Royal Adelaide Club

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:03): Why has the government been at pains to describe this as a private venture in which they were not involved—in fact, all the interest came from The Social Creative themselves—when that is clearly a contested point in many public fora, and the Premier himself, in March last year, described it in different terms?

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:03): It's never a good idea to make up your questions off the mobile phone on the spur of the moment without having run them through your question time committee because the question is like—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: Here they go. Here they go. There's a 20-year project over there to get into government, and I wonder how successful that's been? It's one thing to set targets; it's another one to achieve them. It might be another 20 years before they get there—but nothing like a target. Work away at it, boys, but you will have to ask better questions than these.

Members interjecting:

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: standing order 98, the minister is going nowhere with the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta provoked such a response with his question, and I hope it's now over.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: I'm sorry, Mr Speaker, but I'm just dying to further answer the question because in his question he purported that we, as a government, had not supported the project. We have made it clear in our earlier answers that we did. We would like for it to have succeeded, but unfortunately it did not. It would have been terrific if it had become an annual event, but unfortunately the venture has been unsuccessful.