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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-19 Daily Xml
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Sporting and Infrastructure Grants

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. How was Mitcham council consulted before recent sports grants were allocated? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TARZIA: The Mitcham city council was prevented from accessing the need for millions of dollars of sports grants before the grants were allocated to them. An email from 22 April, which I provided to you, sir, within Mitcham council says, 'Council staff had little to no involvement in the designs and costing of the sporting and infrastructure grants.'

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:32): I am happy to explain how election commitments were arrived at. Members of parliament and candidates for election directly engaged with members of their community, and in particular with sporting and community clubs, to understand what their experience was like undertaking their activities in the community and also to hear from them whether there was anything that would make their lives easier, make their sporting community club provide an improved experience or flourish into the future and perhaps also maybe even recover from the last two years of dealing with COVID and all the interruptions.

It stands to reason that for many sporting and community clubs, rather than owning their own facilities they quite often use council facilities. I am fascinated to understand the basis of the line of questioning that that means that, rather than engaging with the sporting or community club, a candidate or a member of parliament should instead engage with the council. Let me give you an example, Mr Speaker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! Member for Flinders! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The expectation of those opposite would be, for example, if we were to make an election commitment to, say, build a new hospital at Mount Barker, then we would ring up Christopher McGowan from opposition and say, 'Would it be okay with you if we made a commitment to build improved hospital infrastructure within your portfolio?'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: How remarkable! Rather than speaking—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —to the doctors, the nurses, rather than speaking to the patients in a hospital, instead: 'Don't worry about any of that. Don't worry about what the clinical experience is in a hospital. Don't worry about what members of the community want in Mount Barker. Don't worry about that. Just go to the bureaucracy and see what fits in with them.' How remarkable! Or, for example—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey! Member for Mawson! Member for Flinders!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —if you thought it was a good idea to build five new technical colleges, you should seek the approval of the Chief Executive—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Heysen!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —of the Department for Education. How extraordinary!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Don't worry about the skills needs—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —or the training prerogatives of industry.

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, please be seated.

Mr TARZIA: Point of order, sir: 98, debate.

The SPEAKER: I will hear the member for Hartley. He raises 98. I draw the Treasurer's attention to the substance of the question.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am grateful for your guidance. Just specifically to address what consultation went on with Mitcham council, and not having seen that particular email but understanding it has been furnished as widely as possible from the opposition and staff apparently not having any knowledge of such a project—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and the member for Hartley interjects it was on the ABC. It's extraordinary that the council staff had no knowledge because, of course, the former member for Elder Carolyn Power made exactly the same commitment for exactly the same amount of money.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: So the government of the day didn't consult with the council—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and yet those opposite criticised the opposition of the day for not criticising the council. I tell you what! Who put you up to this? It's just extraordinary.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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