House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml

Contents

South Australia Police

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:48): Next year, they might do a list of 26, Mr Speaker, and we will see how I go then. My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister confirm that the relocation processes for officers in SA Police have been outsourced to a company in Sydney? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: A removalist in my electorate was contacted by a company called MoveDynamics from Sydney, inviting him to register for SA Police work. For over 20 years, he has been dealing directly with HR in SA Police and has had no issues. He estimates that if he loses this business, in addition to the extra costs for registering with MoveDynamics it will cost his business between $140,000 and $150,000 a year.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:49): That is a good question because, no, I am not aware of that move at all, and I am not sure what those circumstances are. I am conscious, of course, that there are companies from interstate who want to come to South Australia and do business. Generally speaking, they have been attracted by the strong economic momentum that is underway here in South Australia. Certainly, the minister for housing and for planning would be aware of that—that there are a lot of people coming from other places around the country who want to build homes here in South Australia for the first time.

I should reiterate that this government has substantially changed our procurement policies to require government agencies, as I put it, to look local first to local businesses, when they are seeking suppliers of goods, or in this case services, in either local communities out in the regions or in the metropolitan area. I have long been a proponent—when the government, across all its different departments and agencies, is spending something in the order of $7 billion, $8 billion or $9 billion a year on procuring goods and services—of further shifting the needle away from interstate and overseas suppliers to existing South Australian businesses. If we shift that needle by even 5 per cent, based on those figures of $7 billion, $8 billion or $9 billion, we are talking about an extra $350 million to $450 million of work that is going to South Australian businesses.

So I am, at the very least, interested to hear of that circumstance that the member for Narungga mentioned, if not very concerned about it. I am glad he has raised it. Once again, the member for Narungga is doing a great job to represent his local community. I will come back to him and to the house with further particulars on the issue.