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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-07-06 Daily Xml
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Establishment of Adelaide University

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): In the Premier's answer, he made a number of claims, including kids from Elizabeth going to university, and indeed increasing numbers of student engagement that the Premier's proposition would achieve over any alternative. Can the Premier identify, first, when the bill will be released, and secondly—

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order, member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —when further information will be provided to the people of South Australia—

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, there is a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —to enable consideration of those—

The SPEAKER: Be seated, member for Morialta! I anticipate that this is inviting hypotheticals.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I understood that standing orders required the seeking of leave before making an explanation, particularly if it's made in advance of asking a question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: It has been the convention for a long time that in relation to a supplementary one explains what was in the first question and then asks the questions. My question was in order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Flinders, your colleague is seeking the call. I am going to give the member for Morialta the opportunity to recast the question, mindful of our concerns in relation to hypotheticals. Standing orders still apply to supplementary questions. The member for Morialta has the call.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you, sir. The supplementary is: when will the government release the bill and does the Premier commit to all the information that is relevant to the government's decisions being released into the public domain?

The SPEAKER: That is two questions, but I am going to allow it.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:30): I welcome the questions from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. I can confirm that, having had the final agreement signed between the three parties, Adelaide Uni, UniSA and the government, on Monday the Deputy Premier brought into cabinet a submission that facilitates the formal drafting of the bill and also public consultation on the bill. We anticipate, because much work has already been done, that the bill will be released publicly sometime in the next fortnight or thereabouts—in about a fortnight's time. As soon as that happens, of course it will be made available to the opposition and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —also a committee of the parliament, should the other place choose to establish the proposed committee.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: In respect of the bill, in around about a fortnight.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: In respect of the other information, yes. So the government naturally—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey is warned.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey, order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Naturally, there has been an awful amount of work done between the various parties over the course of the last six months and also in the lead-up to that. There has been a lot of information shared between the two universities and the state government that has instructed Treasury's formulation of the financial assistance package.

There has been other information the government has been in receipt of too; some of it will be subject to commercial-in-confidence. Both the Deputy Premier and I have made it clear to both vice-chancellors and chancellors that the government is enthusiastic to see the universities release as much information as they possibly can in such a way that doesn't compromise their commercial operations.

Much of the information that we have received, and the Treasurer, the Deputy Premier and I have consumed, I don't see a reason for, on first blush from my perspective, why that can't be put into the public realm. The reason why we have an appetite from the government to put as much in the public realm as possible is because, on almost every reading, this is a proposition that stacks up in the interests of the state.

Yes, there are undoubtedly challenges identified. Yes, there are risks. This is a big endeavour. You can't bring two institutions of this scale and scope together without there being risks. We have known that from the start. But there are also extraordinary rewards to be had, and we want as much detail in the public record to facilitate that, and it is something that we will be encouraging the universities to do.

We appreciate, as I know the opposition appreciates, there are some elements that they want to protect in terms of what is their IP, and there is good reason for that. We certainly want to facilitate more information being made available to the committee rather than less.

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