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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-27 Daily Xml
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Government Travel Services

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:45): My question is again to the Premier. Was a probity adviser present when the Premier met with the Chief Executive Officer of QBT travel, Andrew Burnes, in May last year?

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford can leave for half an hour under 137A.

The honourable member for Playford having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: I'm trying to listen to the question and the answer in silence. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:45): No, absolutely not. There was no probity officer because it wasn't a meeting about a contract. In fact—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —I basically arrived after a conference had started and I left before it ended. So it's very difficult to conduct complex negotiations while you are actually on the stage. I don't know how the member for Lee might have operated in that regard. I will be quite honest with the chamber: I had no idea that Helloworld and QBT were linked. When I was growing up, QBT was Qantas Business Travel. That was—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, that's what QBT is.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left and right, order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Maybe some opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —thought it was just 'kwibbit'. The reality is, I had no understanding that 'kwibbit' or QBT was part of Helloworld.

I was delighted to be invited to attend the Helloworld national conference. This had a number of very prominent South Australian travel agencies which are linked to Helloworld, many national companies that are linked to Helloworld. My understanding is that they are one of the major if not the major domestic travel agency in Australia. They were here on an extended visit. They had quite a familiarisation with the excellent product that we have here in South Australia, and we make no qualms whatsoever of being front and centre to promote this state.

We have a huge ambition to grow the size of the tourism sector in South Australia. Previously, this was the position held by the previous government. They used to come into this chamber on a pretty regular basis talking about how important the tourism sector was for this state, and we share that ambition that the previous government had. They seem to have lost it recently. We think it's perfectly plausible to have people coming to our state to look at our products so that they can go back and inform their customers, their clients, about the wonderful product that we have here in South Australia. Now, we have an ambition to grow the tourism sector to $8 billion per year.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We do this because we know that tourism is a major employer in this state. We know that it creates many, many jobs and we would like it to create many, many more in the future.

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