Question Time

Premier's Delivery Unit

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier assure the house that the Premier's Delivery Unit is entirely free from political influence and does not undertake any political work?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:15): I have been quite clear and on the public record on more than one occasion that the Premier's Delivery Unit has a very specific function for the government, and that function is to ensure that the state government Public Service honours this government's commitments that we made in the lead-up to the 2022 state election. I think it is well known and been well broadcast that this government has a comprehensive policy agenda. We had a very substantial number of commitments that we made to the people of South Australia.

Inevitably, a lot of attention goes to those big picture commitments, everything from revitalisation of our education sector, with programs—everything from three-year-old preschool right through to bringing our universities together—whether it be major changes to our health system, with some of the biggest investments in our state's history, or whether it be a comprehensive program to capitalise on the clean energy future that our state has. There is a comprehensive big picture agenda. But we are also very—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —conscious that many South Australians are as interested in what happens in their local neighbourhoods as they are in the big picture. We were very deliberate about engagement on the ground, particularly amongst a group of fantastic local campaigners that we have on this side of the house, making commitments to individual communities so they have the infrastructure and the resources they require for a cohesive community and an engaged society. So there were commitments; they were far more discreet, far more specific and smaller in nature. When you bring that together, Mr Speaker, what you have is a comprehensive platform that a party of government took to the people of South Australia at the election.

When you come to government, of course we are very conscious on this side of the house that there is also a responsibility to deal with other issues that might arise during the course of a term. Events can define a government, and we need to have the wherewithal to both deal with the matters of the day but also have the capacity to ensure that the public sector is focused on delivering on each and every one of the commitments that we made. So we established the Premier's Delivery Unit to be able to focus on each of those commitments.

I have a regular meeting with the Chief Executive of the Premier's Delivery Unit to track that progress. We have established a specific cabinet committee, made up of myself, the Deputy Premier and the Treasurer, that has oversight on the progress of those election commitments. We also meet on a periodic basis. That cabinet committee deals with any governing infrastructure or any decisions that we need to make as a government to ensure that we honour each of the commitments that we have made.

I might say, Mr Speaker, that I have found the establishment of the Premier's Delivery Unit to be an incredibly useful resource. It has also been useful to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet more broadly because the Chief Executive Officer of DPC, Mr Damien Walker, he himself has substantial commitments to positive public policy change and is leading that effort. Those two systems work directly in conjunction and in complement with each other, and it's a decision that I am very grateful we have taken because it is ensuring that this government doesn't make the mistakes of the one prior by breaking election commitment after election commitment not too long after forming office.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Florey! The member for Hartley!