ITALY, TRADE

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood) (15:34): Earlier today, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs spoke about my support for trade with Italy. This is, of course, no great revelation. I have, in fact, been a long-term supporter of trade with Italy and, indeed, a long-time supporter of trade generally. She, of course, announced it to the house as if it were some great revelation. I am sure she is very concerned, sitting in her office at the moment, worrying about what things she may have said in confidence that I might be bringing up here today, but we will save that for another the time, and she can sweat about that little bit longer.

All week I have listened to this government make a number of assertions, in particular the assertions about competence relating to international trade, in particular international trade with Italy. Unlike the 'wannabes' on the other side, I have personally been involved with trade with Italy since the mid-1980s. My family company was involved in furniture manufacturing for many decades. Much of the machinery that we purchased came, of course, from northern Italy which is the powerhouse of international machinery manufacturing for this important sector. I was on visits to the north of Italy when we purchased machinery from BLM, Morbidelli and, most recently when I was a managing director, from Biesse—I know the sector well.

When I was the managing director of Marshall Furniture I organised sponsorship for both employees of my company and some up-and-coming emerging industrial designers in South Australia to exhibit at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, a great exhibition each year for the manufacturing sector and, in particular, the furniture manufacturing sector.

Most recently, before coming to parliament, I was employed as the general manager for the textiles division at an iconic South Australian company, Michell Pty Ltd. This year Michell celebrates 140 years. It has more than a century's history in substantial trade with Italy in both the wool and skin sectors, the two chief exports from South Australia to Italy. As part of my work there, I regularly visited Prato, Biella, Milan, the Emilio Romano area and, of course, Treviso where I set up the office for Michell textiles in Italy. I was a regular attendee at Pitti Filati which is, of course, the major textile, yarn and wool fair. As I said, textiles is the major sector that we have had.

My relationship is neither flirty nor funny; it is one based on long-term practical knowledge and experience in this sector. I am also a member of ICCI (the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and maintain a strong interest in this area. All week we have heard the government bleating about their concerns for international trade with Italy, and I would like to recount one story which I think typifies their real concern for trade with Italy.

Earlier this year, I attended celebrations at the Norwood Town Hall for the Festa della Repubblica which is held each year on 2 June. At this event, a government employee suggested that I should meet with Esther Roberts because she was in charge of trade with Italy. Subsequently, I found out that her role was Trade Development Manager, Europe and the Middle East, with the South Australian government. However, she was introduced to me as being in charge of trade with Italy. I asked her how she had enjoyed the event that night because most of it was in Italian—and my Italian is anything but fluent. She said, 'I have no idea, I don't speak any Italian.' Little alarm bells started ringing and I thought, 'Here is a person in charge of trade but she doesn't speak any Italian.'

I then pointed out that I worked for Michell's. She had no knowledge of Michell's whatsoever. I think she may have thought it was a patisserie because people have been confused about that in the past. However, she certainly was not aware that Michell's was, historically, the largest exporter from South Australia. As you can imagine, I was a little bit concerned about how she got this job in such an important and critical role. I asked her whether she had worked for one of South Australia's great exporters, perhaps San Remo, but, again, no; her credentials were that she worked for Kevin Foley as a political staffer.

Herein lies the problem. This government is so arrogant that it believes that it can make appointments outside orthodox and accepted employment procedures. Already today we have heard the Premier bragging about his appointments to various high-powered roles without going out to the market. This is, of course, not an isolated incident of a political staffer making their way into a senior role within the public sector. South Australia was once renowned for the very high calibre of the public sector and, most importantly, its independence. There is a growing and now very obvious concern in the public sector that the independence of our Public Service is continually being compromised by this government parachuting their friends and colleagues into key public sector roles.