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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-28 Daily Xml
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GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (14:45): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer tell the house about steps he has taken to improve access to government information?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Treasurer, Minister for Workers Rehabilitation, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:45): I would like to thank the member for Torrens—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —for her question. As some members may be aware, the Australian Bureau of Statistics regularly releases data on several economic indicators, such as overseas goods exports, building approvals and labour force numbers. The data is used by each state government to see how they compare to the rest of the country, and a state-specific briefing paper is normally produced.

In South Australia, the Department of Treasury and Finance analyses several key economic indicators and, as a result, produces briefing papers on the following topics: building approvals, consumer price index, gross domestic product and state final demand, gross state product, labour force numbers, mineral and petroleum exploration, overseas goods exports, population estimates, private new capital expenditure and retail trade.

I am pleased to inform the house that I have asked my department to make all of this information available online from tomorrow. Those who follow monthly statistics, including the opposition who like to cherry-pick statistics to try to talk down our state economy, will now be able to go straight—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —to www.treasury.sa.gov.au to download the Department of Treasury and Finance's economic briefings. This news may be of particular—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Treasurer, can you just hold for a moment? There is too much noise coming from my left and I can't hear what you are saying.

An honourable member: You're lucky.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: This news may be of particular interest to the Hon. Rob Lucas in the other place. Mr Lucas has a habit of submitting monthly freedom of information requests to my department for their internal economic briefings rather than doing his own work and sourcing his own information directly from the ABS. I hope that by—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —publishing DTF's economic briefs online it will relieve some of the burden that Mr Lucas has placed on the hardworking public servants of the Department of Treasury and Finance, who spend considerable time and precious taxpayer resources—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hammond and the member for Chaffey will behave. You are both warned.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: They spend considerable time and precious taxpayer resources to process his requests for information he could just as easily gain directly from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The publication of South Australian-specific information and analysis on the DTF website is just one example of how the state government is working—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —to increase transparency and make government information available online to the wider South Australian community.

The SPEAKER: The member for Norwood.

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