Trade Missions

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:28): Supplementary: given that the minister has been taking far fewer—something like 88 per cent fewer—businesspeople on outbound missions compared to the previous Labor government, what percentage of the trade missions does the minister expect will be actual businesspeople from South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:28): I thank the honourable member for her supplementary question. I think they have missed some of the points. This has been developed in consultation with industry. We are asking industry to tell us where they want to go and what they want to be involved in, whether it is inbound or outbound missions. We are not saying, 'Let's take 200 businesses to a foreign market and'—

An honourable member: Get a photo opportunity.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: —'and have a photo opportunity and have like a travelling roadshow.' Somebody explained to me once it was like a travelling wedding party with a bigger gala event every night in a new city. This is about taking businesses to the places they want to go or indeed supporting businesses to invite clients and potential customers into Adelaide and South Australia. As we all know, on a perfect day South Australia sells itself. We are about making sure we deliver what business wants. We are sitting down and negotiating with business. It is an industry-led program, not government.

The Marshall government wants to do what industry wants. We want to help industry grow. We are not as arrogant as the former government, which said, 'We know where you want to go.' We actually want to make sure that we take industry where they want to go or provide industry with the opportunities that they want.