Government Marketing and Communications

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment regarding government communications.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Can I start out by wishing my old mate happy birthday. Changes in government communications policy require all whole-of-government marketing and communications to be referred to the Government Communications Advisory Committee, or GCAC. We understand this policy took effect from 1 July 2019. The trade, tourism and investment portfolio, I am quite sure, would be responsible for launching numerous marketing campaigns. My questions to the minister are:

1. Minister, do you note or approve all campaigns in your portfolio before they are submitted to the GCAC?

2. How many campaigns have been submitted to the GCAC relevant to your portfolio?

3. Have any of these campaigns been refused by you, or have you asked for any changes to any of these campaigns, and if so which ones?

4. In particular, will the minister advise if he was involved in any way with the now canned 'old mate' Coca-Cola ad, and when was the minister first made aware that the 'old mate' Coca-Cola ad had been canned—pun intended?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:31): I thank the honourable old mate across the chamber for his question. And he is right: there is a new government approval process in place—it has been in place now for some months—to approve all government communications. I think if I can work through in the order of the questions: I was asked do I approve or note any government campaigns. No, I don't. They have an approval process; they are submitted to the appropriate body. So I don't have a list of how many have been gone up to particularly the government committee. That is independent of me.

Also I don't have any that have been refused by me, because I don't have that role. The 'old mate' Coke can—as members would be aware, I had the great honour and privilege and pleasure to represent our government in China last week, so I became aware, given the time differences, I think on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. But I can't actually recall, because of course we were busy up there doing what we were doing. So that is when I became aware of it.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Hunter.