Parliamentary Procedure

BUSINESS AND PARLIAMENT TRUST

The SPEAKER: I crave the indulgence of the house for a moment. Today we have participants in the Business and Parliament Trust in Parliament House, and I welcome them. The South Australian Business and Parliament Trust has been established with two principal aims: one is to enable all South Australian members of parliament to widen their experience and increase their knowledge of business by spending some time with a local business; the other is to assist business managers to better understand how government is exercised through parliament and the political process. The trust is based on highly successful models operating in many parts of the world, including New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Finland, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. A board of management has been established to govern the trust, and Mr Mike Terlet AO and I, as Speaker of the house, have agreed to co-chair the trust, taking over from the Hon. Mr Such. I acknowledge Mr Terlet's presence in the chamber here today.

The trust's study programs will bring businesspeople and parliamentarians together on each other's home ground so that issues can be discussed and information exchanged in the most effective and practical way possible. I thank those members of parliament who have addressed participants in today's program. It is a non-partisan body with the aim of educating and improving decision making by business and parliament. Developing shared understandings between legislators and business has never been more important. I strongly endorse these objectives, and I commend the trust to all my parliamentary colleagues and to the South Australian business community.