United States, Trade and Investment

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:19): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please update the house on his upcoming trip to the United States and the benefits that this will bring to South Australia?

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Elizabeth is on two warnings and keeps interjecting.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:20): Thank you very much, sir. I would like to thank the member for Elder—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for her excellent question. She cares about growing the South Australian economy. She wants to see South Australia export more. She would like to see further investment attracted into South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The member for Elizabeth can leave for 20 minutes under 137A.

The honourable member for Elizabeth having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: She wants to see greater tourism in South Australia because she knows that all of these things will grow the size of the South Australian economy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and that will create jobs. Creating more jobs in South Australia will keep more South Australians—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader, please!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —here in our state. Tonight, I will be travelling to the United States, the largest economy in the world, one that the previous government completely and utterly ignored. It was almost impossible to believe that we didn't have any useful interaction with the United States, and we have done everything we can, in the short time that we have been in government so far, to address that deficiency and to right that wrong.

I will be attending the Sea-Air-Space Expo, which is the largest maritime expo in the United States. We have an excellent story to tell on the back of the $90 billion worth of naval shipbuilding that will take place in South Australia over the coming years. We have now already completed three air warfare destroyers. We are about to embark—in fact, I think we have started now—on the offshore patrol vessels, to be followed very soon by the Future Frigates and the Future Submarines.

We need to make sure that we can continue the investment stream from the United States. They already have very significant global primes here in South Australia, companies like Raytheon, companies like Boeing and Northrop Grumman. We want to see that level of investment continue here in South Australia. You may be aware, sir, that the federal government is preparing for an election, which is coming up in a few weeks' time. I wish them all the very best. They have been doing a very good job over the last six years, but they are currently in caretaker mode.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Therefore, I have been afforded the great honour of delivering the keynote address at the United States-Australian defence dialogue, which will take place in Washington. This provides us with an opportunity to showcase and promote the great defence industry that we have here and our ambition to grow this even further. I think this is, quite frankly, an unprecedented opportunity for us here in our state to brief US officials—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and leading defence industry experts on the extraordinary opportunities of investing into South Australia, especially with the recent announcement of the new Australian Space Agency headquarters, which will be based here in South Australia. We will be meeting with NASA officials. This will provide me with an opportunity to brief them on the establishment of the headquarters here and also on recent announcements by the federal government that mission control will be based here, the space discovery centre will be based here and, as I pointed out earlier in the week, the SmartSat CRC will be coming to South Australia.

I will also be visiting the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Maryland. In the past, I have spoken in this chamber about the opportunity that cyber presents to us. I know that lots of jurisdictions look at the cyber threat, and it is a threat. We also need to look at the flip side of that, which is the opportunity, and that's why the trip to Maryland is taking place. I look forward to returning, I look forward to the trip and promoting South Australia and I look forward to updating the house on progress that we have made in terms of increasing exports, investment and tourism with the United States of America.