NationBuilder

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:06): My question is to the Premier. What additional functionality did the Liberal Party's NationBuilder platform provide the Department of the Premier and Cabinet that other platforms already licensed and owned by the state government did not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yesterday, the Liberal Party's state director, Ms Sascha Meldrum, on behalf of the Premier said it ceased using the state government's licensed or owned software platforms on coming into government in 2018 and began instead to utilise a Liberal Party licensed NationBuilder platform to produce government press releases. Ms Meldrum publicly stated yesterday, and I quote:

…the systems previously available to government did not offer the same functionality available in NationBuilder.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:07): I don't have the details of that, but what I can say is that we had been using NationBuilder to distribute our press releases to the media in South Australia for an extended period of time. We used NationBuilder. I note that the Labor Party uses NationBuilder as well, or certainly has used NationBuilder, to distribute emails. In this instance, we distributed our press releases. I didn't have any complaints with regard to this.

I think what has happened here is that the Labor Party think that we have actually been using NationBuilder somehow within government to distribute information to the Liberal Party. That has been comprehensively ruled out. We made that point this morning. I don't know what time they get up, whether they actually listen to the radio, the media coverage of this issue, or actually read the statements that have been made by NationBuilder, but they are very clear. They are absolutely crystal clear and, for clarity to this house, I will go through it one more time.

NationBuilder has not been used by the Liberal Party to direct people from government websites to Liberal Party domains or websites, and NationBuilder have made it very clear—as I was advised prior to this morning, but they have clarified this situation—that there has been no retention or even collection of private citizens' information. It was used to distribute press releases to the press pack. I note that three years down the track since coming into government we have now adopted a new system. I think our friends in the media should be very happy with that new system.