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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-26 Daily Xml
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Government Priorities

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (16:23): With Christmas coming amidst a cost-of-living crisis, I really have some concerns about the government's priorities. We heard earlier today that South Australia has the lowest household disposable income per capita of any state in the nation, and that is at a time when we see the Premier and the government sometimes apparently more focused on the celebrities that they can be in photographs with, whether it be Katy Perry or Sam Smith or Jimmy Barnes or Greg Norman or the Tindalls, than they are on the challenges confronting everyday families. The choices that the government makes to spend money attracting celebrities to South Australia, rather than relieving South Australians of their household burdens, are a concern.

I have some questions about a celebrity of sorts: Little Amal. I have been asking these questions since late October in this house of the Minister for Arts and the Minister for Tourism and, ultimately, the Premier. The Premier has a major events attraction fund, which he is responsible for. He has chosen to be responsible for that, rather than the Minister for Tourism, and indeed it provides funding for events that are supposed to attract people to South Australia.

That major events attraction fund provided $2.3 million this year to the Adelaide Festival for the purposes we heard in late October in the Auditor-General's questioning from the Minister for Arts of funding the three years' worth of operas in the Adelaide Festival and the attendance of Little Amal at this year's Adelaide Festival. Indeed, the Minister for Arts highlighted Little Amal's attendance at the Adelaide Festival as being one of the free events that assisted the Adelaide Festival in having what was described as 'record attendances'.

We heard that the number of people coming to the South Australian Adelaide Festival this year was 457,505, supported in no small part by those free events. Free events when it came to Little Amal, the minister informed us, included her attendance, and I will quote the minister, as she:

…moved around the city, crossing the bridge with the Port Adelaide fans, as I crossed with her.

That was at a Port Adelaide home game across the footbridge. She went on to say:

She was around the place, in Rundle Mall, and I went to that as well. That was a very good free program that engaged many thousands of families and young people who probably would not otherwise engage in the Adelaide Festival.

This was the intentional approach of the government: to spend the money from the major events attraction fund to bring Little Amal to Adelaide to walk around on the footbridge, Rundle Mall and at other places, which contributed to the Adelaide Festival attendance numbers.

The decisions the government has made in this area have contributed to a blowout in the Adelaide Festival's budget last year through a combination of revenue not being achieved—that is ticket sales and sponsorship not being achieved—and costs being exceeded over budget to a total of what was apparent from the Auditor-General's Report of nearly $1 million—over $800,000, in fact.

We also heard questioning in the Auditor-General's Report examination of the Minister for Tourism where it became apparent that the SA Tourism Commission—and I have received answers to questions the Minister for Tourism took on notice today—managed the contract for Little Amal and the two opera performances but there was no information from the Minister for Tourism about that contractual detail. There was no answer provided to our reasonable questions about how much that cost.

Last sitting week in the parliament, I asked the Minister for Arts again how much Little Amal cost to bring to the Adelaide Festival and the Minister for Arts again used commercial-in-confidence as an excuse. I asked her a follow-up, saying that, if the minister is saying 'commercial-in-confidence', is she able to tell the people of South Australia whether it was less than $200,000, less than $500,000 or indeed more than $500,000 and the minister refused to answer.

I will make it very simple. When Sam Smith came to South Australia, paid for by South Australian taxpayers to perform a concert in McLaren Vale for 300 influencers and the like, the government refused to respond to questions about how much it cost but they did rule out it being more than half a million dollars. I think every South Australian would understand that we paid half a million dollars to bring Sam Smith to perform a concert in McLaren Vale and announce a tour launch.

A very simple question for the government is: how much did it cost to bring Little Amal to South Australia amidst a cost-of-living crisis? Was it less than $200,000? Was it less than half a million dollars? Was it more than half a million dollars?

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