Members' Travel

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General regarding members of parliament travelling interstate and overseas.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: Politicians must be accountable and transparent in spending taxpayers' money. To do otherwise is a failure to understand their fundamental role in serving the South Australian people. While South Australians are suffering a cost-of-living crisis, Minister Nick Champion and the member for Chaffey, Tim Whetstone, spent almost $65,000 on a six-day trip to India last November. Taxpayers were also charged over $160,000 to send Minister Champion and opposition member of parliament Michelle Lensink on a study tour to London, Paris and Milan in May last year. My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. Are government ministers including opposition members as part of their entourage for interstate and overseas travel as a strategy to avoid scrutiny?

2. Will the Labor government be holding the travelling members and ministers to account and demand they demonstrate the financial benefit of their trip to the taxpayers, who funded it?

3. How many interstate and overseas trips have included government ministers and opposition members travelling together since the Malinauskas government came to office?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for her questions. In relation to her first question, no, I do not think that is the case: I think it is to have a broader understanding from a broader range of people. I did not understand the second question, but I am happy to go back and have a look at it to see if I can understand what it means. In relation to the third question about interstate travel, that is not something I am aware of. I do not think I have travelled interstate with a member of the opposition.