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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-04-01 Daily Xml
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NationBuilder

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:33): Supplementary question, sir: my question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain to the house why the Department for Education is responsible for a Liberal Party NationBuilder site being embedded in the Department for Education's website for a school survey?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:34): Well, the member makes these allegations, but again, as per yesterday and the day before, it is really good to throw these accusations out against the hardworking men and women who reside within our departments. I think yesterday it was health, today it's education. Who else are they going to have a fight with?

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I have made it very clear on this issue right since the time that it was raised with me. I have made it very clear that this all came about because we were using the NationBuilder platform to send out press releases to the media in South Australia. We did it in opposition. Of course, we transferred—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that over when we came into government. We know that there were members operating within the Public Service who copied and pasted the text. They put it onto government websites, but this was completely—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and utterly—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —unintentional, as I have pointed out consistently in this house.

Yet, even despite these assurances, those continue to raise these issues, but they don't provide evidence. When are they going to provide evidence? They are very good at manufacturing accusations. I think the dream factory is now an accusation factory and working overtime up there at the moment, but there is no evidence which has been supplied. We went and checked the situation with NationBuilder. They operate the platform.

Mr Malinauskas: What about Mimecast?

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They should be in a perfectly good position to determine whether or not there was redirection going to Liberal Party domains and platforms and websites, and they said no. Then we asked the question, 'Has there been data collection or data retention?' and the answer to that again was no. I think it's interesting that those opposite always jump to the misuse of government data, people's data. What does that say about them?

We have seen some very interesting examples. Only recently, the member for West Torrens was out in the public domain telling people that the Labor Party had never used NationBuilder. He only has to go a couple of seats down. They are still using NationBuilder. In answer to my question yesterday, he said, 'Oh, no, that was in government,' and even though I pointed out to him that that wasn't the question, I went and checked. It was—they were using NationBuilder when they were in government. So even the explanation that he provided wasn't accurate. This person has really got trouble with his arguments here. He needs to provide that evidence. I understand that the Privacy Committee is looking at this issue. We will fully cooperate with this issue.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have made our position very clear on this matter since it was raised with us.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni: It's a conspiracy! It's a conspiracy! That's what Donald Trump would say: it's a conspiracy!

The SPEAKER: Minister!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I did have a large number of questions yesterday on cookies. I am still not 100 per cent sure what recipe they are using. The reality is that in this situation I have made it very clear—crystal clear, in fact—the way that this occurred. I have made it crystal clear that NationBuilder have done their own analysis and they have found that there was no redirection to Liberal Party websites, domains or platforms, and they made it also crystal clear that there was no collection or retention of the data.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Newland, I warn the member for Mawson for a second time, I call to order and warn the member for Wright and I call to order and warn the Minister for Innovation and Skills. I call to order the Minister for Education and the Minister for Energy and Mining, and I warn the Deputy Premier.

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