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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-30 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

NationBuilder

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:32): It certainly has been an extraordinary suite of revelations, of very serious questions that remain unanswered on behalf of the Premier of this state and the government. We have just endured over an hour of question time and what I think could only be described as very substantial acts of evasiveness from the Premier. Direct and utterly pertinent questions regarding the distribution and collection of data have not yet been really adequately answered by the government, and I think that undermines the confidence of the people of this state in the conduct of their government during a time of crisis.

Let's just reel this back to the start to understand precisely how serious these allegations are. During the course of the last 12 months, in the midst of probably one of the biggest crises this state, our country and the world have ever seen, South Australia has performed exceedingly well in confronting the health crisis of COVID-19. One of the reasons we have been able to succeed is that we have all collectively and willingly put our confidence and faith in the Premier and his government to keep us safe.

One of the key components of that activity has been to willingly hand over an unprecedented level of data to the government so they can, in turn, take that data and use it to keep us safe. We have put our faith in them. I have put my faith in them, and we in the opposition have actively encouraged South Australians to adhere to all the requests of government and to hand over all that data to keep us safe. To now find ourselves, 12 months after this crisis commenced, asking questions about the way that data is being collected and the way that data has been used is incredibly disconcerting. It goes to the heart of trust. It goes to the heart of the trust we have all collectively placed in this Premier.

Let's understand the questions that have been raised here. During the course of COVID, South Australians were asked to trust government sources of information to guide them through this crisis. The principal source of information this government has actively encouraged people to use is the COVID-19 website www.covid-19.sa.gov.au, so you can imagine the horror of South Australians on finding that they were referred to a government website only for that government website to have within it links to NationBuilder—and not just NationBuilder but the NationBuilder component run, owned and operated by the Liberal Party.

stateliberalleader.nationbuilder.com.au was the website South Australians found themselves being redirected through when they clicked on a link on the COVID-19 website. When South Australians were looking for information they could trust, they went to the COVID website, and it turns out that within that website were links to the NationBuilder collection service of the Liberal Party.

The question is: why? How on earth did we find NationBuilder links or websites embedded in a government-related website and for what purpose were they there? The Premier is trying to tell us, 'Nothing to see here. It was a mistake.' Well, that is one extraordinary mistake. As these questions continue to be asked, rest assured that if any information were to emerge that suggested there was a transfer of any information or data from the government to the Liberal Party, that is a conspiracy. That would be an extraordinary revelation.

What has the opposition incredibly concerned is that over the course of this morning as MPs we have all, collectively, been inundated with correspondence from South Australians saying, 'Well, why was I getting these emails from Steven Marshall, including from stevenmarshall.com.au? How did Steven Marshall get my email address? How did Steven Marshall get my data?' These are questions that South Australians are entitled to find answers to.

Why were there Liberal Party links in government websites? Why are South Australians receiving unsolicited emails from Steven Marshall? That is why we need an independent investigation—not some investigation from within DPC but a genuinely independent investigation led by the Ombudsman—so that South Australians can have their confidence in this government and their data collection through COVID-19 somewhat returned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader's time has expired.

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