South Australian Tourism Commission

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (16:39): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. When and how was the minister made aware of the intention to award a multimillion dollar tourism promotion contract to an interstate firm, and how did the minister communicate this decision to others in the government?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (16:39): I thank the honourable Leader of the Opposition for his question. I have some notes available. The South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) engages creative service agencies to manage the production of its advertising globally. The current creative services contract with KWP expires on 30 June 2018. The State Procurement Board requires that all agencies undertake an open market process for all new contracts. The value of the contract required the SATC to seek State Procurement Board approval for the acquisition plan.

In late 2017, under your previous Labor government, the Procurement Approvals Committee of the State Procurement Board approved the acquisition for the establishment of a new contract for the provision of creative services to the SATC. The procurement covered the engagement of primary and secondary agencies. The primary agency would manage all overall creative strategy for the higher profile global campaigns and the secondary agencies would handle short turnaround campaigns, typically for domestic markets.

The procurement process was undertaken in accordance with the State Procurement Board guidelines and the market approach was an open request for tender (RFT). The tender closed at the end of 2017, again under your previous Labor government. Prior to the contract award becoming public, I was advised that the SATC had made a decision on the contract. It has now been publicly stated that the tender process involved 10 steps before the final agency was chosen. Each of those steps was designed to ensure that the agency selected gave South Australia the best opportunity and value for money. As outlined in the tender document, each of the agencies shortlisted were evaluated on the same criteria, with specific weightage awarded to each criteria to ultimately determine the contract winner.

In the case of the SATC creative services contract, each of the five agencies shortlisted from a total of 35 who submitted applications were evaluated on the same platform against the same criteria. As you can see, Mr President, there was huge interest, with 35 companies applying: five were shortlisted, and this was further reduced to two companies prior to the recent state election—those two did not include KWP.

Premier Marshall and the state Liberal government are committed to growing the South Australian economy through more jobs. Therefore, the Premier and I have expressed disappointment that a South Australian company was not selected to deliver this contract. However, the process which the SATC undertook adhered to State Procurement Board guidelines. Several companies have invested extensively in this tender process and it would send a very unhealthy and unfair message to investors, both domestically and globally, to overturn the outcome of a very fair and comprehensive tender process.

I make the point that the previous Labor government and minister oversaw the signing of the SATC's PR contract with the Sydney based Red Agency. That contract began in January this year under the now opposition. In the 10 years prior to that, the contract sat with another New South Wales based company. However, moving forward, Premier Marshall has taken swift action to ensure that South Australian companies are well positioned to win future contracts.

Since the announcement of the contract, the Premier and I have met with the chief executive and chair of the SATC board to clarify the process and confirm actions to be taken to ensure that South Australian companies would be in the best position to win possible future contracts. We also confirm that a new board member will be appointed to the SATC board to represent the South Australian creative services industry. We are assured that the contract with TBWA will have clauses maximising the involvement of South Australian production houses and other specialist providers.

In closing, this government will always support South Australian companies and will express disappointment if and when they are not the winning bidder; however, we remain committed to supporting them in any way possible in the context of a fair and competitive market.