<!--The Official Report of Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia are covered by parliamentary privilege. Republication by others is not afforded the same protection and may result in exposure to legal liability if the material is defamatory. You may copy and make use of excerpts of proceedings where (1) you attribute the Parliament as the source, (2) you assume the risk of liability if the manner of your use is defamatory, (3) you do not use the material for the purpose of advertising, satire or ridicule, or to misrepresent members of Parliament, and (4) your use of the extracts is fair, accurate and not misleading. Copyright in the Official Report of Parliamentary Debates is held by the Attorney-General of South Australia.-->
<hansard id="" tocId="" xml:lang="EN-AU" schemaVersion="1.0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2007/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="hansard_1_0.xsd">
  <name>Legislative Council</name>
  <date date="2022-02-08" />
  <sessionName>Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)</sessionName>
  <parliamentNum>54</parliamentNum>
  <sessionNum>2</sessionNum>
  <parliamentName>Parliament of South Australia</parliamentName>
  <house>Legislative Council</house>
  <venue></venue>
  <reviewStage>published</reviewStage>
  <startPage num="5209" />
  <endPage num="5259" />
  <dateModified time="2022-08-06T14:30:00+00:00" />
  <proceeding continued="true">
    <name>Question Time</name>
    <subject>
      <name>COVID-19 Media</name>
      <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000109">
        <heading>COVID-19 Media</heading>
      </text>
      <talker role="member" id="4697" kind="question">
        <name>The Hon. K.J. MAHER</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Leader of the Opposition</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <questions>
          <question date="2022-02-08">
            <name>COVID-19 Media</name>
          </question>
        </questions>
        <startTime time="2022-02-08T14:55:12" />
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000110">
          <timeStamp time="2022-02-08T14:55:12" />
          <by role="member" id="4697">The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:55):</by>  I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding the COVID-19 pandemic response.</text>
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000111">Leave granted.</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="4697" kind="question" continued="true">
        <name>The Hon. K.J. MAHER</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000112">
          <by role="member" id="4697">The Hon. K.J. MAHER:</by>  In March 2021, in between the damning report from the Ombudsman and the most recent commentary from the media about the politicisation of the pandemic response, the ABC reported that SA Health webpages with critical COVID-19 information included embedded redirections via NationBuilder, the Liberal Party's election campaigning database.</text>
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000113">The ABC reported, and I quote, 'The links can be found on media releases and across parts of the SA COVID-19 website, as well as on other state government department-run sites.' All this came after the Ombudsman found that SA Health had acted in a party political manner by streaming materials from the Premier's personal website. It came before the daily COVID-19 media conferences that have now been hijacked in the last week by extended 10-minute announcements and ads for the Liberal Party. My questions to the minister are:</text>
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000114">1.&amp;#x9;Can he please explain exactly how the largest department in government, with the greatest responsibility for managing the pandemic, has become under his watch so repeatedly politicised?</text>
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000115">2.&amp;#x9;Can the minister explain the difference between an agency serving the government of the day and actively promoting a political party?</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="3164" kind="answer">
        <name>The Hon. S.G. WADE</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Minister for Health and Wellbeing</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <startTime time="2022-02-08T14:56:49" />
        <text id="20220208b829aee713f24eb9b0000116">
          <timeStamp time="2022-02-08T14:56:49" />
          <by role="member" id="3164">The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:56):</by>  I understand the honourable member is referring to NationBuilder, which was in relation to IT resources of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. I will refer the honourable member's question to the Premier and see whether he wants to provide a response.</text>
      </talker>
    </subject>
  </proceeding>
</hansard>