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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-28 Daily Xml
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University Merger

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): My question is to the Premier. Does Treasury have funds set aside for a contribution to the university merger? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The budget handed down last sitting week contains no identified provision for the university merger despite identifying in the Budget Statement that funds have been set aside for the new National Skills Agreement, and for the delivery of three-year-old preschool, pending the completion of the national agreement and the royal commission, respectively. No such provision have I found for the university merger.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:16): I thank the deputy leader for his question. I am grateful on the second day of sitting, after the release of the budget, to finally get a question about the budget.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Maybe you are entirely relaxed about it. No complaints.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Colton! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: No complaints.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Too much like hard work.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for West Torrens! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I am grateful to him because he is right to point out—and he has clearly potentially, unlike some of his colleagues, been assiduously reading the budget papers and I think that's a good thing to do—that the budget has specific provisions set aside for those initiatives that he mentioned before, in particular three-year-old preschool. Without going into too much detail about that, as I have already said, we will make our allocations more formal once we've got the royal commission report and the recommendations of the royal commission report.

What I can say to the deputy leader is that in setting the budget, putting the budget together, we have ensured that the budget settings have sufficient room to make a contribution to the universities in the event that they should agree amongst themselves to pursue a merger. We would only provide that support on the basis that they both resolve that it was in their interests, and that we could be confident that our support would deliver the aims of a merged institution. Obviously, we would want to understand from the universities what their expectations would be in that event. But given that it's not yet an eventuality, given that it's only a potential outcome—not a foregone conclusion—we have not set out a particular quantum of funding in the budget papers for that purpose.

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