House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-31 Daily Xml

Contents

NationBuilder

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:05): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain to the house, if there are no issues with the redirections from the links hosted on the Premier's website—

Mr Knoll: Did he just say 'if'?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, I did just say 'if'—good boy.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens will not respond to interjections.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will start that again, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! The member for Schubert is warned for a second time. The member for West Torrens has the call. He is entitled to be heard in silence.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. Can the Premier explain to the house, if there are no issues with redirections from the links hosted on the Premier's website—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —why is the government currently removing those links by officers within this department as we speak?

The SPEAKER: I will give the opportunity to the Premier to answer the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:06): I am not aware of the removing of those links, but I think it would be perfectly acceptable to do so. As I have pointed out in the chamber today and yesterday, those links were put there inadvertently. I don't think it is suspicious in any way, shape or form for them to be removed; in fact, I think that it would be a good thing so that this matter could be cleared up.

As I have repeatedly stated in this chamber and more broadly outside this chamber, we had a situation where we were using the NationBuilder platform to distribute media releases. These press releases were inadvertently copied and pasted onto websites. There was no redirection to Liberal Party websites.

That's certainly the information that I have received: no redirection to domains. That's certainly the information that I have received, and that's why we took it upon ourselves to check that with the people who operate the system and who have the ability to go in and check whether there has been a redirection or whether there has been a collection and there has been a retention, and they said no.

I understand what the member is doing. He would like to create a situation where people are concerned about this. There is nothing to be concerned about this whatsoever. Quite frankly, the gall of it is quite extraordinary. We now see that the Labor Party are out there on Facebook with paid advertisements of the ABC news story. When you go to click on 'Learn more', where are you redirected to?

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: The ABC?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No. Actually, you are redirected to the Australian Labor Party. It's almost hilarious that you have a situation where you are directing people to look at a story about data collection and at the same time you are collecting data.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right and members on my left will cease interjecting. Before I call the member—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Premier and the member for Playford! Before I call the member for West Torrens, I call to order the Minister for Trade and Investment and I call to order the member for Elizabeth. When there is silence, members on my right, the member for West Torrens.