.

I am happy to report that our government has already fulfilled an election commitment to offer new funding and more extensive eligibility criterion for the export funding support. The South Australian Export Accelerator program, announced in August, provides funding support for South Australian businesses at each stage of their export journey.

International education is a particularly important area, and two weeks ago I joined Premier Steven Marshall in launching a Deloitte Access Economics report into international education, which shows there were nearly 36,000 international students in South Australia contributing $1.54 billion to the South Australian economy in 2017. According to the report, the number is projected to grow to at least 49,200 by 2027.

Our international students are our second biggest export, after food and wine. However, South Australia's share of the market is less than 5 per cent of the national figure, and the Marshall government has a commitment to grow this number. We know that, for every four international students residing in our state, one job is created in South Australia to accommodate for the growing demand for services and accommodation.

DTTI will develop a new international education strategy that outlines specific measures to increase the state's international student enrolments. This will be leveraged further with the state budget announcement of an increase to $2.5 million in annual funding to StudyAdelaide, to market Adelaide as a centre of education excellence and to entice more international students to live and study in our state.

We are also enhancing our onshore student wellbeing program, creating a volunteer program and developing marketing plans for key student source markets such as China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Migration is a constant topic for discussion, and Immigration SA continues to deliver a range of programs and activities to attract and support business migrants. Specifically, the 132 business visa is a state-nominated permanent residence visa for business owners and entrepreneurs. The 132 visa is seen as very attractive to overseas migration agencies and business clients.

The Marshall Liberal government has also negotiated with the commonwealth, as a pilot program exclusively for South Australia, a new entrepreneur visa. The objective of supporting innovation in South Australia through the entrepreneur visa is to bring up to 30 overseas entrepreneurs into South Australia in the first year, building up to 100 young entrepreneurs each year in the following three years to our state, who have innovative ideas for South Australia to help us develop as a state and we can help them develop their concepts into start-up businesses.

Finally, while we are not examining tourism right now, it is an important part of the overall picture. Tourism is a particularly important part of the state's economy, and we will touch on it in much more detail after morning tea, but there are some tremendous links between tourism and trade and investment. They will become much more apparent over the coming months. Thank you for the opportunity to present that opening statement.

The CHAIR: Thank you for that opening statement, minister. Member for Ramsay, would you like to make an opening statement or go straight into questions?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will go straight into questions. Minister, why did you sack Rob Chapman as the chair—

The CHAIR: Member for Ramsay, could you refer us to a budget page number? That would be most helpful.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: My apologies.

The CHAIR: Otherwise we will be repeating Friday's efforts with the member for Enfield, which was very confusing for me.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 3, chapter 1, page 4 states that the investment attraction advisory board has been discontinued. Why, minister, did you sack Rob Chapman as the chair of the IASA advisory board?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As I mentioned in my opening speech, the government is committed to growing and transforming the South Australian economy to create jobs for South Australians. A new dedicated department that brings together trade and investment attraction has been established alongside tourism to focus on key international economic priorities which are growing the economy. Increasing investment in South Australia is one of the keys to achieving the objectives alongside trade and international students. As I said, my department will be a key component of that.

We resolved to dissolve the advisory board on 30 June 2018 under the machinery of government changes, as I am sure the member is aware. Members remain committed to assisting the government through their networks to ensure that South Australia achieves a sustainable growth. It is interesting to note that the investment attraction advisory board's role and function was to provide independent advice and recommendations to government on investment opportunities and the allocation of the Economic Investment Fund, overseas performance of the Investment Attraction Agency and the key performance indicators related to job creation, and identifying and facilitating business leads.

It was the new government's view that it was quite expensive at a bit over $300,000 to run the board. I will get that figure for the honourable member if she needs it. But it was the view that we thought we could allocate our resources more wisely and that it was not a personal thing for any particular member of the board or the chair. A decision was made to discontinue the board. We thought we could better utilise those resources in the new corporate structure.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: What external advice did government seek before you abolished this board?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the member for her question. We took a whole range of advice leading up to the election from a whole range of areas. We have a cabinet government, and it was the strong view of the shadow cabinet at that point in time when we made the election commitment that we thought we could better utilise the resources of government by not having a paid board. As I said earlier, it was no reflection on the personnel; we just made a decision that we did not think we needed to spend that money on an investment attraction board.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Did you personally think that the IASA board was not successful? What is your personal view? Obviously, you took it as a cabinet—

The CHAIR: Member for Ramsay, it is important that it is not a reflection on what the minister thinks, his personal view. It is about what is in the budget line item. I know it is very broad, but if we have a question pertaining to the advisory board I would be happy to hear that, and I am sure the minister would be happy to answer it.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Obviously, there was considerable success for this board. Do you think the board was not successful?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It is my understanding, and it was certainly the view of our cabinet, that the vast majority of the claimed successes were not as a result of the board but of other activities, the hard work of Michael Hnyda and his team in identifying potential opportunities and business leads.

As I said earlier—and I have the actual figure here now—the cost of running the board was some $359,120. It was at that time an opposition cabinet and then a cabinet decision, following the election, that we would implement that plan and abolish the investment attraction board.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Can you detail the projects that were assisted by Investment Attraction SA? How much was spent, how many jobs, how many are still in progress?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Since its inception, the previous investment attraction agency, whose core function now falls under this department, secured and announced 36 projects—I will read from this briefing but then I will qualify it with some other figures at the end—which will lead to the creation of almost 9,000 jobs, approximately 2,000 of which were actual jobs, and over $2.275 billion of capital investment for the state. The independent analysis conducted by the University of Adelaide's South Australian Centre for Economic Studies said these 36 projects showed that over the full 10-year analysis period, using SA Treasury's recommended real post discount rate, the gross impact on GSP was $9.08 billion.

Fifteen of the 36 projects secured since 2015 by IASA were secured with no financial assistance provided from the Economic Investment Fund, and will potentially result in 3,403 jobs—1,326 direct and 2,077 construction—and $1.64 billion in capital investment. Again, independent analysis conducted by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies of these 15 projects showed that over the full 10-year analysis period, using Treasury's recommended real post discount rate of 7 per cent, the gross impact on GSP was some $2.27 billion.

Regarding projects with financial assistance from the Economic Investment Fund, the fund was successful in providing an additional incentive to deliver projects and when competing with other states. To date, 21 projects have been secured/committed by the former investment attraction agency from the Economic Investment Fund both in grants and loans: 20 projects were secured with grant funding and one project was successfully secured through an EIF loan administered by the Department of Treasury and Finance.

These 21 projects granted EIF funding will result in approximately 5,921 jobs, consisting of around 4,785 direct jobs and 1,136 construction jobs, with over $634 million of capital investment. Independent analysis conducted by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies of these 21 projects shows that over the full 10-year period, using Treasury's recommended real post discount rate of 7 per cent, the gross impact on GSP has been about $6.8 billion. I have a list here for this, and we have gone through it. It is an interesting table to look at.

Under the previous government, from October 2015, there is a figure of 6,111 direct jobs and 3,213 construction jobs, a total of 9,324. That was the projected. If we look at actual jobs, instead of 6,111 as of 30 June, we have 1,548, so about 500 jobs a year from 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. With construction jobs, the figure was meant to be some 3,200, and it is 494, so only 2,042 jobs that have actually been created. While that briefing note highlights all of the potentials, the reality as of today is that we have 1,548 jobs. Some are yet still to be delivered. Some may never be delivered for a whole range of reasons and circumstances that have changed.

In answer to the honourable member's question, I think somewhat over the term of the previous government, the figures have been at their very maximum, and the reality is that about 500 jobs a year have been created. That was a decision we made—and regarding her original line of questioning about abolishing the investment attraction board, we believe that over time the strategies we will put in place will deliver, at the very least, the same number but I expect significantly more jobs for South Australians.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, you think that those original figures were incorrect or false?

The CHAIR: I assume we are still on the same budget line? If you could bring us back to that.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. We are on Budget Paper 3, chapter 1, page 4.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am giving the honourable member the exact figures as of today. The very first one, Australian Crane and Machinery, was estimated to have had 193 jobs and, as of today, zero. These jobs could eventuate, but right now we are at 1,548 jobs, or as of 30 June. Some of these projects are on track but they are not delivered yet. It is a bit rich to claim that we have had this massive success from the Investment Attraction Agency. There are a few projects in the pipeline but it is the new government's view that we have a new structure. We are not going to have a paid $350,000 or $360,000 a year board. We think we can do it better, and I guess only time will tell whether we can deliver or we cannot.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, I am a bit concerned, given that you have said this today and given that you have now gone on and hired Mike Hnyda, with the greatest respect, as the chief executive of your department. You come in today to say that the figures out there are not true, or were exaggerated, and yet you have hired this person who was heading up this area. I think you are giving mixed messages.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I think you will find that often in these agencies it is about leadership. I think there is a renewed enthusiasm since the change of government. I think Mike Hnyda is an excellent choice for the role, and it is no reflection on Mike at all. I think it is a reflection on the former government wanting to continually embellish some of the data that they were providing. Mike is doing a fabulous job. Again, it is about leadership, and I think I am providing the sort of leadership that Mike and the team will respond to.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Technicolor was one of the companies that were supported and there was a lot of excitement about that. Where is that project currently?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That project currently has not delivered any jobs as yet. I beg your pardon, it has delivered one at this stage. I have some more details here I can give you. As we know, it is a multinational company based in France and it is a world leader in visual effects. They received a $6 million loan to establish a 500-person establishment. That has not happened yet.

All I am talking about is the jobs that are on the ground in Adelaide today, which are 1,584 in number. There may be more that come during the next 12 or 18 months as a result of the work done prior to 30 June. If you look at the figures—and I like to make sure, in all the time I have had in this place, that I actually quote real facts and do not say things like, 'Maybe one day we'll have a heap of extra jobs.' I think Technicolor, when it arrives, will add quite a lot of dynamic enthusiasm to our local visual effects sector, but at this point we do not have it here. I think the Technicolor studio in Adelaide will be known as Mill Film, and it will be Mill Film's first global location. However, as I said, it is not here yet.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: What are the next steps for Technicolor?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The agency continues to work with Technicolor. I think they have a bit of temporary office space here. My understanding is that it will be later in the year, or early next year, when they will actually be here, but they are not here yet so it is a bit hard to say, 'All these jobs are here,' when they are actually not. I am not going to be in the business of saying there are 6,000 jobs or 9,000 jobs when in fact we are talking about real jobs that are on the ground here today.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, have you continued the production, digital and visual effects rebate for film production?

The CHAIR: Sorry, member for Ramsay, which budget line does that relate to?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I am just talking about, obviously, the investment attraction board. Budget Paper 3, chapter 1, page 4.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It is my understanding that it is still in place, but I will take that on notice because I do not want to mislead either you or the rest of the committee on the actual details of that. There have been some transfers in machinery of government changes, and I am not 100 per cent certain on the detail of that so I will take that one on notice.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you very much. Turning to Budget Paper 3, chapter 1, page 4, it states that the health industries advisory board is being discontinued. Why did the government abolish the health industries advisory board?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Thank you for the question. Before the election, the opposition cabinet, now the government cabinet, made a decision that was the same as the one made for the investment attraction advisory board. We did not believe that it was value for money. Again, it is over $300,000 a year. We thought that we could get the same outcomes with the team that we have, and we did not need an investment attraction board, many of whom were overseas and were flown in. It was quite an expensive board to manage. It was a decision of the government that we did not need to continue with it, so we discontinued it.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I see that we have Marco Baccanti with us today, who was the chief executive of the health industries advisory board. What role does he have now?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Thank you for the question. Marco is still the Chief Executive of Health Industries South Australia, so he still heads up his team, but it is our view—and I think Marco supports it—that we do not need a health industries board. To support Marco, he was recruited because he has a whole range of good networks, his team is active in the field and he is constantly talking to prospective investors and companies that may set up here as a result of the large investment that has been made in the health biomedical precinct that we have to the west of this building. Marco has good connections and he can do it. We do not believe that we need a health industries board any more.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So Marco Baccanti is the Chief Executive of Health Industries within the department? Is that his title?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That is his title at the moment.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: How many FTEs are there?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: There are six FTEs, including Marco.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Does he retain his chief executive salary?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: With six FTEs. What was the former number of FTEs of the advisory board?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: With Professor Steve Wesselingh, there were eight people on the board, but they only met a couple of times a year. Are you talking about board members or actual FTEs in the job?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: FTEs that actually did the work.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That was the same.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The same people have been retained?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: To abolish the board, did you conduct a business case?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, we made the same assessment. It is interesting to note that the board was bigger than the team, which was a little strange in itself. As I said, in the lead-up to the election and post the election, it was the decision made by the new government that we no longer needed to invest in these boards and we felt that we could do the work.

As I said earlier, time will tell as to whether paying for these boards delivered a better outcome for the former government or if the structure that we have in place will deliver an equal or probably better outcome for the people of South Australia. There was no business case conducted: it was a decision made that it was over $300,000 every year, which is $1.2 million over four years, and it was a decision made to discontinue the board.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: When will the advisory board officially become abolished? It is not made explicitly clear in Budget Paper 3, unlike the investment attraction board. When will it actually be abolished?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The health industries board was established in January 2014 and the board was abolished effective 1 July 2018. The South Australian government, through a focus on health industries and the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment, will continue to drive international business investment to create a competitive and dynamic life sciences sector that strengthens the state's economic position. So it was abolished on 1 July 2018.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Moving now to Budget Paper 5, page 10, talking about the economic and business growth fund: how many FTEs will work on this fund?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am not quite sure exactly what the member means?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In your organisational structure, how many people will be supporting the economic and business growth fund?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It is a new fund. Effectively, if there is a project that comes to the team that fits the criteria—and we are still just finalising the criteria—then anybody in the team can suggest that we should put this project up for support. Of course, the new fund has some layers. There are government officials, Mike, the head of DPC, I think the head of the Department for Industry and Skills, and I think the head of PIRSA, but I will get those exact details for you, but that is my recollection. If there are any projects put up to them, obviously they have a look at it and there is some analysis done, and then it goes to the economic and investment subcommittee of cabinet.

Obviously, there are some resources put into there, but I cannot quantify the FTEs. Then, ultimately, it is a cabinet decision for any project to be funded. That money will be managed and held in Treasury, but it is not like there is a dedicated pool of people to manage it. It will be an opportunity for any project. That is my understanding. I will bring back the criteria because it is still being finalised. It is the actual criteria of what you would use to say that this particular project qualifies because it will give broad benefit or it will be transformational, or it will be technology that does not exist or jobs that do not exist. We are still just working through the final detail of that particular fund.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, will you be taking the fund proposals to cabinet.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That is what I said.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: You are the lead minister?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, but the way it will work will be that—by and large, all of the projects will probably come through my department—but we are a cabinet government so if somebody has a project that they think fits the criteria, it is not going to be limited just to me. It will have to go through the heads of government—and I will get the exact number and titles of those for you—and then the subcommittee of cabinet, so then it becomes a recommendation. At that point, yes, it goes forward to cabinet from the subcommittee.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Can you take it notice to provide me with information about the selection panel, who is on the panel, the process—

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, the panel. It is pretty much what I said, but I want to make sure—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: You will come back to me.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I want to make sure that was accurate.

The CHAIR: The member for Narungga I think has a question. He was keen to get in earlier.

Mr ELLIS: Thank you, Mr Chair. I would add that—

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Some of the projects, of course, come through minister Pisoni's area as well. We are keen to grow the state's economy. We do not want to leave any opportunity missed, but I will bring back more details for you.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So your people—

The CHAIR: Sorry, the member for Narungga has the call.

Mr ELLIS: I would like to take us to Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 161, if I may, regarding the opening of overseas trade offices. How has the minister found that experience and has he encountered any issues based on the previous government's closing of the trade networks?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Sorry, Mr Chair, can I just ask: we had an agreement that we would detail these in order. I will come to trade very shortly, but that was an agreement I had with the—

The CHAIR: No, that is fine. I have given the call to the member for Narungga and he is allowed to ask whatever question he likes within the budget papers.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the member for his question. As it was announced during the election, we would be opening five new trade offices across the globe. We have two existing ones: one in Jinan in the province of Shandong which has been there for 23 years, I think—that particular office. We have a sister state relationship with Shandong that spans in excess of 30 years, to my recollection. The only other one in existence that was not closed by the former government was the Agent General's Office in London that is part of Australia House. I am sure most members who have been in this place long enough have been there, and perhaps the three new members on my left will get a chance to visit there.

It was interesting, Mr President—Mr Chairman, we looked to where we should open offices. We thought that clearly, as China is our biggest trading partner, we should open an office there. I envisaged that to be a relatively simple thing to do: you would go to China, get the department to have a look and find a bit of office space and rent it. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, and it stems mostly from the fact that the former government closed our office.

As you would know, the Chinese are a great people to do business with but when you offend them it takes a fair while—you know the term, once you have lost face—so we have to apply for an operating licence to open an office in a city of one our biggest trading partner's, which will be Shanghai. That was quite frustrating, Mr President—I beg your pardon, Mr Chairman.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: He does not mind 'Mr President' or 'Your Honour'.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: He does not mind being called President.

The CHAIR: The member for Enfield likes to call me 'Your Eminence', so I am happy to go with that if it helps!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am a creature of habit—my apologies. If I had been in the other place I would be calling you Mr Speaker probably. Our solution is that we have applied for a licence but we have no idea how long it will be; people are saying it could be 12 or 18 months, maybe even up to two years until we get the licence. In Shanghai there has been a bit of frustration but Austrade has made available a portion of its floor and we will rent that on a commercial basis.

All things being equal, the new Minister for Trade, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, will join me there on the first Monday or Tuesday in November to open that office. There is a large trade mission that South Australian businesses are involved in called the Chinese International Import Expo (CIIE). There is a number of South Australian businesses there; it is an Australian delegation. I can talk more about the opening of that later. Likewise, Mr President—Mr Chairman, we are likely to—

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Your Highness.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Your Eminence, Your Worship, whatever you would like me to call you. Likewise, I am led to believe, although we have not made any formal inquiries yet, that for the office in the United Arab Emirates we will also have to apply for a new operating licence, as that has been lost. Anecdotally I was told that the person who we cancelled the office through was a bit annoyed that we cancelled it, and it is still the same official who has to grant the new licence in the United Arab Emirates. It is a little bit challenging in those two particular markets but we think that it is an opportunity to have a presence in the market, especially the one in China.

By having an office in Shanghai we will relocate the position that we currently have in Shanghai to Guangzhou. We already have an excellent person, a lady by the name of Alice Jim. Any members of the former government who have travelled to Hong Kong or China would know Alice. She has been, I think, 13 or 14 years working for the South Australian government and does a sensational job. She will be based in Hong Kong, where she always been, and we will have somebody in Guangzhou and then Shanghai.

One of the real areas of focus is the Greater Bay Area, which is the Pearl River Delta between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and to have a network where we have a person in Hong Kong, a person in Guangzhou and also a base office in Shanghai and, I would have to add, tremendous support from the consul generals and all of the Austrade officials in that part of the world as well.

Interestingly—and I will stop now because I know members from the opposition would like to ask more questions—I was in Hong Kong late last week, and it has been at least two years since a South Australian minister has been to Hong Kong, which I found quite a surprise. I was there just after the typhoon and I will put on the record that there are 100,000 Australians who live in Hong Kong, and there was not one person at risk or who contacted the consul there for any assistance.

I think that is a real testament to how well the Hong Kong emergency services protected not only their own people but 100,000 Australians as well. I think they should be commended for their effort at keeping people safe. I think one of the buildings I was in on the Friday before I left was swaying during the typhoon 1.2 metres side to side, and at 100 floors off the ground I am glad I was not in that building when the typhoon was there.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 5, page 10, continuing on the Economic and Business Growth Fund. I have had a particular interest in the Northern Economic Plan. Will there be ongoing funding for this plan from the Economic and Business Growth Fund?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The Northern Economic Plan? Not as the plan itself, is my understanding, but again I will take that on notice as to the exact details of where the Northern Economic Plan is funded from. I am advised that, with changes to the machinery of government, it sits with minister Pisoni, not with me, so I am not sure whether he—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Ask him tomorrow?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: If he is here tomorrow, maybe ask him, but I am not able to help you.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 5, page 166, outlines an efficiency measure for your department. Why is there a cut of a total of $26.8 million and 64 FTEs from the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am just finding the relevant page. Can you repeat the reference please for us?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 5, page 166. Perhaps I could talk you through what it details there, minister. Obviously, this year it says that there will be 11 FTEs less, in 2019-20 14 less, in 2020-21 15 less and in 2021-22 24 FTEs less, which adds up to 64.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: So you were saying Budget Paper 5 or 4?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Five. It is here. Perhaps I could hand you my reference.

The CHAIR: Page 166.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 5, Part 2: Budget measures, trade, tourism and investment, page 166.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I have some information here in relation to the savings across the forward estimates. To support the government's election commitments, the department will deliver $30.9 million worth of savings over four years, predominantly through $23.1 million through operational efficiencies, including redesign of the delivery function of DTTI with strategies still being developed to give us a reduction of $14.4 million.

There will be a reduction in the Economic Investment Fund of $6 million, a reduction in operating costs due to the termination of the investment attraction board, and a reduction in the market support of $1.3 million. There will be a reduction of $3.7 million through the rationalisation of advisory services, including a reduction in specialist advisers in international engagement, trade and immigration, the termination of the investment attraction board and the termination of the Health Industries South Australia advisory board, and, over time, a $3.2 million overseas outbound missions reduction.

In addition to the new savings allocated as part of the 2018-19 state budget, the department has existing savings targets across the forward estimates of $11.7 million. These savings will be achieved through a reduction of programs through reductions of employees, including organisational redesign, natural attrition and contracts coming to an end, and through general efficiencies.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So what type of roles are going to be cut from the department?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I do not know whether the final structure has been determined. I might ask, if he is able to, the chief executive to talk about this. Some of the structural changes are still being negotiated.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Perhaps you could detail the current organisational structure and then how you think that will change.

The CHAIR: I have been consistent with this all week. All questions will go through the minister. If the minister is happy for Mr Hnyda to answer, he will so indicate even on every subsequent question from the committee.

Mr HNYDA: In terms of the new Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment, as you know, it is a brand-new department from 1 July 2018, which was the date I was also appointed as chief executive to the department. As part of the machinery of government, we are bringing various elements into the new department, including obviously trade, investment, immigration and international education, so a lot of functions. All these functions are targeted at the international business aspects of the government, and in terms of growing the economy—economic growth—but that is based on all the international aspects of the business that the government does.

What we are trying to focus on as part of the structure, and the structure going forward, is a mechanism that delivers for the state and obviously delivers economic outputs. We are in that process now. The department, which is unusual in the fact that it is a brand-new department of government, has been going for 11 weeks. What we are doing as part of the restructure is bringing all those functions together.

We are concentrating on delivering a very commercial output-focused department. That will cover a number of things. It is to ensure that we are able to compete and actually beat a competitor from not only states within Australia but other countries. The other thing we are looking at as part of the culture is the way we put the customer at the centre of everything we do, because I think that is so important. We are also introducing and establishing best practice for all those functions of investment and trade. The process is actually commencing in terms of that restructure and how we blend all the functions together into a new structure going forward.

In terms of FTEs, DTTI has an FTE count of 141 for 2018-19. That was actually made up of 67 FTEs from DSD, 60 from International Engagement, 6.8 from Health Industries and also 40.5 from Investment Attraction. We also have a further increase of 33 FTEs, which was 22.4 for corporate staff, as part of the new DTTI department, and that was part of the MoG process to bring new corporate staff in to blend across the team. There are 13 FTEs for the minister's office and also, as part of the MoG changes, 4.6 FTEs were transferred from PIRSA as part of the export drive on the food and trade side. That is the current level of FTEs, but we are in the process now of restructuring the department accordingly.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, you must have been pretty blindsided when the decision was made to almost cut your FTEs in half.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I do not think the word 'blindsided' is the word I would use. We have a new structure and we have, obviously, a new government in place. Of course, some of the savings measures are legacy ones that were never implemented from when you and your two colleagues sitting on the bench there were cabinet ministers. There were always going to be some decisions made to implement those savings measures. I am not blindsided at all. We have a focus on delivering a different delivery model. As I said earlier, time will tell as to how successful it will be. We think it will be very successful.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: But in 2022, you are going to have 78 FTEs, and now you have 141. Will this not truncate your ability to achieve your targets?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I think the figures you have talked about are cumulative rather than having them together. I think it is a total of 24 FTEs departing over the forward estimates. That is my understanding; that is what I am advised.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I might ask you to come back to me on that, because we might have a different understanding of how those efficiencies go.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The advice I have just been given is that.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So 24 FTEs is your efficiency target over the forward estimates?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: By the fourth year, that is what I am advised.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It is 24? Okay. I know that you are in a process of change, but can I get you to come back to me about the organisational structure? Obviously, you have not bedded that down at this stage.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, it has not been bedded down, and when it is bedded down, I am sure it will even be published on the corporate website. It will be available.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Fantastic. I refer to Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 158. It is about your ministerial office resources. The previous minister for trade's office had eight FTEs last financial year. Why has your ministerial office grown to 13 FTEs, which is a similar size to the Treasurer's office at 15 FTEs?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Obviously, the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment supports one ministerial office, which is my office. The Treasurer approved a total budget of $2.264 million for that, consisting of, for the 2018-19 budget, $1.46 million in staffing of up to 13 FTEs, consisting of a maximum of four FTEs for ministerial contract staff. The $660,000 worth of supplies and services includes general operating expenses, accommodation costs and then some other costs as well. We have in my office, I can tell you, a chief of staff, three ministerial advisers, an office manager, a PA to the minister, two policy liaison officers, one parliamentary cabinet officer, one senior business officer, one business support officer and a receptionist/administrative officer.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Did you initially have two ministerial advisers? Have you added an extra one?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, I have. We have three ministerial advisers plus a chief of staff.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So this was an additional recruitment for your office?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, it was an allocation made at the time that I was sworn in. It took a little while to recruit that person. You do not want to rush these things. It is hard to find hardworking staff, and you want to make sure you get the right people who understand the importance of the role. We want to make sure they are enthusiastic to work for me. Thankfully, I can say everybody in that office is enthusiastic to work for me.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Well, I hope some stay.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: A large number of them worked for previous ministers, and I have found them to be exceptional.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We can agree that it is a great portfolio. Can I move to trade offices, as discussed.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am just advised, also, that one departmental MLO was in an agency prior and has now been transferred to my ministerial FTE to be more transparent.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Okay, so that was the change.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That would be the change.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Budget Paper 5, page 167. This budget measure looks at overseas trade offices and the Shanghai business investment hub.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We are on trade now?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: On to trade, yes. With the efficiencies that have been tasked to you, how do you intend to run your overseas trade offices and absorb these efficiencies as well?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As I mentioned earlier, it was an election commitment, obviously, to open these five trade offices across the globe to support our exporters, and we believe that by doing that we get a much more efficient use of taxpayers' money. We are committed to creating jobs by boosting our exports and inbound investment.

Our Regaining Ground in International Trade Strategy we believe will transform the economy through growing exports in key markets. By establishing our own office we create a more extensive overseas trade and investment network for South Australian companies, and we will be more responsive to their inquiries to facilitate effective connections, leads and business matches.

We will locate in commercial centres, where engagement with these regions shows a strong match between our industry capability and demand for our high value goods and services. As I mentioned earlier but will repeat, the proposed locations for the new offices are Shanghai, the United States of America, Tokyo, Japan, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment is undertaking scoping work to identify most suitable locations for an office. We have already done one in Shanghai, and we are doing scoping work to identify the most suitable locations for all the other offices in the region.

The Office of the Agent General will continue to provide the South Australian representation in Europe and the United Kingdom, and we will approach the opening of the overseas offices in a staged manner to ensure we are establishing an effective office structure that best services the South Australian business community. It would have been a real temptation to rush in and open five of them and then not actually have the support there to make sure we are doing it, so we are doing it in a staged-managed process. It is an election commitment over the next four years.

We have established in the Shanghai business investment hub in China because it is our biggest two-way trading partner—it seemed logical to go there first. We have support from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, which is Austrade, in Shanghai. The South Australian government is currently recruiting a regional director for Shanghai to lead that new office and overseas activities across China.

When appointed, the new officer will finalise the operating arrangements for our office in China. The final four offices across the other countries we will look at over the next two or three financial years, but we expect by 2021 to have all five offices open. The opening of the new offices' budget is $12.87 million over the forward estimates; $3.48 million is allocated over four years to establish the Shanghai business investment hub; and, $9.39 million is allocated over the forward estimates to open offices in the United States, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

The budget increases over time as the offices are established, with two offices expected to be established in 2018-19—we may get the second one up early next year—and two in 2019-20 and the fifth in 2021. As I said, we are not going to rush it and get that wrong.

As part of the election commitment to significantly upgrade South Australia's overseas reputation, the government has also committed to provide a presence of Austrade in Guangzhou, and direct flights from China Southern land in Guangzhou. That is one of those initiatives. Lots of things are supported across election cycles and I think it was very important for our state to get those direct flights. They are now going to five flights a week on 29 October and to daily flights over the summer and Chinese New Year, so we can be optimistic that over the long term we will go to daily flights to Guangzhou. Of course, we have six flights a week with Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Effectively, as I mentioned earlier, that Greater Bay/Pearl River Delta area will almost have two flights a day in the longer term going to that area.

The Austrade embedded arrangements that were secured by the former government will be reviewed as the new offices are established. Currently, the Singapore position has been vacated and not filled and the Bangkok, Thailand, position was vacated on 15 August 2018. Austrade billing regarding these arrangements has ceased with the departure of the staff. The capacity of the new Malaysia based office that serves this region is being explored prior to future recruitment in this region.

For the recruitment of senior staff and overseas officers, internationally connected departments will assist in promoting roles and networks in the relevant markets. For example, Austrade and AustCham have promoted the regional director in China. We have some extremely good relationships with Austrade and AustCham. In the case of the China based role, an interview panel included an in-market representative from Austrade, and the department undertook an intense due diligence process on the preferred applicant prior to an offer being made.

The key performance indicators, covering both trade and investment activities, were reflected in the contracts of these regional directors with the requirement that they contribute to the South Australian government's goal to grow the South Australian economy by 3 per cent per annum and the department's broader performance indicators that contribute to this goal.

The timing of the other offices will be a work in progress. We will have them all in place before 2022. We hope to have them all in place by 2021. But there are some key points. I think Dubai is hosting a World Expo in 2020, so it would be logical if we could have a presence there at that time because that we can then enter the market with a little bit of fanfare and a splash.

We have the Japan Business Council, I think that is the name, but they have a desire to have a meeting one year in Australia, another year back in Japan, and they are wanting to come and bring their AGM here in 2020. Again, linking that around having some presence in Japan around those sorts of key business activities is important. The final timing of it will be stage managed but we are very keen to make sure that we have them all in place and operating so that we can deliver on our key sectors which are innovation, food, beverage and the defence sector.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: This is obviously, minister, a key part of your election proposal. I have heard you talk many times about a trade-led recovery of the South Australian economy. Do you think that the staff allocation of two people in the trade offices and one person for Shanghai this financial year is enough to run an effective trade office?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: At this stage, yes, we think it is. You have to understand that the whole department will be effectively the on-ground team here that is supporting them.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: How many FTEs will support each trade office? Do you have that?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It is a sectoral approach, so you know we have food and wine, and you are not going to say, 'Here, there are two people for China and two for the US.' It will be a team approach. We think that we will get it right. We have spoken to business about what they want and they want a landing pad in a lot of these markets. There are existing exporters who have been a little tentative, there are some who have never exported and they need a place to go, somebody on the ground. They do not want to be involved in a great big trade mission, they just want to know there is somewhere to go where there is a friendly face and a bit of support when they are there.

So we think we can manage that. Everything would always be under constant review. If we have more demand than our team can service, then clearly we would have a look at putting more resources in. But what we do not want to do is have people on the payroll sitting around twiddling their thumbs. It is a lean and efficient government. We will be focused on outcomes, not inputs.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It just seems, when I have looked into other states and their trade offices, that we are a little underdone in the amount of people. I am concerned that you will be setting up these isolated trade offices and we will not achieve that outcome.

The CHAIR: Member for Ramsay, you are being very broad. This estimates committee is for the examination of the budget papers, not of other states and the like. I might just flick to the member for Davenport who, I believe, has a question.

Mr MURRAY: I refer to Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 167. I note several programs for the delivery of government-led outbound and inbound missions. Can the minister advise what the focus of those missions will be?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That will be a change from the previous government's approach to outbound trade missions, in particular, where there was a penchant for large missions with a lot of fanfare. Interestingly, I spoke to a gentleman in China who spoke quite good English, and he said, 'Those great big missions come in, we all hand around the name cards and we collect all the name cards, we make a few toasts over drinks, say ganbei a few times, be friendly, and they all go home and we throw the name cards in the bin and wait for the next big lot to come.'

That was a legacy the former minister and the former member for Waite, I might add, the Hon. Martin Hamilton-Smith, when he was minister. Without digressing too much, it was in his time as an opposition trade spokesman that he said we needed to have these big trade missions. I had a different point of view, way back then.

We have gone to industry and asked, 'What do you want, what do you want to grow your business? Do you want to go on a big mission with 50, 60, 100 or 200 people or do you want something small and targeted?' Industry has said they want small and targeted, and so that is what we have done. We are developing a program of trade missions that will complement our offices because, again, why would you have an office and not actually go to market?

The point I was making to the member for Ramsay is that you do not necessarily have to be on a trade mission to go to the trade office, quite the contrary. If you have something to do get on a plane, get over there and get into the market. For the honourable member's benefit, the key for us is that we have listened to industry and they do not want great big trade missions; they want smaller, targeted missions that are meaningful to them.

We have the parliamentary sitting calendar and we are in the final throes of trying to coordinate trade missions in and around that so that it is less problematic, having to miss parliament, for anyone who is on those particular trade missions. They will be much more targeted with a real business focus; as I said, industry does not want large ones and we think, from everyone we have spoken to, that this is the best way to do it.

Also, having these international offices we actually have a delegation-type leader, you have staff there, so you do not need the big trade missions we have had in the past where we have gone into it like we are exploring a new frontier with a couple of hundred people. That has been quite expensive; from my recollection some of those missions cost about $300,000 for some of the actual events.

We are really keen to make sure we are targeted, and that the inbound missions are targeted as well, that we bring people here. Look at days like yesterday and today: South Australia sells itself if you have people here coming into the market. So we will also make sure we have a large number of inbound missions that are, again, focused and targeted. The one I spoke to yesterday was a French delegation looking at business investment that is not defence related; it is business well below the defence sector.

We will have a large number of those that focus on our strengths, and our strengths are about promoting the state. We know our food and wine, we know our technology, we know education, and we know defence is going to be a huge part of the future of our state. That is why it is pleasing to see the Leader of the Opposition and the Premier travelling together to Euronaval. We have lots of arguments about lots of things in this place but that is probably one thing we will not be arguing about, because it is of multigenerational benefit.

Again, with all of the businesses that fall from defence that are not directly defence-related—and the defence sector is really very much for the federal government to deal with—there is a whole range of opportunities, so we want to make sure all of our trade missions are smaller, are focused, and deliver the outcomes that businesses want. We want to be output driven not input driven.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I would like to return to the isolated trade offices, Budget Paper 5, page 167. Did you commission or receive a business case for the trade offices?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, not that I am aware of. Obviously, the policy was developed by the opposition in opposition. I have not looked at any business cases. China is one of our biggest exporting partners, and the US is the second biggest one. Clearly the Middle East is an area where we have had long connections. Since I was a little boy, the department of agriculture were doing activities in parts of the Middle East, so we have had a long connection there. I think it is fair to say that there is a renewed interest in our food and wine and activities with the Japanese market so there is a great opportunity there. South-East Asia is clearly a key component for us. We have put an office in Kuala Lumpur, and negotiations with the federal government around the FTA with Indonesia are underway—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: But we do not have a trade office proposed to go to Indonesia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Well, we do not, and if you did not interrupt, I was going to—the reason we have chosen Kuala Lumpur is that these trade negotiations take a reasonable length of time. Jakarta is a massively large city to have an office in, and I am not sure that you would have an office. We have direct flights with Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur. It is a little bit about access and we think we can service South-East Asia quite adequately from Malaysia. You made the point earlier about bigger states. We have to be targeted. We cannot have a trade office in every country in the world so we have made some judgements that these are the five we are targeting this time.

Certainly no decisions have been made, but clearly India is another big market in which at some point in the future I suspect we should look at some sort of presence. We have the sister state relationship with Rajasthan. The name of it escapes me but the federal government has released its white paper on Indian engagement. Interestingly, of the 10 most important states in India, Rajasthan did not make it onto the list of 10, so that might be challenging and we may need to have a look at where we have our office in India. But that is not part of this even four-year cycle at this point, so it is probably inappropriate for me to talk about India.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, how did you determine how you will compensate our new trade officers? Are you thinking about local hires or people coming from South Australia or Australia? What are your thoughts? You have obviously put money towards how much you think it will cost to operate but what is your recruitment and compensation plan?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I think it will all be a case-by-case judgement but clearly the ones that operate the best that I have seen, are the ones where you have somebody who is already living in-market and understands the market. Shanghai is a good example. Maybe with some other countries, such as the US and Dubai, you could probably get away with being just an English speaker, but clearly you need some language skills. The type of person the team are looking at is somebody who is in-market. I do not know if Mike wants to comment further on that but, if he would like to, I would welcome his input on the type of people we are recruiting.

Mr HNYDA: Just in response to that, we have been out and started the interview process for Shanghai, and actually a range of people have come in, people in-market and also one or two people from South Australia as well. Language skills and knowledge of the market is particularly key, so what we think that certain markets will vary as the minister highlighted with Dubai and the difference with China. What we are doing, whether they be in-market, is a real close scrutiny of the people we employ for the market, because we are very much aware that the type of person you have in-market will be a key driver for the economic part. Getting the right person to drive the business agenda, both in trading and investment and on the migration side, will be the key factor in terms of making sure we have the right person in the right market.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Obviously, the right person is really important but, in regard to compensation, if we were to have someone who became an expat, there would obviously be significant on-costs with housing and schooling for their family. Is that accounted for in this budget line?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It is our intention to recruit, but Mike as the chief executive does the recruiting. We have given him a budget to do that. Again, I might hand back to Mike to answer that in more detail for you. It is not really a role for the minister to be recruiting people.

Mr HNYDA: Again, I think if that was the circumstance within the budget—and as we were just saying, if it was the right person for the role to actually drive the business—we would look at the cost factor in actually relocating someone. I think the point is that probably in the majority of these locations, given the nature of the markets and the contacts you are looking to develop within the market, we envisage most of the people being from within the market or being expats or having knowledge of South Australia from within those markets. Whilst we have not finalised that, that is the experience we have seen in the first one as well.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you. Moving to export programs: Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 164. There are significant targets for 2018-19 that look at the facilitation of new exports through the program. Does the government intend to continue the Business SA administered Export Ready program? I understand it runs out in December of this year.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am advised that there is no intention to continue that program.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So it is cut?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We will take that on notice and bring back some detail, but at this stage it is unlikely.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Is the budget of your new South Australia Export Accelerator program less or more than the previous export partnership program?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for her question. On Friday 21 September, the first round of the new SA Export Accelerator closed with 79 applicants received by the department, so it has been very well supported. This is the largest number of applications received by the department in any round since the inception of the former export partnership program in 2015. This reflects the new government's commitment to provide more extensive eligibility criteria for export funding support.

The South Australia Export Accelerator program has improved on the former export partnership program by providing funding support to South Australian businesses at each stage of the export journey. These improvements include: creating three categories of funding to support South Australian businesses at the emerging, growth and mature stages of export; changes to our eligibility criteria for the allowance of emerging and new exporters to access the fund; and the addition of eligible activities that support e-commerce costs and increase support for inbound buyers.

In 2017-18, the export partnership program budget was $1.655 million, of which $1.132 million was acquitted. The remaining funds of $523,000 were approved as a carryover from the 2017-18 to the 2018-19 budget. The SA Export Accelerator program will extend program funding to three export categories, each with specific eligibility criteria. Emerging Exporters has grants up to $5,000, in a new category targeting new and emerging exporters who are new to export and attending their first business connection, trade, show or business mission. Export Accelerator has grants up to $30,000 and is the major category for small and medium-sized businesses to access new global markets through marketing and export development. The New Market Entry has grants up to $15,000 per new market available.

The new category provides funding to companies who have exhausted other funding. Companies apply for this fund when entering new export markets. The following eligible activities will be supported by the program: design and printing costs for marketing collateral, translation costs for non-English speaking markets, as well as website development. Market research: third-party costs to conduct market research into opportunities and barriers in targeted overseas markets.

The program also supports the costs of working with a third party to develop and implement an international e-commerce platform. Export training and consulting: the costs for that will be export-focused mentoring and coaching to prepare an export plan to gather market intelligence. Also, trade shows, including hiring exhibition space at international trade shows, entry and project management fees, freight of free samples, and costs associated with participating in trade shows, trade missions and business appraisals, including international trade shows held in Australia.

Other costs supported include travel and accommodation, including the cost of economy airfares, basic accommodation and on-ground transfers to attend international trade shows, business programs, or to accompany a trade mission. Finally, the cost of hosting income buyers, such as hiring local facilities, economy international travel, economy domestic travel and standard accommodation for no more than two inbound buyers. You did talk about the actual cost to budget—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: For this 2018-19 financial year.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The budget includes the carryover of the $500,000 and takes it to $1.258 million for 2018-19, and so it is actually about $150,000 more than was spent in the previous financial year.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Because of the carryover?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In 2019-20, what will be your expected budget then, if the intention is you spend the carryover and the $1.2 million?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I do not have that figure right in front of me at the moment.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Perhaps I could get you to take that on notice.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Okay.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: How many businesses did the previous export partnership program assist?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I have those figures here. The best we had in any one round of applications was 48. We have had 79, I think, in this one.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Sorry, minister; 48 successful recipients?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, just applicants.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Just applicants?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: All the data I have here for you is applicants. From its inception, in round 1 there were 48; in round 2 there were 62; in round 3, October 2015, there were 37 applicants; in round 4, February 2016, there were 49 applicants; in round 5, May 2016, there were 46; in round 6, in August 2016, there were 31; in round 7, November 2016, there were 37; round 8, February 2017, there were 20; in round 9, May 2017, there were 32; for the industry association one in May 2017, there were 16; in round 10, which was in August 2017, there were 31; and in round 11, November 2017, there were 34.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, can you detail the successful recipients and their grant amount? Do you have that?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I do not have those figures.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Could I ask that you take that on notice?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I certainly do not have the list of all of the successful applicants.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Before the figures, were the applicants not the successful—

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: These were the applicants, the figures I have just given you, yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Given that there was a delay this financial year, and you have done a new program, how many people do you think will be successful in 2018-19? Do you have a figure of how many people will receive grants?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I expect that the fund will be oversubscribed—I suspect it will. It will be a pleasure to go back to my good friend and hardworking Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas, and say, 'We need some more money.'

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Is it likely that the Treasurer will give you more money?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am going to put a very strong case. If the program is oversubscribed, then that is a good indicator that exporters are keen to get on board. We like to back business and we want to support our exporters to grow the economy. It will be disappointing if the program is oversubscribed and people miss out, but I think it is a reflection on how good the program is. Industry feedback has been great. I had text messages and messages in the few days after it was launched that it was a great program and just what business wanted.

One of the key things is, when you are already an exporter but you are entering a new market, to give support to get back into a new market, and also the business mentoring. There are a lot of people who I have come in contact with who are very keen to export but just not quite sure what the next step is. So I think there are some really good opportunities there. If it is oversubscribed then it will be a pleasurable task to take it to—I think this is borne out by the fact that we had 79 applicants, more applicants than any other program, and it has only been open about a month.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I look forward to hearing about the recipients. If I can move to performance measures, Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 166. You have a fairly key target here: you want to achieve $50 million for the value of exports facilitated by DTTI activity. Can you define what facilitated means in this context?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In 2017-18, the former DSD, as part of the South Australian government's economic priority was responsible for reporting on economic priority 9, promoting South Australia's international connections and engagement, and to increase the South Australian businesses exporting by at least 50 per cent per annum.

Economic priority 9 was promoted and delivered through the TradeStart network. TradeStart is a partnered program with Austrade and delivered in South Australia by DSD through five TradeStart advisers. In 2017-18, TradeStart advisers provided 245 individual South Australian businesses with 333 TradeStart services. The EP9 target of 50 new exporters was achieved, with 82 of the 245 companies becoming new exporters. Export outcomes attributed to the TradeStart network program in South Australia were estimated at $56.8 million. The export outcomes are recorded in Austrade's relationship management system.

In accordance with TradeStart's contract, the budget for the TradeStart's network program for 2017-18 was $794,000, Austrade's partnered program was 357 and the Department for Industry and Skills and our department's estimated budget contribution was $497,000. The South Australian Export Accelerator Program, as we said earlier, is now $1.28 million.

We will be working with the TradeStart network as an extension of Austrade's offices and to deliver the partnership with DTTI in South Australia. TradeStart offers South Australian exporters the combined resources of Austrade and DTTI, providing local assistance and a direct link to Austrade services and overseas networks. The objective of the TradeStart network is to assist South Australian exporters to achieve long-term success in international markets.

DTTI now delivers the TradeStart network in South Australia, with the current contract due to be completed by 2019. Austrade is due to release a public tender for the future delivery of that program, and delivery is expected from 1 July 2019 to 2023. The South Australian government has partnered with the TradeStart network since 2002. It is anticipated that DTTI will retender for that program on 1 July 2019 for the term 2019 to 30 June 2023. DTTI currently supports 4.4 FTEs as part of the TradeStart program. TradeStart advisers are assigned to geographic regions as follows:

Adelaide metropolitan north;

Adelaide metropolitan south;

South-East regional South Australia (there is one based in Mount Gambier);

northern regional (there is one based in Tanunda); and

Riverland (part-time adviser based in Berri two days a week).

Export services are defined as:

providing practical advice about exporting, including analysing information from a variety of sources to provide useful input into business decisions (for example, market selection and export strategy);

general market briefings on what to expect in international markets;

international market selection, entry and strategic advice;

assistance and advice for setting up businesses in an international market;

delivering and following up specific international business opportunities;

information about local commercial practices;

local industry insights;

understanding of cultural customs and business etiquette;

awareness and preparation of international trade missions;

business matching for inbound missions;

referrals to specialist legal and tax advisory firms for both Australia and overseas;

general marketing and promotional advice;

advising on available government funding; and

working with businesses to access their needs and develop briefings for in-market services for Austrade's overseas staff to deliver assistance from Austrade's overseas offices, provide advice and assistance for relevant export funding programs, including the Export Partnership Program and the Export Market Development Grant.

Going forward, the department has created a new performance indicator to provide support for new exporters, now that the former government's economic priority 9 program targets have ceased. The Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment proposes to continue the work of the South Australian companies to build a pipeline of exporters. The new target of the department is to support 90 new exporters through DTTI's programs to support their entry into global markets.

Measurement of the performance indicators will be through a number of services provided to the businesses from DTTI. Service indicators over the 12-month period will include export mentoring, training and advice through the TradeStart adviser network and broader Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment education programs; Austrade services delivered through TradeStart; inbound and outbound trade mission participation through DTTI; services provided by the South Australian trade offices overseas; and services provided by the South Australian officers embedded in Austrade offices overseas.

I think, Mike, you had some other comments you would like to add? I ask Mike Hnyda to add some further comment.

Mr HNYDA: Just in relation to that specific KPI I just wanted to add a couple of points there. This was an additional KPI that I wanted incorporated into the department. The reason for it, if you take the figure aside, is just to drive a far more commercial approach within the department. These will be the deals that we do as well as driving all the programs that we have talked about earlier—the overseas offices, the missions and the inbound missions. This is specific—that we are getting out and meeting the customer, driving the business, putting opportunities in front of them and working those opportunities. We will work hand-in-hand with the client, the customer, the company to drive that initial $50 million dollars of direct business that we are involved in.

We have started that process, and we have actually taken some of the investment companies we dealt with and said, 'Let's work with you on the next market.' We have taken other companies that we know from within our structure and said, 'We want to take you to the next market. How about we work on your strategy?' It has been really well received by those companies. Again this is something we actually did in Wales in my former life. In terms of making a very commercial output focus to deliver for the minister, it is part of driving the culture that as well as doing the rest of it drives our business agenda and makes sure that we are working very closely. So these are direct deals for us within the department.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you. Just continuing on Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, but now looking at page 163, we touched on this earlier in the conversation—and recently your chief executive presented at the Economic and Finance Committee: the investment attraction created in 2016 attracted $2.26 billion of capital investment and 9,300 jobs—we may agree to disagree on that figure—supporting 36 organisations. You have a target for $500 million of foreign direct investment and 2,000 jobs. Do you think that this is a conservative estimate, given the previous performance of investment attraction?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for her question. We have set targets that we believe are achievable. Time will tell, obviously, as to whether we can achieve those targets. I am not one, and probably the government is not one, of setting unrealistic targets. We think they are achievable, but time will tell.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I guess my concern comes from when we look at the budget statement, chapter seven. We are forecasting employment growth only of 1.5 per cent in 2018-19—this year—down to 1 per cent in 2019-20. Given that we are looking for an export-led recovery, it just does not seem that we are going to help where we need. Do you think that we should be going and being more aggressive—going out to attract investment to the state?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We will be aggressive in attracting investment, aggressive in growing exports, aggressive in getting more tourists to come to South Australia and aggressive in dispersing those tourists throughout South Australia. Regional South Australia is suffering quite badly at the moment with very low, almost zero, population growth, but I will not distract this part of the committee with important information I would like to give to you in the second session after morning tea.

Certainly, we will be aggressive all the time in attracting more people, more tourists, more students, more immigrants, more investment, more trade and more exports. We are not going to sit back and relax. It is a constant shoulder to the wheel, leave no stone unturned to grow our economy approach that we will be using.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Fantastic. Can I just reflect on business missions, Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, program 2, page 164. Minister, will you not publish a calendar for trade missions for 2018-19?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We will. Obviously, the department has only been established since the beginning of July and we have gone through the budget process. We have had a couple of trade missions already this year. We are obviously delighted that, because of this estimates, the Governor, the Hon. Hieu Van Le, who had offered to help, is leading and on a trade mission to India as we speak. It is fabulous that he has offered to help out whenever he can. I am not sure that your side of politics would grant me a pair not to be at estimates.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, I did not even ask for it.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Perhaps you should suggest you go.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, estimates is an important part of our process, so it is great that he is doing that. We have an inbound trade mission coming with the test cricket with Australia playing India. Unfortunately, it is not a day/night match. I think India's batsmen like playing in the daylight and do not like the twilight. Anyway, we have an inbound trade mission planned there and the response has been very good. Initially, there were only about 12 exporters going to the China International Import Expo. I am told there are more than that now, but I do not know the exact figure.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Will there not be a publicly available calendar?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: There will be later in the year.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That is your intention?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We are just trying to finalise next year's program. I am keen to work with industry. A good example is the football match in Shanghai. There has always been the SIAL trade show, which is the food and beverage trade show in Shanghai. The AFL will not announce their draw until after the grand final. I think it is a week or so after. We do not know exactly the date of that much. Port Adelaide will be there, but it may not be the Gold Coast Suns; nonetheless, that date has not been announced. What we are really keen to do is finalise those dates because I am fearful that the football match will be two weeks after SIAL, not at the end of SIAL, so that makes it just a bit complicated.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: How many outbound missions will you do next year?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We have not come to a landing on that because they will not all be hosted by me. If there is a food and wine one, or a wine one, then clearly the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development would be the logical person to be the government lead on that. We are just finalising that, and it really is a matter of trying to look at the dates for things like football matches to make sure we can get the maximum benefit, and also the sitting calendar.

There are some key trade shows that industry have said to me they would very much like to participate in, and they would like us to help focus on those. There is Gulfood in Dubai. There is HOFEX and SIAL. There is Fancy Food in the summer and the winter in the US. We are just coordinating the dates. We will publish something. It would be good if we could have something that spans more than one year so that people can actually do some long-term planning as well.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Chair, I have some omnibus questions I would like—

The CHAIR: I think the member for MacKillop has a question. We can squeeze the omnibus questions into the next session, perhaps.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Am I able to insert them into Hansard?

The CHAIR: No, you have to read them in, unfortunately. Member for McKillop.

Mr McBRIDE: We are on Volume 4, Budget Paper 4, page 164, as was the last question from the member for Ramsay. My question to the minister is: can the minister please explain if there is a view to expand the entrepreneur visa beyond the initial intake of 30 per year if the program is successful in its first year of operation?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for his question and his ongoing interest in entrepreneurial visas. We want to get it right at our very first and foremost opportunity. It is a pilot that has been offered by the federal government to us. In fact, at my very first trade and tourism ministers meeting a few months ago, they were all very envious that we had the pilot program in South Australia. All the other states were very keen to have a look at it, so I think it is important for us to make sure we get it right.

An initial step is to have 30. It has been put to me that a lot of people overseas will be very creative in trying to portray themselves as being hugely successful entrepreneurs, and so we are just negotiating the evaluation process with the federal government. The federal government has changed ministers and they have had their challenges in recent times, so we had a range of meetings and then we had to go back and have another range of meetings with different people.

We will certainly be looking to increase it beyond the initial intake, but because it is a pilot, if we get it wrong the federal government will shut it down. If we get it right, we will have an opportunity to expand it significantly. It is one of those things: let's just take small steps, let's not be too aggressive in the first instance until we have it in place and it is working.

I think there have been some very successful ones. There is one in Israel and there are a couple of other ones around the world where they have attracted entrepreneurs through a proper visa program. They have brought some of the world's smartest and brightest people into their economies.

We are not looking to have 10,000 entrepreneurs here; we really want make sure we have the right people who can grow their business but also help transform our economy, because we are in a pretty exciting era with technology. As we have said before, with the massive investment in defence, there will be huge opportunities for our economy to grow in all sorts of ways we have never really imagined.

Silicon Valley in the US came off the back of a US defence investment a few decades ago and look at that. Not that Adelaide is likely to be Silicon Valley, but anything is possible, so we want to get it right. We are the envy of the rest of the nation having this pilot program, and we want to make sure we get it right so that we can keep it, grow it and expand upon it.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will read some omnibus questions.

1. Will the minister provide a detailed breakdown of expenditure on consultants and contractors with a total estimated cost above $10,000, engaged between 17 March 2018 and 30 June 2018 by all departments and agencies reporting to the minister, listing the name of the consultant, contractor or service supplier, the estimated total cost of the work, the work undertaken and the method of appointment?

2. Will the minister provide a detailed breakdown of the forecast expenditure on consultants and contractors with a total estimated cost above $10,000 for the 2018-19 financial year to be engaged by all departments and agencies reporting to the minister, listing the name of the consultant, contractor or service supplier, cost, work undertaken and method of appointment?

3. For each department and agency for which the minister has responsibility:

(a) How many FTEs were employed to provide communication and promotion activities in 2017-18 and what was their employment expense?

(b) How many FTEs are budgeted to provide communication and promotion activities in 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, and what is their estimated employment expense?

(c) The total cost of government-paid advertising, including campaigns, across all mediums in 2017-18 and budgeted cost for 2018-19.

4. For each grant program or fund the minister is responsible for please provide the following information for the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years:

(a) The name of the program or fund;

(b) The purpose of the program or fund;

(c) Balance of the grant program or fund;

(d) Budgeted (or actual) expenditure from the program or fund;

(e) Budgeted (or actual) payments into the program or fund;

(f) Carryovers into or from the program or fund;

(g) Details, including the value and beneficiary, of any commitments already made to be funded from the program or fund; and

(h) Whether the grant was subject to a grant agreement as required by Treasurer's Instructions 15.

5. For the period of 17 March 2018 and 30 June 2018, provide a breakdown of all grants paid by the department/agency that report to the minister, including when the payment was made to the recipient, and when the grant agreement was signed by both parties.

6. For each department and agency reporting to the minister:

(a) The total number of FTEs in that department or agency;

(b) The number of FTEs by division and/or business unit within the department or agency; and

(c) The number of FTEs by classification in each division and/or business unit within the department or agency.

7. For each department and agency reporting to the minister, could you detail:

(a) How much is allocated to be spent on targeted voluntary separation packages in 2018-19?

(b) How many of the TVSPs are estimated to be funded?

(c) What is the budget for TVSPs for financial years included in the forward estimates (by year), and how are these packages to be funded?

8. For each department or agency reporting to the minister in 2018-19 please provide the number of public servants broken down into headcount and FTEs that are (1) tenured and (2) on contract and, for each category, provide a breakdown of the number of (1) executives and (2) non-executives.

9. Between 30 June 2017 and 17 March 2018, will the minister list the job title and total employment cost of SA executive positions—(1) which has been abolished and (2) which has been created?

10. Between 17 March 2018 and 30 June 2018, will the minister list the job title and total employment cost of SA executive positions—(1) which has been abolished and (2) which has been created?

11. For each year of the forward estimates, please provide the name and budget for each individual program administered by or on behalf of all departments and agencies reporting to the minister.

12. For each year of the forward estimates, please provide the name and budgeted expenditure across the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 financial years for each individual investing expenditure project administered by or on behalf of all departments and agencies reporting to the minister.

13. For each department or agency reporting to the minister how many surplus employees are there at 30 June 2018 and for each surplus employee, what is the title or classification of employee and the total cost of the employee?

I thank the minister and his staff. Having been on the other side, I know how much preparation is involved in estimates and I appreciate your time.

The CHAIR: That is very kind of you, member for Ramsay. There being no further questions, I declare the examination of the proposed payments for the portfolios of Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment and Health Industries SA completed. In accordance with the agreed timetable, the committee stands suspended until 11:01am.

Sitting suspended from 10:46 to 11:01.

Departmental Advisers:

Mr R. Harrex, Chief Executive Officer, South Australian Tourism Commission.

Ms S. Rozokos, Chief Financial Officer, South Australian Tourism Commission.

Ms H. Rasheed, General Manager, South Australian Tourism Commission.

Mr C. Miller, Commercial and Contracts Manager, South Australian Tourism Commission.

Mr A. Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer, Adelaide Venue Management.

Ms M. Hannaford, Chief Financial Officer, Adelaide Venue Management.

The CHAIR: Welcome back, everyone. We are here to discuss the South Australian Tourism Commission and the Adelaide Venue Management authority. The minister appearing is the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. I declare the proposed payments open for examination and refer members to the Agency Statements, Volume 4. The minister can make an opening statement if he so wishes, and I ask him to introduce his advisers.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My team here today is as follows: on my left-hand side is Mr Rodney Harrex, Chief Executive Officer, South Australian Tourism Commission; Ms Hitaf Rasheed, General Manager, EventsSA, South Australian Tourism Commission; and Ms Stephanie Rozokos, Chief Financial Officer, South Australian Tourism Commission. Sitting behind me is Mr Chris Miller, Commercial and Contracts Manager, South Australian Tourism Commission; and in the row behind, Mr Anthony Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer, Adelaide Venue Management; and Ms Marie Hannaford, Chief Financial Officer, Adelaide Venue Management.

I will make an opening statement. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to bring to your attention some of the highlights of our super growth sector, tourism. Tourism is an economic priority for both South Australia and the Marshall Liberal government. I cannot emphasise strongly enough its direct and indirect contribution to jobs and economic prosperity in South Australia.

Tourism is the lifeblood of our state and transcends so many sectors. Its impact can be felt across cafes, restaurants, retail establishments, accommodation providers, transport services, bars, tour companies, the arts and events and across regional South Australia. It encourages further investment in education, real estate and, in many instances, migration—all critical to growing our state's economy.

Tourism employs many South Australians, and an investment in tourism is an investment in jobs for South Australia. Tourism is especially important to regional economies—41 per cent of visitor expenditure now occurs in regional areas, well above the 23 per cent share of population that our regions have.

In speaking about the regions specifically, it is pertinent to add that, generally, primary industries and tourism are the biggest economic drivers, and in this modern age, the information age, where farming has become more reliant upon technology and less so on human resources, we look to tourism as the one industry which I suspect is still labour intensive to grow jobs in our regions and our regional populations.

Tourism is reflected in other economic aggregates, with the gross state product in South Australia growing by 8 per cent, while tourism's contribution grew by 28 per cent. Tourism outpaced the overall South Australian economy in other key economic measures, including consumption, output and gross value-added. We have experienced unprecedented growth in visitors and expenditure with our visitor economy at a record $6.7 billion. We are getting closer than ever to our 2020 goal of an $8 billion tourism industry. To the year ending March 2018, we welcomed 6.9 million international and domestic visitors.

With the importance of tourism to the broader South Australian economy clear, the Marshall Liberal government is committed to continuing to grow tourism in South Australia and investing strategically to realise even greater results. We went to the recent state election with a range of initiatives designed to bring more visitors to the state and keep the momentum going. The Marshall Liberal government will attract more international and domestic leisure events and business conventions to South Australia through our commitment to increase investment in the events bid fund. Specifically, we will invest an additional $11.5 million over the next four years in the Convention Bid Fund to attract more conventions and business events.

As part of this commitment, we will also invest an additional $10 million into the leisure events bid fund to attract more leisure events to South Australia. We are making a four-year long-term commitment to specifically target events which have a strong economic impact. The Marshall Liberal government recognises the impact of the business and leisure events sector and has decided to double-down on this new investment, so we will increase the total funds to $40 million over the next four years. We have also broadened the remit for the Convention Bid Fund so that regional locations can utilise it to attract business events and conventions and inject important dollars into regional South Australia.

We have taken a long-term view so that we can secure a pipeline of events for the state to continue to derive dollars into the visitor economy. More recently, a regional visitor strategy identifying strengths and future potential has been launched outlining the opportunity to grow South Australia's regional visitor economy by $1 billion to create an extra 1,000 jobs. The regions are so important to the South Australian visitor economy that the Marshall Liberal government will always back our regions.

Our marketing focus continues to be on key markets like the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand and Germany, as well as the ongoing emerging markets like China. Chinese travellers are the fastest growing inbound market for South Australia, with 57,000 visitors spending a record $415 million. A key initiative that has delivered strong results in the Chinese market has been the signing of Huang Xiaoming as our Tourism Ambassador.

Feedback from operators has been extremely positive and many are reporting an increase in inquiries and bookings directly because of the Huang Xiaoming phenomenon. These efforts are also yielding strong results in the aviation sector with China Southern Airlines recently announcing plans to increase flights to between five and seven flights per week during peak periods and maintaining five flights a week on an ongoing basis from 25 February 2019.

The direct correlation between effective and targeted marketing and increased tourism expenditure is why the Marshall Liberal government is investing an additional $10 million in 2019-20 for the South Australian Tourism Commission to continue its marketing strategy designed to promote South Australia domestically and internationally. We need to compete with other Australian states to ensure that our unique tourism offerings are front of mind for potential visitors.

Food and drink, food and wine, are amongst the state's best assets, so we are constantly seeking ways to stimulate the appetite for South Australia. Our investment in MasterChef SA Week has served as a strong showcase of South Australian produce, talent and innovation. The show achieved an average nightly audience of 1.16 million viewers, which included TV, online and catch-up TV views, with a total TV audience reach of 5.2 million equating to 23 per cent of the Australian population. The impact it will have on international audiences is still to be measured.

To capitalise on our investment in MasterChef, celebrity chef and MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan has been signed on as a South Australian Tourism Ambassador. As part of his role, Gary will be involved in campaigns to be rolled out both interstate and internationally. Despite the shadow minister's desire to see Gary in South Australia eating frog cakes and FruChocs, this is not where his time is best spent. This initiative forms part of an ongoing strategy to promote the state as the country's premier food and drink destination.

Whilst on the subject of MasterChef, I know that a lot of attention has recently focused on releasing the details of the South Australian Tourism Commission's contracts with celebrities and influencers. I, too, have been an advocate for that in the past. I have discussed this with the South Australian Tourism Commission management and sought assurances that, where possible, details of payments and contract terms be released to the public and that all future negotiations commence from a position of transparency. The Marshall Liberal Government will always take an open approach to contract disclosure unless there are valid reasons why this should not be the case. On that point I will always take advice from the experts sitting at the table with me.

South Australia has a great story to tell, and our digital marketing strategy is helping take our compelling story to the rest of the world. Our Facebook audience has grown to over 1.3 million fans, ranking second among Australian state tourism organisations, and our consumer website southaustralia.com has recorded 5.4 million visits, an increase of 43 per cent on the previous year. Of these visits, there have been 433,213 leads generated to South Australian tourism operators and trade partner websites.

These statistics highlight how relevant content and the right digital strategy is making real-time impact for operators and partners. The growth in visitors and expenditure is also attracting significant private investment, with recent announcements like the Westin Hotel at the GPO site and at the Wirra Wirra in McLaren Vale and, just out the back here, the SkyCity development. They are all indicators of growing confidence in the South Australian economy.

I am happy to report that events originally launched under the Liberal Party's watch are still making an economic impact for the state. The 2018 Santos Tour Down Under attracted 46,000 visitors from interstate and overseas who travelled specifically to South Australia for the event, generating an economic impact of $63.7 million and the equivalent of 774 full time jobs. I remember that when it was announced by then premier Olsen and then minister Hall more than 20 years ago, then opposition deputy leader the Hon. Kevin Foley said, 'What, a bike race? You're mad, nobody will ever come to that.' In the end, more than 20 years later and with the support of all sides of politics, it is a world-class event and something we should be very proud of.

The 2018 Adelaide 500 event was the largest since 2015 with more than 273,000 event-goers pouring through the gates to celebrate 20 years of the event in Adelaide. This event, which fills our hotel rooms in the Mad March period, combined with the recent developments at The Bend, is a strong testament to our motorsport credentials.

This year's Tasting Australia event was another resounding success, with nearly 5,000 interstate and almost 3,000 international guests experiencing the leading South Australian festival celebrating our state's amazing food and wine scene. The interstate and international visitation amounted to just over 41,000 room nights, with more than 54,000 people experiencing the free festival hub in Victoria Square.

The Bid Fund initiative has also been a major contributor to the tourism sector; with almost $695 million in economic benefit it is a proven performer. Through the leisure events bid fund initiative, South Australia has secured 54 leisure events with an estimated economic benefit of $245 million. Among these event wins were significant wins with sporting events like the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open being held in South Australia until 2020 and the ICC World T20 men's cricket semi-final in 2020.

The convention bid fund has successfully brought more than 70 major conventions to South Australia since it began attracting over 90,000 delegates and contributing nearly $450 million in economic benefit to the state. This includes the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering for 2024 with over 2,500 delegates. Adelaide beat four other contenders in Japan, Argentina, Columbia and Mexico to win this important conference, which has great synergies for us, bringing together artificial intelligence, proton therapy and big data for improved health care among other things.

Growing air access continues to be important and, as of June 2018, international flights to Adelaide were at 46 per week; that is, around 12,000 international seats to Adelaide each week. Air New Zealand has confirmed that from November 2018 all flights between Adelaide and Auckland will be operated using their Dreamliner aircraft, and we are also working closely with Adelaide Airport and are committed to exploring the possibility of bringing a new US carrier service to Adelaide.

The South Australian Cruise Ship Strategy 2020 has been developed by SATC to ensure our state continues to be a national leader and destination of choice by cruise lines visiting Australia. In the coming season South Australia is expecting a record 86 cruise ship visits, including 46 to Port Adelaide, 30 to Kangaroo Island and 14 to Port Lincoln, welcoming in excess of 180,000 passengers.

As members can see, a lot has been achieved on the path to our 2020 target of $8 billion, but it is an uphill climb with significant challenges. South Australia is no longer a well-kept secret, the world is sitting up and taking notice of our state and it is largely off the back of key initiatives undertaken by the South Australian Tourism Commission and the broader tourism industry. We must keep this this momentum going and the Marshall Liberal government is committed to tourism, growing jobs, working with our passionate tourism industry and delivering our $8 billion target.

The CHAIR: Thank you, minister, for that very detailed opening statement. The member for Ramsay may have a question.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you, Chair. Can I acknowledge my committee members, both former ministers for tourism. I refer to Budget Paper 5, page 161, the budget measure titled Adelaide 500 Grandstand. The budget measure is a commitment of $400,000 over four years; however, in March 2018 the Liberal Party promised $1 million to speed up the set up and pull down of the Victoria Park grandstand. Minister, why has the government broken an election promise by underfunding their election commitment for the Victoria Park grandstand?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for her question. Building a world-class, large-scale, temporary, city-based event of its kind necessitates a detailed time line. To ensure the Parklands remain accessible to the public for the maximum time possible, the SATC builds and dismantles the event in a staged process. The SATC seeks to optimise the building and dismantling process in the most cost and time efficient manner, having regard for weather conditions, industrial award conditions, safe working practices and concerns of the public.

The SATC in conjunction with the engineering project manager, iEDM, reviews the build and dismantle process annually. The SATC has reduced the build and dismantle time line by four weeks since 2016. As part of the government's election commitments, it originally committed to investing an extra $1 million in the operation to reduce the build and dismantle time by four weeks compared to the current schedule. The SATC investigated the scope of work required for the build and dismantle schedule and believes that a one-week reduction is achievable without compromising work health and safety obligations.

To meet the one-week reduction, the SATC will condense the 2019 Adelaide 500 construction program by amending critical path infrastructure works. This will be achieved by mobilising additional resources at the commencement of the works on site. It will work concurrently to build elements of the infrastructure that have previously been built consecutively.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: If you were able to give as much as you expected to, could they reduce it even further?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: For the actual details, I might even—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The promise was $250,000 per year; it is now $100,000.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: If I may, Mr Chair, I might ask Ms Hitaf Rasheed to respond on the actual details of that question.

The CHAIR: Thank you, minister.

Ms RASHEED: We investigated the opportunity to reduce the time line and, based on the investigation, the scope of work required for the build and the dismantle schedule, the one-week reduction was what we thought we could achieve for the coming year without compromising our work health and safety obligations. So the answer is: regardless of funding right now, the one-week reduction is all we can achieve, and so we have committed funds to that one-week reduction and it was made on the investigation that we did.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The Liberal Party promise was to cut it from 25 weeks to 21 weeks, and that is not achievable?

Ms RASHEED: No. I think there was an amendment to that. We are actually at 19½ weeks for the 2018 event, and we are planning to reduce it by one week to 18½ weeks for the 2019 event, based on the work we did.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: When will the ticket sales for next year's Adelaide 500 go on sale?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Again, I will ask Ms Hitaf Rasheed because she is the general manager of major events and has those details at her fingertips.

Ms RASHEED: We had a really successful 2018 Adelaide 500. It was our 20^th anniversary. We had more than 270,000 people attend the event across the four days and we are really thrilled that it maintains its status as the opening round of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship and also Australia's largest domestic-ticketed motorsport festival. The event contributed an economic benefit of nearly $42 million into the economy. Planning is well and truly underway for next year's event.

There has been a delay in putting tickets on sale for the 2019 event. The reasons for this include a delay in confirmation of the final budget in an election year, which has delayed the budgeting process. However, we are hopeful of finalising our negotiations with a naming rights sponsor. Based on this, the team wants to provide an opportunity for the naming rights sponsor to participate in an organised announcement and to include the naming rights sponsor on any new Adelaide 500 logo and ticketing. We are hopeful that we will conclude those negotiations shortly.

At this stage, we are planning to launch the Adelaide 500 in late October or early November, at which point tickets go on sale. It is worth knowing that our 500 CLUB member sales, which are our most significant pre-public sales of our grandstand tickets, have been on sale and are tracking well.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So if you are unable to secure the naming rights sponsor, this is when the tickets will go on sale?

Ms RASHEED: Correct.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: How much are we asking for, for sponsorship and for naming?

Ms RASHEED: As you would know, it is—

The CHAIR: Can I just remind you, as I have said consistently all session, that all questions are through the minister and then through the Chair. If the minister is happy to delegate those, it is not the role of the committee to have conversations between members of the committee asking questions and departmental advisers.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: My apologies, Chair. Minister, obviously this is an exciting thing. It is a key event for us, so we would be looking to have a significant sponsor. From your previous comments, it is probably unlikely that you will tell me how much, but are we holding out to have a significant sponsor?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My understanding is that the sponsor will be announced soon, hopefully. That will be a long-term commitment. These arrangements that the Tourism Commission and EventsSA enter into are clearly always confidential because of their nature, but I expect that we will have a good announcement. It was a shame that we went through a period where we did not have someone. Clipsal was the sponsor for nearly 18 years, and last year we did not have an official naming rights sponsor. I think it is a testament to the hard work of the team that it appears that they have a naming rights sponsor who is prepared to back the event. Hopefully, they can get the level of promotion and support that Clipsal managed to give over that more or less 18-year period.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Will there be a post-race concert next year?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My understanding is that yes, there will be a post-race concert, but the final negotiations for the actual performers have not yet been finalised. I may ask Hitaf to clarify that.

Ms RASHEED: No, that is correct. At this stage, we are yet to announce our concerts. However, we will have concerts on the three nights of the Adelaide 500, as we have previously had.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I have had significant feedback that the concert performer on the Sunday night this year was a very positive experience that brought in additional ticket sales. Are you concerned that the delay of the tickets and not knowing who the concert performer on Sunday night will be will decrease the ticket sales?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, I think the event will be as popular as ever. You have two groups of people, the motorsport enthusiasts and the music lovers, and then there is a group that enjoys both. I think it will be well supported by all of those groups.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Regarding the significant savings in tourism events, what is going to be cut from the Adelaide 500?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: For some information for the member on broader savings and the net cost of services: the SATC budget for 2018-19 is $87.9 million. The 2018 SATC budget includes additional state government funding allocated to election commitments and additional investment in the event bid fund of $1.5 million. The SATC's budget will reduce from $99.1 million in 2017-18 to $87.9 million in 2018-19.

It is a decrease of $11.2 million and is due to a number of reasons including, but not limited to: the decrease in expenditure associated with supporting events, including the sponsorship of events and operating costs for managed events, such as one-off funding for the Adelaide 500 of $2.9 million; increased expenditure to host the Australian Tourism Exchange in 2017-18 of $3 million; contractual arrangements with proprietors of airline access to South Australia of $2.8 million; the implementation of operating savings measures in the 2018-19 budget of $1.4 million; and variations in income received from sponsorship revenue, managed events and cooperative marketing campaigns of $1.1 million.

In 2018-19, the SATC's marketing spend will be more than $36 million and will target domestic and growing international markets, such as China and South-East Asia, as well as South Australia's traditional tourism markets, including the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand. SATC is on track to be fully spent within budget for the 2018-19 year.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: With $11 million less spent this financial year than last financial year, and the description of it just being a one-off cost for the Adelaide 500, what will be cut from this event?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I will ask Hitaf to detail some of the savings measures for the Adelaide 500.

Ms RASHEED: As you rightly pointed out, in 2018 we received an allocation of one-off funding, specific to the 20-year celebrations, and that included securing a very strong concert line-up across the three nights, including Cold Chisel and Robbie Williams, and that one-off funding will not be in the budget. However, planning for the event is well underway and we are doing a complete review of the content and presentation of the site. That will include our review of the race categories for 2019, reviewing our programming on and off the track, creation of an improved patron experience, including enhanced navigation and activations around the circuit, an enhanced attraction zone for kids and families, increased off-track experiences and food and beverage destinations and an enhanced concert green to engage festival and city patrons after 4pm.

The team are doing a fantastic job of reviewing the event under the lens of making sure that the customer is at the heart of every decision we make and that the experience will be improved. What you will see next year is a different looking event and an exciting event for our patrons and our customers.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The Adelaide 500 is a very popular family event. Are you going to cut any of the key activities from that, minister? I know you are talking about enhancing, but—

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My understanding is, from the family perspective, I think we had a kids' zone and I think the planning for this next event will have an enhanced tri-action zone for kids and families. It has been a fabulous event for our state for more than 20 years and the team, under Ms Hitaf Rasheed's leadership, is constantly looking at ways that we can keep it refreshed and keep the patrons coming through the gate.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Are the Stadium Super Trucks coming back next year?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am not entirely certain whether they are. That might be something that, again, I will ask Hitaf. We can take it on notice, but—

Ms RASHEED: I am happy to answer it now.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, it is easier than taking it on notice.

Ms RASHEED: As I said, we are constantly reviewing and refreshing our event product, and so we have not finalised what our program will look like. What is exciting this year might not be exciting next year and, if you have had something for a number of years, you may choose to do something different next year to refresh the product. The team is continuing to work and look at what products we put out there on the track.

There is also a question about whether the Stadium Super Trucks will be available to be operating on tracks as well. So we are refreshing the product. We are constantly looking at and reviewing the product. We are doing some great work and what we do know is that the event will be pleasing both for our traditional motorsport fans, but also our festival-goers and families.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Well, I will take that as a no. But just moving on, I understand that the current agreement with Supercars Australia runs out in 2021. Have you started renegotiating the next commitment?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The team at the SATC is in constant contact with Supercars Australia. Obviously, they supported the event that was held at Tailem Bend recently, so the Supercar people were in town. We are constantly talking to them. It is a world-class event and it is an event that we own in South Australia. We are constantly looking at ways to keep it fresh and renewed. Certainly I think that supercars have dropped the V8 part now and they are just Australian supercars because we do not have V8s manufactured in Australia anymore; in fact, any cars manufactured here. I am sure that they will be reviewing their product but we are certainly committed to working with them to secure a long-term future for the event.

Mr ELLIS: Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 141, and I note the target to conduct the feasibility study on the development of a tourism cycling trail from Adelaide to Melbourne. Could the minister update us on the progression of that target.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for his interest. I guess he is from Narungga so, sadly, it is a bit of a detour to go through Narungga if you are riding from Adelaide to Melbourne.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Get one of those big bikes off the Torrens. You can get big three-wheelers.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: He would need a 34-inch one I reckon, for the length of his legs. It was one of those election commitments where I was surprised that there was not any criticism from any quarter anywhere, even across the nation, that we would look to develop a world-class cycling track. I think at the time that it was announced there was a little bit of speculation that it would be a dedicated bitumen track like the Amy Gillett Bikeway. It will not be that, but it was taken from what has happened in New Zealand, where the New Zealand government basically connected up all the little bits of tracks into a trail from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island. It is a bit longer than Adelaide to Melbourne but over time, I think last financial year, 1.3 million people rode on part of that track. It has created 1,200 regional jobs in New Zealand and put $40 million into the regional economy.

When I took it to our team as the opposition they thought it was a good idea. We then explored it a little more and released it as a policy, and it has certainly met with a lot of support. Even at the recent trade and tourism ministers' meeting, Senator Dalidakis, the Labor minister from Victoria was sitting next to me and said, 'Mate, this is a fantastic idea; count us in.' So we have the Victorian opposition and the Victorian government, as they stand today, both supporting the development of it.

The feasibility study will look at all of the bits that are missing. One of the things we would like to do is to ride across the barrages but it will be no surprise to anybody that SA Water does not think that is a particularly good idea. You can drive four-wheel drives across the barrages so I am sure it can be done. It will require a bit of investment and that is what the feasibility study will look at: how do we make that safe to traverse? There is about 15 or so kilometres of unmade road on the eastern side of the barrages so clearly that will be a—but it does not mean to be a four-lane highway, maybe just a bit of road that is good enough to take a bike.

We have our bikeways, the Linear Park out to the beach, the bikeway down the coast. It does not take much imagination to realise that we have parts of it. We have the Encounter Bikeway at Victor Harbor. It is not a route that some of our elite cyclists will want to ride on but this is designed to be a touring route. Even somebody as unfit as me might be able to achieve it with the right sort of technology assisting. Then you can go further south, so part of the feasibility study is to have a chat to local government.

I always use the point that you get to Kingston and you could carry on and go down the coast road which, of course, is in the Hon. Mr McBride's electorate, or you could turn left and go to Lucindale and Naracoorte. There is an old rail corridor. There are no lines left there but the corridor is still there, so it is a bit like the Riesling Trail or the trail in the Barossa—you could use that—and then turn right and go down past the Naracoorte Caves, our only world heritage listed asset, and through the Coonawarra. Or you could go down the coast to Beachport. I think there is an old rail corridor from Beachport into Millicent and into Mount Gambier.

So there are some opportunities and part of the feasibility study is to have the conversation with local communities about where they might like it to go and to look at the sort of costs and over what time frame. I would imagine that the capital cost would be something to be shared by state government and the federal government. The previous tourism minister and the current tourism minister think it is a good project. I have had discussions with Tourism Australia and they say they want to have a signature cycling opportunity in their offering and they say this is one of the likely ones.

So we have really strong support from pretty much all sides of politics, and if we can drive more visitors to our regions, create jobs in regional South Australia, promote an active lifestyle—I mean, clearly, South Australia and Victoria are the two biggest cycling states. With our Tour Down Under, the Herald Sun Tour and the Cadel Evans race—I cannot remember the exact name of the race—there are some opportunities there to leverage off that.

There is a renewed enthusiasm from Victorian political parties to re-engage with South Australia on a cycling opportunity. We have airports in, I think, Portland, Warrnambool and Mount Gambier, so you have opportunities to ride a bike, or hire it, get off and get on a plane and fly; you do not have to do it all in one particular opportunity.

Just briefly, on some of the regional visits I have done there is quite a lot of interest in day trips, or three or four-day trips, to the Fleurieu, the Murraylands, the South-East and even Kangaroo Island. So there are some really good opportunities coming from it. It is not going to happen overnight. I see it as a multiyear project, but it will be something I think we can be proud of. If we can get everybody—all the players—on the main page we will end up with a tourism attraction that connects two cities and will be a world-class opportunity.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Minister, Budget Paper 5, page 162. It has always been a challenge for South Australia to have a year-round calendar of events. There has always been these dead spots in the calendar. I just want you to perhaps tell the committee what your intentions are and what funding you have available for the prospect of either attracting or establishing new events to fill that calendar in and look at some of the events that historically we have had here. When I was sitting where you are I tried very hard to get the Milk Carton Regatta and the Birdman Rally re-established, but I never succeeded, and since then, actually, Victoria has pinched one of these events—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: They have; they have pinched the Birdman Rally. These things are jewels, and if you do not pick them up, somebody else will. So with particular reference to those two great, iconic South Australian events, but more generally, what are your plans?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Thank you for that question. Major events, as you know, are a significant driver in our economy. I think last year events generated more than $396 million worth of tourism expenditure. Major events increase expenditure, support businesses, create employment and generate considerable media PR value for South Australia, promoting our state to national and international audiences.

EventsSA, which is under the good leadership of Hitaf Rasheed and is the events arm of SATC, makes a strategic approach to development of the state's events calendar. It seeks to complement the core listings of regularly occurring managed and sponsored events by securing additional events to ensure a balanced calendar of activities across the year. In developing a strong competitive market position, EventsSA identifies and researches opportunities to attract and/or develop new or existing events and actively bids or negotiates to target these events.

The events bid fund allows the state to strategically attract events which add considerable value and brand to the state. EventsSA focus on events which generate significant benefits and align with the state's Tourism Plan 2020, showcase the state, contribute to the state's brand position, generate media coverage and visitation from national and/or international markets and utilise the government's investment in infrastructure.

South Australia's strengths, as you know, former minister, are the arts; cultural festivals, including music; food and wine festivals; motorsports; cycling events; mass participation events; and one-off national and international events.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Point of order, Mr Chairman. Minister, we know all that stuff—

The CHAIR: What is the point of order?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The point of order is he is not responding to the question, which is more particular, not about why it is a good idea—

The CHAIR: Is it relevance?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Relevance, exactly.

The CHAIR: I have been listening intently and, to quote Speaker Atkinson, I believe the minister's answer is very germane to the broad question. Thank you, minister.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I will get to the member's details shortly. To date, 54 events have been supported through the fund, and these events have been forecast to inject another $245 million into the South Australian economy. I have mentioned the Women's Australian Open. We had the Sydney Roosters versus Melbourne Storm NRL match. We have the 2019 Adelaide Festival feature, the 2020 ICC Cricket World Cup, the 2020 NRL State of Origin and the 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships.

A range of work is being undertaken to look at the opportunities to secure events in coming years, particularly in the longer term beyond 2020. We continue to look at these opportunities in the context of budget and competing priorities and a return on investment, including the value to the South Australian economy.

The work includes consideration around the possibility of Adelaide bidding for the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Earlier this month, I think from 6 to 8 September, South Australia hosted officials from the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Australia, including chief executive David Grevemberg. They were most impressed with our city, but that work is ongoing. Furthermore, we have supported 29 events through the regional events and bid program.

From my point of view, I think we should look at things. We have some great events now that we want to make sure we do not compromise. In conversations I have had with the SATC, nothing is off the agenda, but let's make sure we get a strong return on our investment. We are aiming for $8 billion of visitor expenditure by 2020. We are on track or thereabouts to get there. I am sure the team and the community will want a target well beyond that after we get to 2020. I am not going to identify events, such as your Birdman Rally. Maybe if you had actually led the charge into the water yourself, that might have inspired—

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I did volunteer at the time. I pushed every button I possibly could.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I know you are a very capable member of parliament, a former attorney-general and not a bad bloke, but I do not know whether you are a great judge of events, and I am the same. I am one of the most important parts of an event: I am a consumer. I really want to leave it to the experts to identify the events that can deliver a benefit to our community and grow our visitor economy. To have an event for the sake of having an event, which does not give us lasting benefits or marketing opportunities, I think would be foolish. I will always defer to the experts to make sure that we do not compromise our existing events, such as the Tour Down Under which we own and have had now for more than 20 years. We do not want to ever put them at risk.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Just referring back to Budget Paper 5, page 146, minister, can you guarantee that the government is committed to the Adelaide 500 remaining in the CBD and not being relocated to Tailem Bend?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We spoke about events in Budget Paper 4, Volume 4. Obviously, you are keen to continue events.

The CHAIR: Page?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Page 144.

The CHAIR: Thank you.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: There is a reduction of $4.59 million this financial year in tourism events. What events are going to be negatively impacted because of this cut?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am advised it was because of one-off funding that was used last year for events and is not being continued with this year.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Given this is such an important part of our economy, do you not think it is disappointing that we will be spending $11 million less this financial year in tourism?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In tourism, we are still investing some $40 million over the four years in the events and convention funds. We have continued to increase the extra marketing with another $10 million. There is often in budgets an opportunity to have some efficiency dividends. The three of you sitting there were all ministers in the previous government. There are some legacies in efficiency dividends. We have seen across government the horrendous messes in Health when it comes to trying to make the budgets balance. The Liberal approach will be to invest wisely, invest sensibly, but when a little bit of belt tightening needs to take place, that is what we will be doing.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Who will be the key sponsor for the Christmas pageant in 2019?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: All those details will be released when the sponsorship details are finalised.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: If you cannot find a sponsor, will it become the Adelaide Christmas pageant?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I can assure you we will find a sponsor.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: What will be the cost of hosting the World Routes aviation conference in 2019?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As members would know, I had the great pleasure of visiting Guangzhou last week. In fact, it was on Tuesday in Guangzhou, so a week ago today, that I was at the World Routes conference. That was a spectacular event. They did survive the typhoon. They had to shut it down on one of the days. I think on the Sunday they evacuated the premises because there were some concerns about safety. As I said earlier, buildings were shaking, the big tall ones up to 1.2 metres.

It was a great event and it was an opportunity for Adelaide and South Australia. It was a very impressive stand that we had. Nick Jones led the team up there and they did a great job. I was very proud to be a South Australian, looking at the quality of the offering. There was a lot of chatter and a lot of interest when we did the handover.

There were a couple of speeches and we had a presentation by Uncle Moogy. He did a Welcome to Country, which got all the people from other parts of the world standing there excited. Obviously, there was some food and beverage on offer. I am sure that the food and beverage we offer here will be different. Theirs was very good, but I am sure ours will be, too. We are looking forward to a wonderful event next year, and it was a pleasure to be there representing the state.

Just quickly, I have some more information for you. World Routes is a major annual aviation event, which attracts more than 3,000 senior international aviation delegates. After a very rigorous bidding process, Adelaide was selected to host the 2019 event. It will be the first time it has ever been in Australasia. I will give credit to SATC and the former minister. I do not know quite how hard he pushed, but—

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I pushed hard, but the SATC people did all the good work.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Nonetheless, it is one of those things. When you have a change of government, there are things that previous governments invested in that we are going to grab and run with, because it is a good thing. World Routes provides scheduled meetings and appointments between airlines and airline network planners. It looked a bit like speed dating; you had 20 minutes. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there. It was really quite spectacular to see.

Tourism authorities, such as SATC, can also attend. The bid for the World Routes provided the owner (UBM) with a choice of two venues to hold the event in Adelaide: Adelaide Showgrounds and Adelaide Convention Centre. Due to the amount of exhibition space required and the format, UBM has selected the Adelaide Showgrounds.

The SATC worked with Adelaide Airport Ltd, Tourism Australia and the Adelaide Convention Bureau to pitch the event. The former two organisations have made significant financial contributions to the operations of the event. It is estimated that the impact of hosting the event will be some $20 million to the state's economy. Adelaide will also benefit from the profile it will gain from hosting international airline delegates. I did say we could guarantee there will be no typhoons in Adelaide next September; it might be a bit cold and showery, but maybe not. It will provide a great opportunity to showcase our strengths to the aviation community, with the objective of attracting new airline carriers.

Hosting such a significant business event is a major credit to Adelaide. It will make a significant statement about our ability to win future major events for the city. The SATC is now working with its partners to prepare the event. This brief was obviously prepared before last week. I attended the 2018 event in Guangzhou, China, where the handover ceremony took place. It was not a baton, it was a little sort of 'R' standing for 'Route'. I was not quite sure what it would be.

The cost of hosting the World Routes conference is commercial in confidence and cannot be disclosed, and is subject to contractual confidentiality restrictions. Under the contract agreement with the event owner, the SATC is required to pay for components of the event. This includes such things as hosting a gala dinner, providing transport for delegates, providing a venue to hold the event and undertaking a delegate marketing campaign. Tourism Australia and Adelaide Airport have also contributed to funding the event, but unfortunately for the shadow minister, it is subject to commercial confidentiality.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: If you are able to—

The CHAIR: Member for Ramsay, I think the member for MacKillop has been waiting patiently all day. He has driven all the way from Millicent to be here with us this morning, so get your question up, member for MacKillop, for your constituents.

Mr McBRIDE: Thank you, Mr Chair. My question is on Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 141, regarding the highlights in the Regional Visitor Strategy. Can the minister please outline this government's plans to promote tourism in regional South Australia through the recently released Regional Visitor Strategy?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I thank the honourable member for his question. I knew that the Regional Visitor Strategy was being prepared, and I was always a little nervous in the lead-up to the election that it might be released before the election, or that the former minister might get a whisper of what is in it and we would get into some bidding war, but that did not happen.

I have commended Helen Edwards, the chair, and all of those involved in it because it was done very rigorously, independent of political parties, and for the first time it brings together the priorities of all the regions in one document to focus on regional South Australia as a whole. The strategy has been extremely well received, and the steering committee is working actively to oversee its implementation.

I pay tribute also to the South Australian Tourism Industry Council, under the leadership of Shaun de Bruyn. Following the election, I suggested that I would like to do some regional visits. As you all know, I am originally from the regions and am happy to get out and see the regions. I envisaged half a dozen trips to the regions. SATIC said it would organise it; I said, 'Whatever you do, we'll be there.' Well, they organised 19 meetings—two in the city (the shadow minister attended the one in the city), one at Glenelg, and 17 of them spread all over the state: Cooper Pedy, Ceduna, Mount Gambier, Renmark and most places in between.

It was one of the things I think I have enjoyed the most in the first few months as minister. We directly engaged with over 800 tourism or community people right across South Australia, travelled 5,500 kilometres, and received particularly good feedback. For me, it gave me an opportunity to talk firsthand with people in the regions about the things they want. You have a range of different views.

That is why I am so pleased that we did not perhaps go out with a bidding war, in the regions from a tourism point of view during the election campaign, because I had not had a chance to have such a detailed, in-depth discussion with them. With input from the SATC, they have looked at the $8 billion target, each regions' share of that target and what they need to do to get to that target, which informs them and informs the new government of the things that we need to do in regional South Australia.

It has been a real pleasure—at times a little bit of a task as we have done a lot of miles—but it has been very good from my viewpoint and I want to thank Helen Edwards who chaired it. She is the chair of Adelaide Hills Tourism—she did a fabulous job—and there was input from the RDAs, from local government, from SATIC (the SA Tourism Industry Council) and Shaun and his team. It was fabulous, and it meant that we were able to engage with everybody and pick up their ideas. Certainly, from our viewpoint it will now inform me for future budget bids, things the SATC needs to help support and help grow our regional visitation.

I will quickly make a comment, if I can. Some of the little things that came out: Arkaba Station in the Flinders Ranges is still running sheep—probably a pretty good wool price this year. If they are still running sheep they would have three jackeroos or farmhands. I think they have 24 employees when it comes to tourism. Rawnsley Park I think would have 1½; Tony Smith would have 1½ stock hands—he has 21 staff with their operation.

The other fact that came out: I think it was the Eyre Peninsula RDA that said that, at the Elliston Hospital, 40 per cent of admissions are from tourists. I do not know whether it is because grey nomads are getting overexcited or surfies are hurting themselves against the rocks—and I have not spoken to minister Wade—but 40 per cent of admissions to a regional hospital certainly would help underpin the viability of that hospital. It showcases that regional tourism benefits our community in so many different ways, other than by simply jobs in the regions.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Just a quick one: through you, minister, I see Anthony Kirchner down the back there.

The CHAIR: Member for Mawson, if you could just refer us to a budget paper and line item, please.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Yes, it is a bit overall—it is a quick one.

The CHAIR: No, no, member for Mawson, consistently all committee we have been referring to a—

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Page 162, paper 5. Anthony Kirchner has been coming to these estimates for 14 years. Has anyone ever asked him a question, is my question?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I can answer that for you, member for Mawson.

The CHAIR: Member for Mawson, this is about the events bid fund or Great Southern Bike Trail?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Exactly.

The CHAIR: No, no, member for Mawson.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: It was just a joke, Chair.

The CHAIR: Does the member for Ramsay have a question?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am happy to answer that, if you like. Please, allow me to answer it because, as the shadow minister, I always felt guilty as well that you would have people from the Convention Centre or the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, or Adelaide Venue Management and they never, ever get asked a question. They gave me advice. This will be the 11^th year, so please do not ask them a question because that means it will be 11 years in a row that they have not had a question. They are hardworking servants of the community, they are happy to answer questions. As a diligent shadow minister, sometimes you just do not get around to asking them questions.

The CHAIR: Perhaps, minister, for next year's budget preparation we could put a dot point in the papers so that they can be asked a question.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, okay: 'ask Anthony a question.'

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In reference to Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, program 3, page 146, tourism is a super growth economy expected globally to grow more than 4 per cent. We are obviously participating in the Discover program with Tourism Australia. Why have you then cut the tourism budget at this crucial time?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We have not. The savings target for this year, 2018-19, is a measure of $660,000 over the forward estimates. As I was trying to explain earlier, we have invested in ongoing marketing with the $10 million that has been there annually, so we are focusing on showcasing South Australia to the world. We are showcasing investing. We have worked closely with the team and we will continually look at ways and opportunities to do that. I think we are well on track to deliver our $8 billion by 2020 from what the team tells me.

Obviously, we have reduced some expenditure because there were one-off expenses last year. There are some efficiency dividends, as I mentioned earlier. We see tourism as a very important part of South Australia's economy. As I mentioned before, we have zero population growth in the regions. It is a labour-intensive industry. It is something that helps grow our populations in our regions, put kids back in some of our regional schools, and one of the big challenges is that we are a very city-centric state. Some of the real challenges are to maintain those services in the regions and you can only do that with more kids in schools, more kids playing sport, more people living out in the regions. Every farmer I know employs fewer people, the same with every mine just about in regional Australia, everything, including technology. They have to do that to be modern and efficient and productive.

You cannot really have a robot or some sort of automated service—I suppose you can have drink delivery—because hospitality is about people. It is a people business, so it is really important for regional South Australia. We are investing in it, we continue to invest in it, and it will continue to be a priority for the Marshall Liberal government.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: This is probably my last question, referring to Budget Paper 5, page 161. There is additional marketing funding that you have put in for 2019-20 because it obviously continued in 2018-19. What happens after that in 2020-21 and 2021-22? Why did you only decide to continue for one extra year of additional marketing funding?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am glad the honourable member has asked that question. As the new government wants to make sure their investment is adequate, SATC wants to review all of their programs. We have given extra funding. We want to have a close look, maybe we should increase it, maybe it should be more than $10 million. I think that maybe this time next year we will address that again. We wanted to continue it on, we made a strong case that it needed to be continued on, but it is an aggressive market we are in. We need to make sure that we are spending our dollars wisely. At the time of the budget, I think it was announced that we would be having a look to see whether it is the appropriate level of support to grow our visitor economy.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister, I am a little concerned. I think we are out of step with our competitors. The NT announced they are turbocharging their tourism with an additional $114 million. Western Australia just announced a $30 million partnership with Perth Airport. Queensland put another $94.6 million to progress programs, growing tourism and tourism jobs. It is not that I do not think you are committed, I am just concerned that our states and territories around us are turbocharging this area and we are not seeing that lift this year.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Most of their commitments are not an annual commitment. They are over a four to five-year period.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Well, that is the forward estimates.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Well, exactly, and that is why we wanted to have a review and assess it and look at it. We wanted to look at the comparison with other states. The market is a competitive market. This is the first budget of the new government. We want to make that assessment. We have $40 million in our conference and events fund over the forward estimates, and this is one where we want to make sure that we get the level of investment right. We will take advice from the hard-working team around me to ensure that it is targeted and gets the benefit we want.

What I do not want to see, what we cannot afford, is to have waste. We want to make sure that whatever money we spend goes to deliver the outcomes we want, which is a bigger, stronger visitor economy and more jobs in South Australia.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: If we are able to attract more airlines here, how will you incentivise—

The CHAIR: Member for Ramsey, time has expired, unfortunately; I am sure there can be further questions in question time. I declare the examination of proposed payments for the portfolio of the South Australian Tourism Commission and the Adelaide Venue Management Corporation and estimated payments to the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the South Australian Tourism Commission and the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment completed.

Sitting suspended from 12:00 to 13:00.