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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-09 Daily Xml
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TRADE PROMOTION, PUGLIA REGION

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:49): My question is to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We will hear the question in silence.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: My question is to the Premier. How does he, as Leader of the Government, justify cutting funding to and scaling back our trade offices in China (our largest trading partner), the Middle East, Singapore and the United States (our fifth largest partner), while funding in his budget his special relationship with Puglia, a subregion of South Australia's 41st largest trading partner? How is this better for jobs in and exports from South Australia?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:49): It is interesting because there is obviously a bit of leadership struggling going on here. The member for Waite looked very disappointed—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —that the Leader of the Opposition would not give him the first couple of questions. It is very interesting, too—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —because this is the man who tried to smear me and others—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —by using forged documents and faked receipts that ended in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker—again standing order 98. Might I suggest that the reason the house becomes disorderly is because the Premier refuses to answer the question.

The SPEAKER: The Premier will get to the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: It is interesting that the last question, which shows how inane their information is, is in line with the current government savings measures. The budget for the Fiera del Levante has been reduced to $185,000 per annum in the forward estimate years. This is a significant reduction on this year's budget of $236,000. So, not only—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —did I not go and see the Treasurer and say, 'Save this project; don't cut it,' in fact, he did cut it, just as we have cut other expenditure, because we have the guts to make sure that we make the cuts to keep things going on. But I remember the member for Waite giving a speech—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —in this place talking about how critically important it was to get—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: He's entirely on the point.

Mr WILLIAMS: He's not on the point; he is making personal accusations and aspersions on members here.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The fact of the matter is that we have four sister state relationships in the south of Italy. There used to be one, established in 1990, and for years supported by the Liberals and Labor. We have now forged links with Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia, and Puglia is putting in money to make sure that we develop a relationship we can build on. There are about 100,000 people in this state who have come from an Italian background, yet we have not had the dividends economically from that, and that is what we are trying to leverage.

Can I just say this: the honourable Minister for Multicultural Affairs went to Canberra yesterday to assure the Italian ambassador to Australia that we have no intentions of doing what the Liberals want, which is cutting back our new and developing relationship with southern Italy. The fact of the matter is that the member for Waite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —has never attacked our expenditure in India, where we have an office and staff. He has never attacked our expenditure in Shandong, where we have an office and staff. He has never, of course, attacked G'Day USA, because he likes—

The Hon. K.O. Foley: No, he loves it.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: He went up there; he wanted to walk down the red carpet.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We remember that. That was a day or so—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the member for MacKillop.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —after his by-election debacle. The fact of the matter is that we use the word 'nepotism'. 'I know what nepotism means'—he said that publicly. He did little private briefings. Once before, he tried forged emails, false documents, fake documents—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —which brought him down. Now he tries to—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker—

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —smear my wife through the back—

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The Premier will sit down! We will move onto the next question.

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