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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-10 Daily Xml
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FIERA DEL LEVANTE

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:52): Has the Premier now had time to receive the full cost breakdown for the $185,000 in funding for the Fiera del Levante that was in the possession of the minister for trade in the house yesterday, and will he now, through the house, tell the taxpayers of South Australia the complete breakdown for this expense, including the cost of entertainment, food, travel and other expenses?

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) (14:53): I think it is important that we have a long—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Yes, that's right.

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: That's right. We know it was important for you to be on the red carpet in G'Day New York. You and Nicole Kidman—what a wonderful couple, just terrific. But the fact of the matter is, let's just go through some of the things about Puglia. Puglia has a high calibre higher education research and development system. It has—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I'm going to give you details. It has five universities with 120,000 students per year—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for MacKillop. You are on your third warning.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —23 national research centres, a national nanotechnology laboratory, a centre for excellence in computational mechanics, the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute, the National Research Centre for the Environment, and Bari has a high-tech district—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —for research and development in nanosciences, biosciences and infosciences. Puglia is one of the regions of Italy that can access special funds for higher education—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Bragg, I warn you again!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —research and development from both the Italian government and, very importantly, for European Union sources. It is interesting—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —I am pleased that the Liberal member for Norwood wants to go next year. We will make sure that he gets a warm welcome and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier and the member for Waite will sit down! Will you stop this noise, please? Somebody will be leaving this chamber very shortly, and you may not get your three warnings if you are not careful. Now, member for Waite, you had a point of order.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Point of order: relevance. The question was very specific: a break-up of the $185,000 of taxpayers' money. We do not need a general tourist guide to Puglia; we want an answer.

The SPEAKER: Premier, I direct you back to your answer.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Okay; we are now going into the fine detail. The government of the region of Apulia, which is about 4½ million people—I saw some drongo on the TV saying it was a tiny town; it is actually about 4½ million people, about the same as New South Wales—committed to providing postgraduate scholarship funding of $1.2 million over three years for Apulian students to study masters degree programs at universities here in Adelaide. We are not going to complain that they are spending the money here, surely! The South Australian government, in turn, provided equivalent funding for collaborative research projects between South Australian and Apulian universities and research institutes—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bragg, you are on your last warning.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —for the agreed priority areas. Funding of $1.2 million over three years was announced in the 2008-09 budget, and nine research projects were selected for funding in the first year of activity. The priority areas identified for scholarships and research collaboration include biotechnology, energy, integrated logistics, nanotechnology (and I will explain that later), megatronics, agriculture, conservation, water, information technology, and tourism.

Two Italian language immersion programs for Australian teachers of Italian have also been conducted and involve Flinders University and the University of Salento, Lecce, Apulia, and they were implemented in response—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Norwood and the Leader of the Opposition will be quiet. I warn you again, member for Norwood.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: These were implemented in response to state and national concerns about student disengagement from Italian and other European language studies across all educational levels. The MOU complements South Australia's presence at the Fiera del Levante that the member for Norwood wants to go to.

The SPEAKER: Premier, point of order. Point of order, Leader of the Opposition.

Mrs REDMOND: The question was specifically about how the $185,000 for the Fiera del Levante was spent, and the Premier has been on his feet for some minutes now going nowhere near the answer to that question.

The SPEAKER: I will ask him to wind up his answer, but I have been listening carefully and my understanding is that he is answering the question.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Here we go!

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The Apulia/South Australia collaborative research projects: nine research grants were approved by the South Australian government for disbursement to South Australian universities and research institutions. These were announced on 4 December 2008.

They are: improved wastewater reclamation for CNR (which is like the CSIRO of Italy in Bari) and the University of Adelaide, $60,000; strategies to reduce biogenic amines in fermented beverages (that is kind of like wine and is fairly important to us), University of Foggia and the Australian Wine Research Institute, $80,000; Integrated Aquaculture, University of Salento, Lecce, and SARDI (South Australia Research Development Institute), $60,000; stress response in durum wheat (very important for us), CNR, which is like their CSIRO—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Bragg!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —and also the University of Adelaide, $60,000.

The SPEAKER: Premier, point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: This is an absolute joke. We are listening to the Premier's dreamings. The question was how the taxpayers' $185,000 was spent, not all that drivel.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! Sit down, both of you. I am still attending to the member for Bragg's point of order. I think, Premier, you are getting fairly close to the end of your answer. I am sure—

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The details of how our $185,000 and theirs was spent I am giving to you and you don't like it. You don't like it that it's about—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —durum wheat and wine and everything else. Okay, there was health promotion for physical activity to prevent obesity, University of Foggia and University of South Australia. Development of new microsatellite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —markers for saturation of genetic map in the olive—

The SPEAKER: Point of order, member for Bragg.

Ms CHAPMAN: The Premier is deliberately defying your ruling on this. You asked him to wind up and either give us an answer or sit down.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: When I am dealing with the general you say, 'We want the specifics,' and then when I give you the specifics you don't want to hear it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier was asked questions on expenditure. He is giving figures on expenditure. I think that he will be finishing very shortly or we will never finish question time.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Madam Speaker, if I do not detail, I will be criticised for not giving a full and honest report—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Finniss!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The saturation of genetic map in the olive—that is about the olive oil industry—University of Foggia and also the School of Agriculture, University of Adelaide, $20,000; business model and product market strategy in biotechnology, Department of Science, Economics, Maths and Statistics, University of Foggia, and also the University of Adelaide, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre, $20,000; Sustainable energy consumption, Department of Science, Economics, Maths and Statistics University of Foggia and Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre, University of Adelaide, $20,000.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Actual instalments disbursed in accordance with grant agreements in 2008-09, excluding GST are as follows:

Australian Wine Research Institute, Biogenic Amines in Fermented Beverages, $40,000.

University of Adelaide, Business Model on Biotechnology, $20,000.

University of Adelaide, Sustainable Energy Consumption, $20,000.

University of Adelaide, Microsatellite Markers for Olives, $20,000.

University of Adelaide, Innovative Processes for Wastewater Reclamation and Re-use, $30,000.

University of South Australia—Health Promotion—Physical Activity to Prevent Obesity, $20,000.

Italian Language Immersion Program: grant of $25,000 to Flinders University and the Centre for Australian Studies in the Mediterranean granted $10,000.

I can keep going. This is about doing things rather than talking. You know, it is very important that the Leader of the Opposition travelled at public expense with her daughter to Paris, Rome—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Norwood, you are on your third warning.

Mr PISONI: Point of order—relevance, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Premier, I think you have answered your question. The member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: Thank you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: Didn't you travel with your son, Treasurer?

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: Did you travel with your son—

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley, ask your question or you will be out.

Mr PISONI: —and claim him as a spouse?

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