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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-07-04 Daily Xml
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Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $341,333,000

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $20,260,000


Membership:

Ms Thompson substituted for Mr Odenwalder.

Ms Clancy substituted for Ms Stinson.


Minister:

Hon. Z.L. Bettison, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs.


Departmental Advisers:

Mr S. Woolhouse, Executive Director, Communities and Corporate, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms J. Kennedy, Director for Multicultural Affairs, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.


The CHAIR: Welcome back to today's hearing of Estimates Committee A. Welcome, minister, and welcome to your advisers. I understand that the minister and the lead speaker for the opposition have agreed on an approximate time for the consideration of the proposed payments, which will facilitate a change of departmental advisers; is that correct?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: For this, it is all the same advisers. We do not need to change in this one.

The CHAIR: You will be from 12pm until 1pm and then after the lunch break from 2pm until 3pm as minister.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That is when there will be a change, yes.

The CHAIR: I refer members to the statement regarding the conduct of proceedings and take the opportunity to remind members that questions must be based on lines of expenditure in the budget papers and that responses to any questions taken on notice by the minister should be submitted to the Clerk Assistant via the Answers to Questions mailbox no later than Friday 8 September 2023.

I open the portfolio of Multicultural Affairs. The minister appearing is the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. The proposed payments remain open for examination. Minister, you can make an opening statement if you wish and then introduce your advisers. I will then call on the lead speaker for the opposition to do the same.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you very much, Chair. Can I introduce to my left Steve Woolhouse, who is the Executive Director of Communities and Corporate, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, and to my right is Justine Kennedy, who is the Director of Multicultural Affairs for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

I just speak briefly to say that we went to the election in 2022 with the most comprehensive multicultural policy we have ever put forward in South Australia, and I am so very pleased to have rolled out those policy commitments through this past financial year. It is something I had time to consider and look at those changes we wanted to make, in particular the additional funding we put into the multicultural budget: community languages, schools, our ability to put a multicultural lens—what effectively is many volunteers who give up their time to talk language and culture and to teach it.

I am very pleased with the work we have been doing, and I would like to thank the officers for their work in preparation for today and for the budget. We come to a point here of being very pleased with the ability to have put out to the people of South Australia what we wanted to do and then to have delivered it in this first term.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I will move straight to questions and will start by going through some of the numbers on the table. If we can look at page 26 that has the program summary, income expenses and FTEs, in relation to grants and subsidies can you identify what the income generated from the grants and subsidies is? It is not a large number, but it seems to move around a bit. It is the top line.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, I know the number. The income amounts relate primarily to the allocation of departmental corporate overheads across agency programs. There was also some returned grant funding recognised in 2022-23 and 2021-22 through other income.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Sorry, returned grant funding—the income line that talks about grants is about grants that were not fully expended and have been returned, so that would explain the minor variations.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That first bit is the income amount, the allocation of departmental corporate overheads across the agency programs.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is that income to the program?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. I am happy to express further about corporate overheads. Corporate overhead expenditure within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet relates primarily to corporate services, in particular, finance, administration, human resources, records management and ICT-related activities provided to support the department's operations, and also corporate costs, accommodation, insurance, workers compensation and audit fees.

As instructed by the Department of Treasury of Finance, corporate expenditure and income are allocated across agency programs. The allocation across programs for the department's agency statement is based on each program's FTE weighting. Corporate overheads allocated for Multicultural Affairs for this coming financial year 2023-24 is expenditure of $1.4 million and revenue of $0.09 million.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: My question is: where did the $14,000 income come from?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Income for DPC that is allocated across.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That is fine, so it is a notional allocation for multicultural but it is across the whole department.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. Apparently we all have to participate.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yes, well $14,000 coming in is a good one, but let's move on to the sale of goods and services. Is that also a notional allocation to this program from DPC's overall corporate overheads, or is the $74,000 sale of goods and services something else?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The sale of goods and services amount in 2021-22 relates to salary recharges and contributions towards multicultural events and initiatives.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In relation to the other income line that was $270,000 last year, can you identify where that came from?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That was what I talked about before. There is some return grant funding. As you may recall, obviously quite a few events that were funded were not able to participate because of COVID and they returned that funding.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In relation to any of those events, did the organisations seek to keep the funding because they had incurred costs, or is that $270,000 all grants that were returned that did not involve costs having been incurred for cancelled events?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It was taken individually. If costs were incurred because COVID cancelled the event, we enabled those associations to pay those costs and then return the rest of the money. If it was cancelled, then the money was returned.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I presume that the events in question are from the previous financial year but that the return of the grants was in 2022-23 because it took the admin a bit of time to be done.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The vast majority was in 2021-22. You may recall there was an exceptionally high amount in the priorities fund that was then distributed when that was able to happen. People obviously had to stop doing quite a few of those events for some time.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is it possible to get a list of the events in question that comprised that $270,000?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I can take that on notice.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: We will go to employee benefit expenses, continuing down the page. It has gone from $1.9 million to $1.7 million budgeted, but $2.6 million actual, and then $2.8 million. Is that variance easily explicable?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The movement in employee benefit expenses is primarily because of a reclassification from supplies and services expenses to reflect the FTE establishment within Multicultural Affairs, an additional FTE to deliver on election commitments and the allocation of corporate overheads to the Multicultural Affairs program.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Was that extra funding allocated from somewhere else, or was that what some people would describe as a variance to budget, which I think the Chair has encouraged us to use before? I guess the question is: is that new money, or is it a blowout?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As you know, there was an exceptional additional amount to the portfolio of Multicultural Affairs, which was an election commitment. It was part of that election commitment agreed to by cabinet, and that then flows on to DPC and thus to Multicultural Affairs.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: To be clear, though, as I understand it, the election commitment was in the 2022-23 budget already. It must have been accounted for somewhere. Was it accounted for in another department and then moved here, so that explains the variance of $1.7 million to $2.6 million, or was this decisions taken since last year's budget that have increased the employee benefit expenses over and above the election commitment?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will just go back to what I have said to you before about reclassification and that some of the expenses that were there and that were reflected there—you are talking about the employee benefit expenses still?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. I can add that the movement in supplies and services, which is the next line, is primarily because of a reclassification to employee expenses to reflect the FTE establishment for Multicultural Affairs. I think that adds some final understanding to what you are asking.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can I move to what many would consider the most exciting line in the table, which is grants and subsidies; it certainly has the largest volume of funds. Does this line cover all the grants programs administered by the Multicultural Affairs unit at Department of the Premier and Cabinet, or are any of those grants/programs elsewhere in the budget?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: They are all covered in that line.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister identify a breakdown of how much funding is allocated within each of the different grants programs and obviously the names of those programs?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In general, we give a holistic number for that grants program because we do not tend to go out advertising how much money is in each fund. What I can share with you, though, is an increase because of the additional money that the Malinauskas Labor government put in and we have had those funds.

Looking at those five grant streams, those grant streams are about multicultural organisations celebrating diversity through festivals, education, capacity building, events and intercultural projects. In 2022-23, it included:

Advance Together, which was grants to assist organisations to improve their governance and strengthen their capacity building skills;

Celebrate Together, grants to assist multicultural organisations to host festivals and events to celebrate cultural diversity;

Expand Together, grants to assist multicultural organisations to expand their capacity by upgrading community facilities or purchasing equipment to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and

Stronger Together, these are grants to assist multicultural organisations to develop and deliver projects that strengthen families and communities and improve their access to better social and economic opportunities.

One of the new areas of grants is multicultural media, which are grants to assist multicultural media organisations to strengthen their communication skills through training and purchase of equipment. The recipients of those grant guidelines are published on the website.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Are the multicultural festival grants from within this line as well?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: No, obviously this is part of that, but it will not go out to this financial year. It is now going to be annual but could not be held in 2022, so the money will be expended in 2023-24.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So it is still in grants and subsidies but not in the 2022-23 year.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I assume the Community Language School Infrastructure Grants are acquitted as part of this line on grants and subsidies?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, it is all in there.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That would explain a substantial portion of the increase from 2021-22 to 2022-23 in this new grant line?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: You might recall there was a one-off additional expenditure in 2021-22, but that was just a one-off, whereas what we have put in is an additional $4 million going forward every year.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I appreciate what the minister said about not advertising in advance how much is going to be in each of those grant streams. Is she able to provide a breakdown for the year that has passed, 2022-23, of how much was expended in each of those grant streams?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Referring to the actuals, I can say that the budget was $6.297 million, and in 2023-24 we will see an increase of course to $6.482 million. I can do each of those individually. The reason we do not go out is that obviously we retain some flexibility within it, and we find that people respond depending on how much money is in those areas. Actual expenditure for the Advance Together grants was $50,000 for 2022-23; for the Celebrate Together grants, it was $1 million; $974,000 for Expand; and Stronger Together was $615,000.

Talking about Stronger Together, that was actually a two-year program. I have made the decision to continue some of that funding because many of those organisations were interrupted by COVID. Obviously, the whole point of Stronger Together is to strengthen families and communities and improve their access to better social and economic opportunities. It is a little different from the other grant programs that we have because it is a two-year program around that area.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister identify how many organisations applied for each of the grant programs in these streams and how many were not successful compared with those who were?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I do not have that detail here. My experience is that almost double the amount of money is applied for in almost every grant round that we have. Advance is different, of course, because that is a set amount. There is incredible need. There is no limit on the amount of incorporated associations that different groups choose to create.

Member for Morialta, I know that you have had much experience, as I have, attending many areas. What we see is, particularly when new groups come in, they might all come together at one, and then we sometimes see some regionality within those groups and they will start their own incorporated association. Therefore, they all apply individually to do those applications. We acknowledge that, and so coming into government that is why we put additional money into Multicultural Affairs. In particular, in the Celebrate we have been allowed to increase that amount.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I appreciate that, minister. I imagine there is a different experience related to the different purposes for which the grants rounds exist. I am interested to see whether is it possible to explore, even if it is just in terms of a data level, how many applicants there are compared to how many are successful in each of the different grants rounds so that we can help identify whether there is a greater hunger in some grants than others, for example. Are you able to get that data and provide it?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I can take that on notice, particularly with the data.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In particular, in the Expand area we have had lots of interest. In particular, during COVID perhaps people were not thinking about those Expand areas as much. People certainly wanted to come together and celebrate, but unfortunately many of those events were cancelled often at very late notice because of changes during COVID—but we certainly see an increase in interest in the Expand side. Of course, in the election, we had a focus on community transport and also on security in this last financial year. So we had some particular areas.

I also changed some aspects of the Expand grant so that people did not have to match the same amount. Several organisations had approached me about this. If people applied for $100,000 or more they had to match that money, but if they applied for $50,000 or $20,000 they did not have to match that money. I had several associations—and you may well have, too—who found that their usual way of getting income during 2021-22 was disrupted, so they found it very difficult to match their funding. I listened to people and then we made the decision to only match at that much higher level.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can I ask who made final decisions on how much each organisation would receive? Is it done by an independent panel and does it involve the Multicultural Commission?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The decisions around the grants have been consistent for many years; they have not changed with the change of government. Each multicultural grants funding stream has a different grant assessment panel, made up of five members. The panels are chaired by the grant's management adviser from Multicultural Affairs and comprise up to three South Australian Multicultural Commission members, one community expert and one government representative. This was very consistent for some time. As the minister, I note the outcomes of the multicultural grants programs, and I am also responsible for notifying the successful grant recipients.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The minister said before that the grant recipients were on the website. Does that provide information in relation to how much each grant is and which grant stream it is under? If not, will the minister consider providing that? I would love it if that were on notice, for example, but it is up to the minister.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Regarding the grants that we referred to at the beginning, as I understand it they are all on the website, and they are under the title of the grant with the amount that they were awarded.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That is very helpful.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It has been the same way for many, many years.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister identify if there are any grant lines that are not open and competitive but are instead directly allocated by the minister or the chief executive of the department?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As has always been the case, the Multicultural Priorities Fund provides direct applications of funding—once again, also to eligible organisations who are also eligible for the other grants—to support the community projects, initiatives and services considered to be a high priority. It varies from year to year. There was a small amount in there, but of course often it is from unspent or returned funds that come through the year.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister identify which organisations received grants under that fund in the 2022-23 financial year and what process was undertaken to approve those funds?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We can take that one on notice. I have 22 organisations who receive funding. The one that I have spoken about publicly, though, is the African Communities Council of South Australia, and I know that you received the report that they prepared. It was through the Multicultural Priorities Fund that I was able to support them with funding from 2021-22 and 2022-23 for the following year, for them to be able to come together to write their recent report. They were one of the groups that I was able to support through that priorities fund.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, minister, and thank you for your support of that important project. Is the minister able to identify how much the total quantum of funds in that priority fund allocation is?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It varies every year; therefore, it depends on what unspent funds there are. I can come back with that one.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: On the same line, still on grants and subsidies, in the budget last year there was $7.36 million allocated and the estimated result is slightly under that. Is there an explanation of that variance of $273,000?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I am advised that the grants and subsidies expenditure does comprise the multicultural grants program, which we have been talking about, the remainder being spent on the delivery of specific events and initiatives by Multicultural Affairs including the Multicultural Festival, community boards and governance program, the SA multicultural resource directory, and community language schools. It is the non-grant component.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The non-grant component was underspent.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It is under grants and subsidies, yes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: If we look at last year's budget of $7.366 million, this year is $7.322 million, so that is a difference of $44,000. Is there an explanation for that reduction?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: You would like to understand the $44,000 difference?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I was asking about a $12,000 grant before. It is just as well I am a very interested person when it comes to these, minister.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Sorry, can you repeat that? My apologies.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: From the budget last year of $7.366 million, this year the budget for grants is $7.322 million. Can the minister explain the difference? Is that a drop in terms of the internal departmental budget? Is that part of DPC's efficiencies? How does that work?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As I am advised, some of that money went to employee benefit expenses, which are those reclassifications from supplies and services to reflect the FTE establishment, and grants and subsidies.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: If we go to the total expenses, the increase of $680,000 compared to last year—so we have gone from $9.7 million to $10.4 million. That would all be accounted for in the extra expenses. Is there anything else we have missed?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: One of the key things with this comprehensive multicultural election policy is something we have not actually seen before. We see this increase in FTEs. The total Multicultural Affairs staff establishment of 23 people is 17 FTEs, and that corporate overheads allocation is 4.6 FTEs, and that is where we have seen that change. As you can see, there was a change in FTEs from the budget last year of 13.7 to 21.6. That is actually 17 people who are in Multicultural Affairs; I have given them quite a bit of work to do, probably more than we expected, but they have delivered. We have seen quite an extensive investment and increase in the Multicultural Affairs FTE.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is the minister able to identify the roles and levels of the new staff?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will ask Justine to detail who they are. You are asking for the new staff?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yes.

Ms KENNEDY: We have an ASO7 who is in our policy area who is working on the election commitments. We have an ASO6 and an ASO5. They are the three new staff.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: And the ASO7, is a policy person working on the election commitments?

Ms KENNEDY: That is correct.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Are the ASO6 and the ASO5 admin support for the office for grant recipients?

Ms KENNEDY: That is done within my Multicultural Affairs budget, yes.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: One of the areas we have put people on is the Multicultural Festival. One of the things that I felt was done incredibly well was the 2021 Multicultural Festival. It had moved to Victoria Square and we had incredible involvement of a diversity of groups. We made a decision that that would be an annual event, and that annual event will start this year.

What happened previously when it was biannual was that you would have staff come on for a period of time and then come off because it was seasonal. What we have been able to do is have those people come on in a full-time capacity and build that network we have there. We are going to host this Multicultural Festival on 12 November this year, and it will be annual thereafter. We are expecting that 7,000 people will attend, and people will get to enjoy up to 30 performances, 14 activities and 36 stalls.

I was recently at a national multicultural ministers meeting and I proposed that it was going to be the largest multicultural festival in Australia, so I endeavour to achieve that title. It might be a title we give ourselves. I actually think it is something that people are really excited about being part of. People are very keen, and we have just had applications open up for grants for this festival grants program. They were opened in April and closed at the end of May, and they are being reviewed by the grants assessment panel at the moment. There is lots of excitement in the community for that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Could I ask a simple question: is it possible to get an organisational chart for the staff, which is now up to, as you say, nearly 22?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It is on the intranet. I think it is on the website.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The website or the intranet site?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I am advised it is on the intranet.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Could we possibly seek that on notice?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Or you can say it now? Can you tell the 17 people?

Ms KENNEDY: I will see how good my memory is. You are after levels, aren't you?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That is helpful.

Ms KENNEDY: In my grants team, I have an ASO7, I have three ASO5s and I have an ASO3 to do the administration. In my events team, I have three ASO7s and an ASO6, and in my policy team I have an ASO8, two ASO7s, two ASO6s, an ASO5 and an ASO3, and myself. That is my team.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Bravo! Does the unit or the program area have specific arrangements in relation to people working from home? If so, is there a plan and time line in place for staff who have been working from home to return to mainly working back in the office, post COVID?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Multicultural?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yes, particularly multicultural.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: They are all back on the floor.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: They are all back on? They are all shopping in city cafes and supporting CBD hospitality?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, I think some do have some flexible working arrangements, part time, so more about the amount of time they are employed, rather than working from home.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Excellent. Well, that is good news, thank you. I am looking now at page 25, the fifth dot point:

Established a Multicultural Chambers of Commerce Group to optimise the global connections of our diverse migrant community.

Can the minister advise who the members of the Multicultural Chambers of Commerce Group are?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I am very pleased to talk about the Multicultural Chambers of Commerce Group, one of the key points in the election policy that we detailed. The group has 25 chambers of commerce who are part of our group. The whole point is to build and strengthen relationships, collaborate and exchange ideas to maximise those business opportunities. More importantly, which is what I had great feedback on, is understanding the South Australian government's key areas of investment and activity so they can be shared with their communities. The members are:

American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham);

Australian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry;

Australia India Business Council;

Australia Indonesia Business Council of South Australia;

Australia Japan Business Council of South Australia;

Australia Philippines Business Council SA;

Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce SA;

Australia-Korea Business Council;

Australian Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry;

Australian British Chamber of Commerce;

Australia Malaysia Business Council SA;

Australian-Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce SA;

Business SA;

Chinese Chamber of Commerce SA;

DutchSA-Australian Netherlands Chamber of Commerce SA;

Estonian Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry;

French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry SA;

German Business Chamber of SA;

Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce, SA Chapter;

Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce;

Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry;

Shanghai Chamber of Commerce;

Singapore Business and Social Association;

Spanish-Australian Chamber of Commerce; and

SwissCham Australia.

We have had opportunities to come together, and my initial scoping dinner was held on 14 June at Parliament House to talk to people about what they would like to see going forward. That is when the idea came about of a more informal event but with a topic at the time.

In October 2022, we did our inaugural networking event at the State Admin Centre with Sam Crafter, the Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Hydrogen Power SA, presenting on the government's hydrogen plan and renewable energy investment. Our second one was on 28 February 2023 and Business SA co-hosted the second networking event at its premises, where the new Chief Executive of South Australian Tourism, Emma Terry, presented on tourism investment and opportunities.

The third one is coming up on 11 July to be co-hosted by the Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce, SA Chapter, in partnership with its member KPMG. Richard Price, the Chief Executive Officer of the South Australian Space Industry Centre, will present the state government's commitment to the commercial success and growth of the space sector. I have been very pleased at the development of the chambers of commerce group, and I expect this time next year to announce that we will have even more participating.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In relation to that very question of how the groups were selected, is everybody who is identified as a chamber of commerce able to participate? Are there groups that, if they were to come to the minister now and say, 'We would like to be involved,' they could be added to that group?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We have focused on chambers of commerce. I have had several other groups of different associations ask if they could join. We have very specifically focused only on chambers of commerce, but we have made it very open. I think we even got the original list from the Department for Trade and Investment to ask them who we should invite and scope that out, but it is open. We are happy to take recommendations, if you have anyone you feel is missing from those 25.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I would be happy to come myself, along with some of my colleagues, if you would like to invite us. We will see how we go. What resources have been allocated to implement this group, and is that from within this program area specifically?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: My office did the initial scoping dinner and the networking event. The cost for the second networking event was met by Business SA and the cost for the third one will be KPMG. The people who host it generously pay.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Apart from, I imagine, some admin staff assisting in the organisation, no other costs have been borne for the program?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: One of the events people is allocated to assist in that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That is one of your events people, the ones we were describing before. Is any analysis of the program being done to inform its future rollout, or is that assessment being done by the minister in her office?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Well, it has only done its third networking, which is about to come up, so I would say it is still in its infancy. I think we will perhaps take some suggestions. We have taken suggestions from the very beginning. It is a very agile process for people to provide feedback, but I would say that it is just starting. Given that nothing was really happening in this space for quite some time, people made proposals.

As I said, I had a dinner in June of last year to say to people, 'Would you like to establish the MCCSA that was here before? Would you like a formal establishment?' The answer was, 'No, we actually want to come together more informally, but we want to know more about what government is doing and particular areas of investment.'

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In your invitations for suggestions, again I am sure the Hon. Jing Lee and I would be happy to come along and participate and provide feedback to you at any time you would like us to.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will take that suggestion on board.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you. I am discovering that page 25, which I had meant to go to before, was in Budget Paper 3, not Volume 3 of Budget Paper 4, so I will go back to that. Budget Paper 3, page 25, refers to the operating expenditure for general government. The second dot point states:

Premier and Cabinet—projected to decrease by $72.4 million primarily due to the timing of grant programs across the forward estimates

How much of that $72.4 million relates to Multicultural Affairs, if any?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: If anything, I would say that our grants programs have gone up, so it is not us.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So you are netting off against some other unit within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I can only speak about my own part.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So no programs nor services in your area are affected by that?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As I am advised, no.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: We will go back to the other budget paper; it seemed to bear more fruit. The first dot point under the targets is in relation to the Ambassador Program. Can the minister outline how the Multicultural Affairs Ambassador Program will be implemented?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As you may recall, the Ambassador Program flows on from the Multicultural Charter. The Multicultural Charter set out the principles of multiculturalism in relation to our state to help guide policy and program development and help inform service delivery across the state. I think every member of parliament in the chamber today received a copy of the charter. I was very pleased at the point that we got to. There was quite significant work to get the charter to a point where we felt that it was something that can be used not just across government but across South Australia. We have now translated that charter into 30 community languages, and that is available on the Department of the Premier and Cabinet website.

To lead on—and I will come back to the Ambassador Program—we are about to establish a charter guide, which is in development, to help clubs, organisations and workplaces apply the charter and its principles in everyday settings. The words on the page are fantastic, but I want them to be active. I think we all agree that the words are exactly who we are and where we want to be, but we need to see that active. Particularly I am interested in how workplaces apply the charter. The guide will explain what each of the charter principles means and provide practical examples and ideas to help South Australians implement it in a meaningful way. Of course, the charter guide will complement and support the implementation of the Multicultural Ambassador Program.

I was interested in what they had done in Queensland, which had an ambassador program but they have actually now suspended their program. We took the learnings from that opportunity of what worked and what did not work. It is an organisation-based program, but we are going to do it as a pilot over a six-month period that will start next month in August 2023.

I will tell you a little bit about that. The Ambassador Program is to activate the Multicultural Charter and embed its principles within the workforce and business practices of our leading organisations. We are also guided by the work the Department of the Premier and Cabinet have done to set targets and activate and embed the charter in its workplace. Some of the targets might include but not be limited to:

an increase in the diversity of employees within an organisation;

introduce or strengthen the diversity inclusion and practices and staff training; and

review of recruitment and retention policies to assess how they reflect the principles of the charter, and what improvements may be implemented.

We want to make sure that the pilot is user-friendly and is a tailored program for organisations. So far, I have had people who have expressed their interest. We have gone out and spoken to a variety of people, including a membership organisation, a sales and service business, an international company, local government, and a recruitment company. We will obviously be talking to them at length about the pilot. At this point I am not prepared to say the names of the companies, but you will hear that in the near future.

What we really want them to do is, first of all, conduct an audit and establish targets. That will be assisted with a project manager from Multicultural Affairs. We know that DPC, when they have done this work, have these milestones over a six-month period, but that time frame might need to be extended. We are asking them to have senior management or HR staff engaged with the Ambassador Program through the pilot, and to host two networking functions, involving human resources, to invite a multicultural peak organisation or a diversity organisation to attend and discuss the program more broadly.

What we are actually asking them to do is an audit of themselves, and that will be a guided audit that they do. What we wanted to do is not go in saying to the organisation, 'You must do X, Y and Z to become and activate the charter.' We want to be more agile and work with them. What do they have now, let's capture that data, and what could look further forward. I am really looking forward to the pilot and then we will get a review of that and then we will roll it out further.

As I said, we were guided by and interested in Queensland, who did it, but it was a much more intensive and directive program and it was a bit unsustainable. We want something that is quite sustainable going forward.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, there is a fair bit of information there and I am trying to work methodically through my memory of what has just been said. We are talking about businesses being the ambassadors in the pilot. Was that three businesses you described?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: No, we are looking at about six businesses who have indicated their interest and a diversity of businesses and organisations.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So the pilot—are they going to be ambassadors for 12 months, 24 months? What is the nature of the program? If they want to stay, do they become perpetual ambassadors and you just add to them as we go?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think that is something the pilot program will have more detail around. The idea would be: do they sign up to an audit every 12 months to check what they have agreed to in their milestones? That has not been determined at this point, but what we want to do is work with them and understand and co-design the program with them.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do you have a target for how many ambassadors you would like to have once you move past the pilot phase?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Not at this stage.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: How long do you envisage the pilot phase lasting for?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Six months.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: If the pilot phase is set to be announced very shortly—in the coming weeks, as I take it from the minister's previous answer—then we are looking at that running for the second half of this calendar year, give or take a month or two. Do you have any expectation of the program expanding at the beginning of next year? Is that what you are working towards, or is it just have the pilot phase, see what happens and then work out what happens next?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think we will do the six-month pilot and then look at the scalability of the program. As we said, the previous program had a lot of instructions and it was very directive, and the Queensland government found that that was unsustainable going forward. People would get their ambassador certification but then not necessarily keep engaging. My preference is to continue to have that engagement. In fact, I think some potential peer-to-peer or organisational mentoring will help as we go forward. So certainly our focus will be on scalability, but what we want to do is go through the pilot phase and reflect on that and then look at the next stage. This time next year we will get to talk about it in a different format and I think we will have some decisions about how we are going forward from that time.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: We might talk about it in question time, and we might talk about it when we are at multicultural events. Are the organisations volunteering? Do they get remuneration? I assume they get certification, some sort of certificate that says that they are ambassadors. What is the arrangement for them?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The idea is that we have approached different people because we wanted to have a diversity of types of organisation—I have outlined those that have indicated—and to see what works for them. The certification is one model or acknowledgement of the work that they have done, but I think certification is static and it is kind of a point in time, and the whole point is to embed these principles into your HR. It is about being more inclusive and recognising those areas.

To be frank with you, a lot of the people we are talking about at the moment are much larger organisations that do have HR. I personally think probably the challenge will be more with some of our smaller businesses and how we work with them. I think the work we do in the pilot program will give us some guidelines as to how then we might do, as I said, that peer-to-peer mentoring. We do have some money put aside for this program within Multicultural Affairs but the people participating will not be paid.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: With the guided audit, as I think the minister described it, is that guided by staff within Multicultural Affairs or is there an agency that is going to be brought in to assist?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: No, it will be guided by Multicultural Affairs.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Will there be training or resources or other costs that the department might bear to support those successful ambassadors?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The allocation is $30,000 per annum for the next three years.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So $30,000 is the cost for the program; and that is to pay for the staff in Multicultural Affairs, or are there expenses that will be borne supporting the businesses?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: No, that is the staff members.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I will move on. The second dot point on targets is—excellent—community language schools. From memory, the election commitment was for $1 million extra per year for community language schools, and I understand that it has been settled that this funding will remain within Multicultural Affairs and is entirely separate from the funding provided by the education department, which is largely a per capita funding to the schools, but there are different aspects to it. Maybe if I ask very simply, for 2022-23 how much has been expended in this line and how has it been applied?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As you know, I have had a lot of conversations with people about the importance of being bilingual, for not only their own education but keeping their culture alive. It is something that is very, very important. We currently have 89 active and fully accredited community language schools teaching 47 community languages. There have been some challenges over COVID when some of our schools had a lot fewer students. Some schools are considered inactive, in that they are not operating due to a lack of enrolled students but they remain accredited. If they have been inactive for two years they lose their accreditation.

In August 2022, I announced a funding proposal developed by community language schools in consultation with Multicultural Affairs to deliver several activities in year one. The focus was around two tranches of funding, and I will talk about how much that is. The first activity was to Community Language Schools SA to work in conjunction with an industry provider to develop and deliver a governance and compliance training package for community language schools. We saw a capacity gap in regard to ongoing governance; there are certain levels of compliance that are required for the legislative requirement to run, so there was some assistance there.

The second area was to increase staffing at Community Language Schools SA to provide intensive case management and curriculum development services for new and existing language schools for an initial 12 months. The third area in this first tranche was about Community Language Schools SA delivering face-to-face school personnel training courses, teacher workshops and Child Safe in the north of Adelaide. All training had previously been at Hindmarsh and Goodwood, but we saw increased numbers and interest in the north of Adelaide and this makes it more accessible.

That was the first tranche. There was a second tranche of funding that we also made a decision on, and I joined Blair Boyer in that. It is an issue that had once again been raised with me—in fact, you and I have spoken about this—about host school arrangements, particularly when people do not have their own or parent body premises to use.

That second tranche of funding was an increase in needs-based funding for community language schools to provide classroom learning materials, equipment, offsite excursions and onsite incursions. These were things that were raised with us. We had a memorandum of administrative arrangement between DPC and the Department for Education for us to distribute and top up host schools for government schools currently hosting community language schools.

An area of quiet change was to look at the infrastructure grants program as well. That is something we will roll out in this financial year. The question you asked was for the total. In 2022-23, $888,936 was allocated to community language schools directly, and that was for those governance and compliance training packages, increasing Community Language Schools SA staff, face-to-face school training, an increase in needs-based funding and increased funding to Catholic and Independent host schools so that people had diversity of options of where to host their schools.

Also in 2022-23, $113,730 went to the Department for Education to administer the increased funding to government host schools. There was a split with that, and that is over $1 million.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So that went to the Department for Education, but presumably from them to Community Language Schools SA?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, it was one lot of funding that went out, which is what they have already distributed. The big change in this financial year is not only to increase the needs-based funding but also to give that diversity of options of where people could host their schools. As you and I both know, people have often been at a government school for a few years and then they have been asked to move on, and they were trying to find different locations.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: How many non-government schools have so far been identified by Community Language Schools SA to receive this new funding line in the last financial year, and do we have an anticipated amount in the next financial year?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The next financial year, 2023-24, all-up it is $1,095,000 for the whole of that commitment. What I have actually found is that those language schools often have active connections. One of the Chinese language schools is now at Loreto College on Portrush Road, and that has enabled them to have all the room they need there so that they can deliver it.

What we have seen is that often they may have students within their language school who are already attending these non-government schools anyway, and then they have suggested to the people who manage the community language schools that perhaps they should approach the school. I think this additional funding has made it more attractive.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I have one last question in relation to infrastructure grants to community language schools. They are advertised at $100,000. How much has been expended and to whom, how much did they get, and how much is proposed for next year in that grant line?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We are going to run that infrastructure grant round every two years. The Bulgarian Educational and Friendly Society had some money there, the Islamic Society of South Australia, the Overseas Chinese Association of South Australia, the Croatian Club Adelaide, the United Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of South Australia, the Afghan United Association of SA, Alliance Française d'Adélaide and the Greek Orthodox Community and Parish of St George ethnic schools. That is on the website.

The CHAIR: The allotted time having expired, I declare the examination of Multicultural Affairs and the proposed payments for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet complete. I thank members.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.


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