South Australian Museum

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:56): Supplementary: noting the Premier's answer in which he described the relative contribution of funding by his government to the former government, can the Premier update the house as to whether the square metre of provided storage space in the $80 million storage facility provided by the former Liberal government to the Museum and other collecting institutions has been maintained or has it, rather, been dramatically cut since this government came to office?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:56): The shadow minister will be well aware that the government is in the process of doing its budget deliberations. We are serious as a government about investing in a range of different pursuits and through all the activities of this government we have a bit of a different approach. We are running a budget that is back in surplus, which again stands in stark contrast to those opposite. We are running a budget that is underpinning economic growth, which is in stark contrast to those opposite and we are also running a budget that is investing in arts and culture.

Again, if we were to do the compare and contrast piece we would know that the former government used to go to arts events but then cut the arts institutions that run those events.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: That's right. There were all the activities to send signals, but when it came to the meat on the bones, it was sorely lacking. We are adopting a different approach. When people want to know the dollars allocated to various pursuits in the budget then, of course, they can look forward to seeing that in only a few short weeks' time.