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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-09 Daily Xml
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BOOK PUBLICATION, NICOLA SASANELLI

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (15:02): My question is again to the Premier. Can the Premier explain the benefit for South Australia of spending $17,500 of taxpayers' money to publish a book authored—and indeed illustrated—by Puglia envoy Nicola Sasanelli that is not available for loan in any state public library?

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) (15:03): I am very pleased to answer this question. I am advised that on 28 February 2008 the University City Project, Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Bronte Treloar, Director, and Paula Nagel, International Education Adviser), agreed to explore the feasibility of publishing an existing manuscript, What if They Never Existed?, written by Mr Nicola Sasanelli who, at the time, was the scientific attaché at the Embassy of Italy in Australia and who, of course, was awarded an Order of Australia by the Howard government for his work in furthering relations between Italy and Australia.

The rationale for the decision made by the director of the University City Project to commit government funding to the production of the book was twofold. I am advised that, first, this was a means to strengthen ties with Italy, initially through Apulia, in the higher education and research sector, and, secondly, that the aim was to match private sector sponsorship and leverage that investment to create funding for Australian/Italian higher education, including scholarships from the proceeds of the book.

Publication costs of $32,000 were determined and potential sponsors explored. I am advised that during April 2008 Vodaphone agreed to cosponsor the publication with a contribution of $16,500. I am also advised that, after considering the feasibility of publishing the manuscript and securing a sponsor, in April 2008 the director of the University City Project agreed to commission Mr Sasanelli to complete, for the purposes of publication, the existing manuscript.

The South Australian Government, through University City, committed $15,500 to the publication of the manuscript. Paula Nagel provided editorial assistance as part of her existing contract with the South Australian government. The book was launched by me on Wednesday, 5 November 2008. The UCP contributed towards the costs of the launch.

To enable the distribution of the proceeds of the book for the education purposes originally conceived, Mr Sasanelli authorised the formation of the Australian-Italian Scholarship Fund, and Ms Paula Nagel in her private capacity agreed to administer the fund. Ms Nagel received no monetary benefit from the fund for her services.

Mrs Redmond: What was the benefit to South Australia?

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I said that at the start. The net proceeds of the sale of the book were disbursed as higher education and research scholarships of $10,000 through the Australian Academy of Science, which matched that amount with their own contribution from the peak body of science in Australia with a contribution of $10,000. A contribution to the travel costs of Italian researchers who were displaced by the L'Aquila earthquake—and I remember seeing all the Liberal members saying how concerned they were about that—was made to the Australian Travel Award for L'Aquila researchers. Each Group of Eight university in Australia also contributed $5,000. So, the major universities put in as well.

Mr Sasanelli received no private monetary benefit, I am told, for the writing of the manuscript, nor received any of the proceeds from the book sales. He advised that any profits for the manuscript, if it were to be published, would go towards Australia-Italy higher education, and the scholarship fund is ongoing. So, the proceeds were for the very best of causes. What is more, the Australian Academy of Science matched it dollar for dollar.

Mr Williams interjecting:

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

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport will be quiet.

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