Hannover Messe

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:50): A supplementary question arising from the minister's answer: you said that it was a fantastic drawcard to have the Brabham BT62 supercar at the stand and that it was a fantastic way to explain South Australia's manufacturing expertise. How then did the minister explain that it was a federal Liberal government, with support from the state Liberals, that drove car manufacturing out of South Australia and out of Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:50): I am struggling to see how that arose out of the answer, but anyway.

The PRESIDENT: Actually it did arise—

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It was interesting to explain to people there that we are now a new government with a bold vision for the state to embrace advanced manufacturing. I will inform the chamber of some of the discussions I had around space at a later date because I wouldn't want to detract from an answer I might give in a couple of days' time.

People were impressed that we had the capability to make a car of that calibre here in South Australia. It drew people to the stand. We had a great opportunity. You have to understand, a lot of these companies that were there are the sort of companies that are considering looking at investing in South Australia. They wanted to have a look at the current capability. We didn't discuss the past: we talked about the future—the very bright future under the Marshall Liberal government.