NationBuilder

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Education. Why can't the minister rule out NationBuilder links being embedded in the survey?

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Deputy Premier!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:53): The Leader of the Opposition asks me to rule out something that was brought to my attention in a question about eight minutes ago now—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —with no evidence presented. The Leader of the Opposition in this house just two days ago—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Premier!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —gave a speech in which he described it as a vast conspiracy. The conspiracy theorist who purports to lead the opposition asks us to rule in and rule out things that have just been brought to our attention that in some cases have quite possibly been made up, but we don't know because they haven't actually presented the information.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: What I do know is that it is not a conspiracy theory to say that the Labor Party has form in putting out flyers purporting to go to Liberal politicians and having mailing addresses going to Labor Party offices. This is something that has been going on for more than a decade in the Labor Party, and it continues. If you are concerned about misleading members of the public about what they are signing up to when they provide information and capturing people's data—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —I invite the Leader of the Opposition to ask his frontbench members—I am sorry, also now backbench members—whether they have ever put out material purporting to go to a Liberal Party member of parliament or a Liberal Party minister but actually having a Labor Party member's address on it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume his seat. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Standing order 98: this is clearly debate. It was a specific question about whether information from an education department website had been provided to the Liberal Party, and now the response has descended into—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —a series of allegations about party political campaigning.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lee will resume his seat for a moment. Members on my right will cease interjecting. I am endeavouring to listen to the member for Lee. The member for Lee has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Again raising a point of order: standing order 98. The question was quite specific about information being transferred from survey responses on the education department website to the Liberal Party, and the member for Morialta's response has descended into a series of allegations about party political campaigning.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The question related to subject matter that has been traversed at some length. There is, in the circumstances, scope for the provision of some relevant context. The minister has traversed that, in my view, to its fullest extent. I uphold the point of order and I direct the minister more particularly to the specific subject matter of the question. The Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Sir, I have answered that.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Elder, I warn the member for Colton, I warn for a second time the Minister for Innovation and Skills, I warn the Premier and I call to order the deputy leader.