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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-22 Daily Xml
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Question Time

GOVERNMENT MEDIA RELEASES

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government a question about reconnecting with the South Australian people with open and transparent government.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: A couple of weeks ago, looking in my office for a copy of the ministerial statement that the Treasurer, the Hon. Jack Snelling, made in relation to the appointment of the forestry round table, I suggested to one of my office staff, 'Just jump on the website; you'll be able to find it.' So they jumped on the website and found the new website of Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia, and all his motley crew of ministers lined up next to him, but when you click on that website you cannot find any media releases.

Right at the very top there is a little thing that says 'News Release Archive'. I thought, 'Well, we'll click on that and we'll find the Hon. Jack Snelling's ministerial statement.' But, alas, no, everything has finished. It all starts from 21 October 2011. Nothing exists prior to that time. My questions to the minister are:

1. What are you trying to hide as a government if you have now wiped from the Premier and every ministers' website all press releases prior to 21 October?

2. Why are you trying to hide it, and how can the people in the South Australian community get information if we have a secret government that is ashamed of its past and now only publicises press releases from 21 October going forward?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for his most interesting question. I am not aware of changes to the websites. I have not been informed of any changes. I know that these things are managed and changes are made from time to time, but I am happy to check what changes, first, have been made, because we know time and again the opposition comes into this place and makes all sorts of allegations and assertions that are not so at all. I am willing to take the comments on board.

I will check out what has been occurring and see whether there is any rationale behind it. I know there have been some moves, particularly by the Premier's department, to look at going to a far more interactive type of internet exchange, so I know that lots of measures are being put in place to enable more direct engagement with South Australians. For instance, I know that Premier Jay Weatherill, in his former role as education minister, used to go online regularly and talk with students and other interested parties directly using his website in that way. We know that minister Grace Portolesi has done some interactive work with engagement with her constituents in the past.

I have also indicated to the Office for Women, as we are updating and upgrading our websites and looking at more interactive possibilities, my desire to set up online forums again where direct exchanges can take place. So we can see that this is a government that likes to stay in touch and in tune with its constituents in a direct way. We seek to engage directly wherever we can and have looked at a number of innovative ways to do that, and will continue to do that. In respect of the media releases, I will first check out to see what is the current situation and what the rationale behind that may have been, if that is the case, and to bring any relevant findings back to this place.

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