House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Sports Funding Sports Funding Mr TARZIA House of Assembly Hartley Sports Funding Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:39): My question again is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Did the process for allocating local sporting club facility grants comply in all respects with Treasurer's Instruction 15? The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Sports Funding The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:39): Perhaps I can provide some further detail to the member for Hartley because he is interested in this, and so he should be. What we didn't want to see was a repeat of round 2 of the grassroots sport grants fiasco, which we saw in 2020. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: When there were 13 grants awarded— Ms Stinson interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe is called to order. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —12 were in Liberal electorates— Mr Tarzia interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and one was in an independent electorate and none in Labor-held electorates. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! The member for Chaffey knows he is on a number of warnings. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: My recollection is that we made commitments from opposition— Mr Tarzia interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley! The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —to 31 different electorates across South Australia, metro and regional, despite the fact that at the time Labor was only representing 19 electorates in this place. We didn't take such a gratuitously partisan approach to supporting community and sporting clubs in South Australia as those opposite. In terms of who had input, the people who had input were those people who were closest to those communities, those people who came and put their suggestions forward for which organisations, sporting and community, could most benefit from government support if there was to be a change of government because we took the view that local clubs deserve the support of the state government. Those opposite, after that fiasco that I referred to, then changed tack. After their first infrastructure project—in fact, one of the only ones they delivered, the big Vergola just over the way there—they chose to spend their money on sporting infrastructure grants on an upgrade to Hindmarsh Stadium, which has the dubious honour of ensuring that most people will still be exposed to the rain and it still won't be FIFA compliant. Mr Tarzia House of Assembly Mr Tarzia: You don't like it? The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Well, no, FIFA doesn't. And, given that some of us were up early this morning watching to see whether Australia was going to be represented in the highest echelons of the world game in the World Cup, some of us think FIFA compliance is important because some of us, for example, support a bid for the FIFA Women's World Cup. Those opposite didn't until they were hounded into it. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Mr TARZIA House of Assembly Mr TARZIA: Point of order. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Treasurer, there is a point of order, which I will hear under 134. Mr TARZIA House of Assembly Mr TARZIA: This is well off Treasurer's Instruction 15—debate. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley raises standing order 98, as I understand it. The Treasurer is permitted to provide some context, and I believe he has done so. He is now perhaps charting a closer line to the question. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey and the member for Mawson will cease their exchange on soccer-related matters. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I wouldn't wish to be offside, sir, so I will come back to the point. The question from the member for Hartley was: while we were putting our election commitments together, while we were talking to our candidates, while we were talking to shadow ministers, while we were talking to sitting MPs in the Labor opposition, were we sitting there with copies of Treasurer's Instruction 15 working out whether those submissions that local community clubs had made to us were compliant with government protocols? Well, what we did after the election was we took the list of our election commitments and we took them to cabinet to make sure that the approvals for all these commitments fully complied with the requirements. Not only did we take them to cabinet but we encapsulated them with what I am told or what I learnt on Friday is 1,152 pages of budget papers that form the information sitting behind the Appropriation Bill, which we look forward to examining in great detail from Friday this week.