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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-22 Daily Xml
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Data Harvesting

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received any correspondence from the Ombudsman regarding any investigation into the misuse of data?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:22): I have answered that over the last 10 minutes since we have been in here and I'm happy to do it again. As was stated this morning at the committee, the Ombudsman said that my office had been informed, today I think he sort of suggested. He has put out a clarifying statement and said, no, he hadn't. He also made it clear that there was no finding. I know there are a lot of allegations from those opposite. They love making allegations, they love throwing mud—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned for a second time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but in reality, at the heart of this—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The Leader of the Opposition has been hanging around with the member for West Torrens a bit too much lately, I think, and he's getting things a little bit confused. There are no allegations made by the Ombudsman—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There is a statement that has come out from the Ombudsman subsequent to his appearance at the parliamentary committee today and, to be quite honest, it couldn't be any clearer. At the heart of this matter, we used a program, NationBuilder, to distribute media releases. We came into government and we continued to use it. We also know that there were some departments that used to copy and paste some of those press releases, and these basically also went through the NationBuilder system.

There was an investigation, which found that there was no data harvesting, there was no data collection, there was no data retention whatsoever. This was the finding of the Privacy Committee of South Australia. Of course, the Ombudsman has appeared today and has clarified his situation where he has no finding with regard to this matter whatsoever. But it doesn't surprise me—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —one bit that those opposite would come in here, because they love muddying the waters. In this situation, there is no basis—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for this whatsoever, because the Ombudsman has made it very clear that there was no finding. There has been no data harvested—

Mr Brown: Why has it gone to the OPI?

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and there has been no data retention. This was clarified by NationBuilder. It was clarified by the Privacy Committee. It has now been very plainly put into black and white by the Ombudsman. There is no finding against the government, against my office, whatsoever with regard to this. I can't be any clearer on this. I just direct those opposite: rather than coming in here and making allegations—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —why don't they just take a look at what the Ombudsman had to say? They had the Ombudsman in the parliament earlier today. In fact, the Ombudsman appeared before the crime and public integrity committee today. They had every opportunity to ask the Ombudsman any question that they liked.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is there is a very clear public statement made by the Ombudsman, and I think that that clarifies the situation for those opposite.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, the member for Playford will leave for 15 minutes in accordance with standing order 137A.

The honourable member for Playford having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is warned for a second time. The member for Lee is warned.

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