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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Question Time

Economic Advisory Council

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on the establishment of the Economic Advisory Council and how the council will contribute to our state's future economic development?

The SPEAKER: The Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:07): Thank you very much, sir, and I would like to thank the member for King for her important question regarding the advice that I am receiving via the Economic Advisory Council. As you would be aware, sir, in the lead-up to the last election we said that we would not be continuing with the economic development board, which was established under the former government, although at the time I did pay my grateful thanks to the former members of the economic development board. Each of them has made a valuable contribution to this state.

However, as a group, we thought new government, new opportunity for different advice in a different format, and that's exactly what we did after the election. So we disbanded, with thanks to the former members, the economic development board, and I have now established my own Economic Advisory Council, and I am very pleased to let this house know that we have already held our very first meeting.

Mr Odenwalder: I'll have a look at Facebook.

The SPEAKER: The member for Elizabeth is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: One of the members of that Economic Advisory Council is, of course, Professor Tanya Monro. She was a member of the former economic development board, and we thought that it was important to keep that continuity—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with the board. As I said, they did a lot of work and provided some useful advice to government. Unfortunately, very rarely did the former government adopt that information or that advice. In fact, I have a lot of reports that, of course, were prepared, and a lot of work was done by that board. Not a lot of action was implemented. We will be keeping that continuity with the former board. I met with the former board, prior to announcing the composition of the new board, to get a download. I was joined by other members of cabinet and it was a very fruitful meeting.

We took a strong plan for real change to the last election—more jobs, lower costs and better services—and these are specifically the things that the new board are advising us on. They come from a range of different backgrounds, including information technology, entrepreneurship, defence, banking and finance, education, tourism, mining, scientific research and overall economic development. Most importantly, they understand the value of the private sector here in this state and the range of different connections to industry that I am already finding very valuable.

Most importantly, I think it's important to update the house that these people have not been offered, nor sought, any remuneration for the time that they are putting in to providing this advice to me. They are doing this because they are passionate South Australians.

Mr Koutsantonis: They are still public officers.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They are—

Mr Koutsantonis: They are still public officers.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will cease interjecting.

Mr Koutsantonis: I'm just assisting the house, sir.

The SPEAKER: I don't think you are.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They are providing that advice free of charge to the people of South Australia because they are passionate South Australians. They believe in our future. They want us to get ahead in South Australia and that is precisely what we want to do as well. I am happy to report on some of the important issues that we have already discussed: (1) is ensuring that we maximise the defence opportunity that is coming to our state; (2) is looking at the important area of skills and making sure that we fix up the mess left by the previous government, who didn't have the right level of technical skills being put in place to make sure that we could deliver on these defence opportunities.

We have also discussed making sure that we are maximising the opportunities for increased trade, economic activity and investment in our economy and, most importantly, supporting business by lowering taxes, removing regulation and building productive infrastructure. These are the things that we are considering. I am looking forward to our second meeting.

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Waite. The Leader of the Opposition.

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