Innovation in South Australia

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:35): I rise today to speak about some of the wonderful, talented people in our state, people who will take our state forward and grow jobs for South Australia into the future. This state Labor government sees research, development and innovation as a marketing edge, as the Attorney-General stated in this place last night. This South Australian Labor government talks innovation, research and development, but they do not deliver on it.

I met with some Adelaide University students yesterday at the ingenuity expo at the Convention Centre, and to see the great talent that we have in our state, bursting at the seams to try to get hold of an opportunity to take themselves and our state forward is just fantastic. We saw young people looking at virtual reality, 3D imagery, water energy capture, the solar car program they run at the university, and it was absolutely outstanding. These great, young, brilliant minds offer so much for our state, but they are being let down by this state Labor government.

I believe it is our job to create a place for this opportunity and for all South Australians to flourish and to take these ideas and talents to the world. I have concerns that this government like to see themselves as marketers in the innovation space, but they are not focused on delivering actions. They will talk about it but they will not deliver. I have questioned the Minister for Innovation in this space and whilst, this government has promised an innovation strategy in South Australia, and in fact has set aside $800,000 in the budget, they have failed to deliver an innovation strategy in South Australia.

The June 2017 digital government readiness report by Intermedium anticipated that South Australia would make significant advances in the near future following the recent reorganisation and senior personnel changes at the newly christened Office for Customer, ICT and Digital Transformation, which was previously the office for digital government. There were high expectations because of the talk the government was putting out there.

However, the same report noted that actual progress in 2016-17 was lethargic, which led to Victoria and the commonwealth overtaking South Australia in terms of digital readiness. South Australia slipped from third spot on the ladder, where they had got to because of all the promise, but the failure to deliver had seen South Australia slip to fifth. Since the release of that report in June several other things have occurred.

We know that there has been yet another change in the structure of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet's whole of government ICT division with yet another reorganisation and structure change, leading to the ICT and Digital Government division. It is unclear whether this is just a change in name alone or whether significant changes will actually occur in relation to the strategic leadership and direction of the government's ICT and digital focus.

We also know that the senior personnel changes that Intermedium cited in their report to contribute to the advances of the government's digital readiness have actually turned out to be yet another disaster for this state Labor government, with the alleged false documentation of the appointment of the Chief Information Officer resulting in the termination of that position. So the person who they got in to be the CIO had to be dismissed because of these false documents.

We now see the development of yet another position within the ICT and Digital Government division. This time the government has renamed it the whole of government Chief Technology Officer, who will be responsible for leading, developing and implementing innovative technologies that underpin, drive and enhance customer and business-focused services for the public sector. The CTO provides whole of government strategic direction and operations for architecture, design, development, and integration of ICT systems and operations.

We know this is important. We know this is the way of the future. We know government should be taking the lead here, but it is so disappointing to see and hear this government talk up this space, talk up their position in innovation, talk up their position in computer technology, yet fail to deliver time and time again. This intermediate report proves that and shows that, and South Australians should be alarmed. This government wants to talk about innovation, they want to talk about this space, but they do not deliver.

What we need to be conscious of first and foremost is to get the government to come out with an innovation strategy. They have a two-page statement; they have not put their strategy together. That is first and foremost, and it must happen and happen immediately. What we want to focus on on our side are those people who are going to create jobs, the young people I talked about at the start. We know they are important, and we want to make sure that we have a whole-of-government approach to ICT. That is what we need.

Cybersecurity is a great opportunity for South Australia in the future, and we have been acting in that space. Data sharing across departments is also important and something we need to take very seriously, unlike the state Labor government. That is where the Liberal team will deliver.

Time expired.