DEFENCE SECTOR

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon) (15:01): Can the Minister for Defence Industries provide the house with an update on how the government has promoted—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —the growth and expansion of the defence sector in South Australia since 2002?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Police, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Motor Sport, Minister Assisting the Premier with the Olympic Dam Expansion Project) (15:02): Eleven minutes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I need all of that time to give a broad, comprehensive—no, what I will do, and this will send the member for Croydon into some spasm, because I am going to introduce a new word into the parliament today.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: It won't be the first time you have!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, but they were unparliamentary. I had lunch today—

An honourable member: As you do.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: As you do—with the Australian Chief Executive Officer of IBM who is in Adelaide.

An honourable member: He's going to offer you a job?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Shortlisted. Do you really reckon a computer company would come after me? I have to take my 19-year-old son tomorrow to the phone shop to get me a plan and show me—I have never had to buy a mobile phone.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No, it's the lingo in the computer world and it's called—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Mouse?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You stole my thunder. It's called—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It was a dry lunch.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I have forgotten the bloody word now!

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No, because this is what I am going to do with my answer, it is called 'hindcasting'. To forecast is to forecast forward, to hindcast is to look backwards. Does that meet your—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Isn't that called history?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Ah, history! I am going to tell a tale about Michael Atkinson. When he acted for me once, he drove my staff crazy. Every single letter that was sent over to him as an acting minister to sign, was sent back for grammatical correction and punctuation. My staff said, 'Please, never have Atko act.'

Defence, Madam Speaker: since coming to office we have made defence a priority. I will have to cut my answer down, because we have with us the former deputy premier of Victoria and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, because half of it was bagging Victoria. That would be a bit tacky, wouldn't it, with the former deputy premier sitting there?

But, clearly, we—the Premier and me—aggressively went after the air warfare destroyer program. We formed a defence industry advisory board and, as my briefing says, 'We recruited the nation's top defence and industry brainpower to serve on our influential Defence SA Advisory Board.' The Premier and I are both on that board, with the likes of General Cosgrove, General Leahy, Admiral Shackleton, Mike Rann, Kevin Foley, Air Marshal Les Fisher—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: It's like the general's staff.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Patrick, yes.

Mr Williams: Robert Hill.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: And he did a great job, yes; Robert did a great job.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The truth of the exercise is this: there were 16,000 jobs in the defence sector when we came to office. I can report to the house now that, through the outstanding work of myself, we now have in excess of 24,700, and we are very confident that we will reach—even without me being around—31,000 jobs by 2013. I am not so sure about that, but that is what I am told.

We have concentrated on the defence sector. We are happy to get the metal bashing done in rust bucket states like Victoria—sorry, Rob—and then bring them over to the intellectual capital of Australia—powerhouse Adelaide, and down to Port Adelaide, my electorate. That is where we put all the smarts inside these things.

We have developed an extremely significant quality of skills here in South Australia in the defence sector. I am very proud of it, and we are seeing a significant expansion. I should say, and the Premier did note, that he never had the foresight—or whatever I said before—to make me arts minister. I will confess to the house that (as John Hill would know) despite every effort as treasurer, I failed dismally to cut the arts budget to the extent one would have liked.

I asked once, 'How much artwork have we got?' Do you know what they told me? 'We've only got about a third of our state's collection on display,' so I said, 'Let's flog off the other two-thirds. No-one's looking at it. What use is it?'

Mr PISONI: Point of order, Madam Speaker. Would you ask the minister to come back on subject? It is the Premier's day and he's stealing the show.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Unley. I can't even remember what the question was.

Mr Williams: Nor can he!

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I've got to. Please?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will get back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am going to miss you—voice and all! At this point, I don't want to hog all of question time, because I am very timid.

Mr Pisoni: Come on, it's the Premier's day. Sit down.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It's my day, too.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, you will get back to the question. There are four minutes left.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I'm out of here. Can I say to the Premier, Mike Rann—and I know that this is a novel concept for you lot over there, but we actually praise our leaders when they are leaving and praise them when they are coming in, unlike you lot. Marty hasn't spoken to Isobel since the leadership transition, Iain hasn't spoken—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —to Marty, Vickie doesn't speak to Isobel.

The SPEAKER: Minister, will you please wind up your answer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No-one talks to Pisoni, and Ivan talks to everybody. I'm going to miss you lot over there. To the member for Bragg, I have to say that I hold you in the highest esteem. You are like a Tonka toy, you keep coming back up. You are a resilient member of parliament.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: She feels no pain.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: She feels no pain.

Mrs Redmond: 'The gift that keeps on giving'.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Me? Really?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! I am going to conclude. Thank you to the Premier for his support throughout my career. And to all of my colleagues, no tears today, there is not need. To my beautiful sons and partners, and to the old man—you're very proud of your son, dad, aren't you? But to everyone I say thank you. To my staff, too numerous to mention individually—I've gone through so many.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No, my staff have gone on to bigger and better things. Tom Kenyon, for example.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You know what I mean.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Oh, you've got dirty minds, you lot over there! Madam Speaker, this is my last question time and my last question. I know the Minister for Infrastructure is very delighted at that fact. I will leave a minute on the clock. To Jay Weatherill, all the best. You will make a very good premier and you have my full support. And to you, Premier, you have been an outstanding premier.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!