Royal Adelaide Club

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:04): Supplementary: given the minister's description that he had hoped it would be an annual event, and reports that the sponsorship was for the event proceeding over two years, how much money is the South Australian government owed as a result of the failure to fulfil the second year of the proposed contract?

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) (15:04): I will come back to the member with a more detailed response, but I will say this: the project—

Mr Whetstone: You are pathetic. Get a brief.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: Coming from the member for Chaffey, that's a wonderful compliment because the member for Chaffey is a person who certainly understands incompetence. I have made it clear to you that the government gave the project $600,000 for a two-year commitment. The project has failed. The project owes us $600,000. In effect, we have lost our investment. As far as I am aware, and I think it has been made clear by the entity, they have no intention of returning for a second year.

Sadly, the venture has failed and others have lost money. There is a long list of creditors involved. Sadly, this one has been unsuccessful. If you want to know what went wrong with the project, go and ask the people who organised it and, hopefully, they will tell you. We were a supporter of the project, but others ran it and others invested their money and, sadly, it was unsuccessful. That is disappointing.