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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-24 Daily Xml
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

Mr PISONI (Unley) (17:18): We saw some extraordinary scenes in the parliament today. We saw the Treasurer chastise 'the world's greatest agriculture minister'. In fact, everybody knows that when we call the agriculture minister 'the world's greatest agriculture minister' we are taking the piss, and yet we have the Treasurer himself using that—

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, member for Torrens.

Mrs GERAGHTY: My point of order is that, while things over the last few days of sitting have deteriorated incredibly in this chamber with the behaviour of members opposite, I do not think resorting to inappropriate language adds to parliamentary procedure or to the decorum of the parliament.

The SPEAKER: I would advise the member for Unley to be very careful with this language and what are he is saying.

Mr PISONI: They do not like hearing it, but they have got to hear it because we have a right to speak in this place. The facts are that this government is a house of cards and the cards are falling out. What is obvious about this government, what is obvious about the performance that we saw today, is that it is a house of cards full of jokers, absolutely full of jokers. I think that if we go back to the Premier and his defence of Cranfield University—you can still get this off the Premier's website.

This is the Premier's speech addressed to the National Press Club on 11 June 2008. It is a mid-term boast in the lead-up to the next election. We know the Premier has developed an extraordinary ability to over-spruik anything as part of a potential achievement—because it is always gunna. We heard a whole lot of gunna from the minister again today. We should call premier Mike Rann the gunna minister because he never delivers on what he promises. What did he say at the National Press Club that day? He said 'We are also home to a campus of UK-based Cranfield University.'

And what did he say yesterday? There was never a campus. Read Hansard and he said there was never a campus. It is a presence. What is that—a gift? I don't know; I am still trying to work it out. It is certainly a gift for the opposition, I will tell members that right now. The Premier's behaviour in the parliament today is a real gift for the opposition. What else did he say yesterday? Yesterday, when asked about degrees that have happened as a result of Cranfield University, he said:

If you actually had been following things—there were never any degrees; that's the whole point. They organise short, executive courses.

That is Hansard of yesterday. What did he say on 30 May 2006? This is the boast again, the over-spruik that the Premier has become famous for. He said:

So, we will have two world famous universities, Carnegie Mellon and Britain's Cranfield, one offering US degrees and the other offering British postgraduate degrees.

What did he say exactly one year later on 30 June 2007? He said:

During the initial three-year business development period, Cranfield will continue to teach a wider range of executive short courses, begin teaching dual post-graduate degrees with existing South Australian universities, and commence teaching specialist defence-related masters degrees.

What did he say nearly three months later on 13 September 2007? He said, 'As Cranfield develops a suite of defence degrees,' but the only suite I saw over there at Victoria Square was a broom cupboard, and an empty one at that—with a nice Cranfield sign on it, I must admit.

This is on top of the Premier's over-spruiking of Carnegie Mellon's arrival in South Australia well before the 2006 election when he talked about two campuses. One of them was the entertainment technology centre, and he said students at that campus would be able to work for Disney and Pixar. Remember that? He loves to stand next to those famous people. Remember the Kennedys and some connection to the Kennedys? Of course, it all comes at the expense of taxpayers' money. Taxpayers pay for the Premier to spruik his nonsense.

Time expired.

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