Government Marketing and Communications

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:34): I appreciate the minister trying to defend the decision to run the ad, but will the minister now admit that he has had time to reflect that selecting a Victorian company to run a South Australian tourism campaign was a bad idea then, and that it is a bad idea now, when all they can come up with is ads that actually promote Coca-Cola, which left South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:34): I take the opportunity to respond to that supplementary. Of course, the recruitment process was done by the honourable member's very good friend, the Hon. Leon Bignell, as the minister who was in charge of the South Australian Tourism Commission prior to the election. So, when they talk about a Victorian company, there was a procurement process, and 95 per cent of that process was conducted by the former Labor government.

So it's a bit rich to say that I appointed them. I think the members opposite need to understand that when you actually go through a proper procurement process—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Of course, clearly what they are showing now is that there is nothing proper about any procurement process they went through in the previous 16 years. We have a company that I think has done some fabulous work. We are now at $7.6 billion—the biggest this visitor economy has ever been.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Exports are going back by 18 per cent.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: We are talking about the visitor economy. Visitor tourism is a key export and is growing particularly well, and the advertising campaigns have been particularly good. I don't believe that it was actually the advertising agency that came up with the concept. Coke had already put out a can that had 'old mate' written on it. So I think there were just some discussions between the SATC and Coca-Cola as to whether they maybe would be able to leverage off that relationship. As I said, that particular opportunity did not make it through the approval process.