Government Marketing and Communications

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:33): Supplementary: does the minister think it is appropriate to spend South Australian taxpayer dollars promoting Coca-Cola products instead of the state, especially following the retrenchment of hundreds of workers by Coca-Cola Amatil when they pulled up sticks and closed their Thebarton and Riverland factories?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:33): I think in the context: the first two iterations of 'old mate' have been particularly successful. I know members opposite—I think former treasurer Foley called it a dog of an ad. I think his erstwhile factum and now shadow minister for transport, or is he treasurer, Stephen Mullighan, anyway; he called it a dog of an ad. It has had the biggest number of hits on the website—12.3 million South Australians looked at it. So at the end of the day there was an opportunity, a different flavour of ad that Coca-Cola were interested in. Unfortunately that ad didn't make it through the approval process.

The PRESIDENT: A further supplementary, the Hon. Mr Hunter.