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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-01 Daily Xml
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Sporting and Infrastructure Grants

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier reveal the full list of sports and infrastructure grants to the public and, if not, why not? Sir, with your leave, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: On 4 May, the Premier told this house, and I quote:

…we seek to uphold the highest standards when it comes to disclosure and transparency...to ensure that all…probity measures are applied.

Yesterday, the Auditor-General revealed to the Economic and Finance Committee that he was not aware of a publicly available source of information that includes the full list of the $133 million sports and infrastructure grants.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:26): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I welcome it because it's another opportunity for us to reiterate our firm commitment to delivering on our election commitments. We went to the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Hartley, you are on one warning. Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Throughout the state of South Australia in the lead-up to the election, we made very clear and specific commitments to the people of South Australia, often with very finite and prescriptive dollar commitments attached to them, particularly when it comes to investments that we are making in local communities. We saw throughout the entirety of the pandemic the value of community in our state and the fundamental importance of healthy interactions amongst community members, not just in a sporting context but in other community activities as well, and we believe that they are worthy of investment, that they are worthy of support.

Whether they be commitments in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide, the southern suburbs of Adelaide, the northern suburbs of our city or even in our regions, we saw those as being meritorious and worthy of presentation to the people of South Australia at the election. Of course, we know what that election result was. I don't raise that in any sort of effort to glorify the election result, but merely to say that we see that result as being a profound responsibility that has been invested in us to get on with the business of delivering those election commitments. Following the election and having made—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —so many substantial policy commitments, we made a very deliberate decision that we were going to hand down a budget in approximately eight weeks' time. That is unusual.

The Hon. N.F. Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The last time we saw a change of government in not just our state but in the country, before that, was in 2018. When that state election occurred, which happened to be in South Australia that the change of government occurred, the budget wasn't handed down until some months later. We made a decision to do it some eight weeks later and one of the reasons why we decided to do that—and there were multiple reasons—was we wanted to get the budget in place to start executing the delivery of our election promises, including the very specific commitments that we made to sporting groups around the state, and that's why—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton! Member for Chaffey! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: That's why our budget prescriptively provides all of those allocations. In terms of the transparency around that—

Mr Whetstone: There is none.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —there is full transparency around each of those election commitments and, indeed, many of those members opposite are well aware of them because they themselves advocated for them. In fact, on the other side of the house—

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order from the member for Morialta, which I will hear under 134.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, sir. It was actually a fairly specific question in relation to a list. The Premier is going into individual examples and debating, but there is—

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Mawson!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is called to order. Member for Flinders!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: But the Premier hasn't gone near the question of a list.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Mawson is called to order. I have the point of order. I give the Premier some latitude because he is the Premier. Some context has been offered to the house. I bring the Premier back to the substance of the question.

Mr Cowdrey: On what page of the budget paper is it listed?

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The opposition asked about transparency of these commitments and these policies and the allocation. That is somewhat surprising because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the Liberal Party of South Australia know all too well just how transparent these commitments—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Florey!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey, you will cease your exchange with the member for Florey. One of your colleagues is seeking to raise a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, sir, 98: you made an excellent ruling before, leniency, but seeking now the Premier come back. The Premier is now, in seeking to characterise the opposition, doing the very definition of debate in this house.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I am not certain that I made a ruling, just offered some guidance as is a first step in—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: But he ignored it, sir, which is very bad.

The SPEAKER: Perhaps.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Our transparency regarding the sporting club commitments is so overwhelming that it gave the opportunity—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —for you to copy.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: You copied the policies, whether it be in King, whether it be in other electorates around the state. We were so transparent about our commitments—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that we gave you the opportunity to copy them. It is just unfortunate for the opposition that it was too little and too late.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Supplementary question.

The SPEAKER: I see the leader on a supplementary and then the member for Florey.

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