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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-29 Daily Xml
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Brand South Australia

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment regarding Brand SA.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Brand SA had to close its doors on 30 June this year because the government withdrew $1.6 million worth of funding. Under Brand SA, more than 8,000 people proudly chose to use the state brand and logo. The organisation also ran other programs, such as I Choose SA and Hello from SA, which encouraged expats to reconnect with South Australia. Since Brand SA's closure, the Marshall Liberal government has then decided to manage the state logo via a state promotions unit in DTTI. The total budget for this unit is $2 million and The Advertiser reported that Belinda Redman will take over as head of this unit.

My questions to the minister are: when did the minister first become aware that the government will end up spending $400,000 more of taxpayer funds rather than the planned saving of $1.6 million; what was the recruitment process for the new head of state promotions; and did any ministers or ministerial staff have any involvement in that recruitment process?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:11): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in Brand SA and marketing South Australia. Of course, it was one of the Marshall Liberal government's policy announcements, especially after the Joyce review, to market South Australia nationally and internationally. We see that as being a particularly important role.

As we have all heard, we are not going to get rich by selling lattes to each other. There was a focus on making sure that we have a state promotion unit to actually help craft the message and make sure that all the things that we do contribute to growing the economy. The Premier, the team and the cabinet have set the ambitious target of 3 per cent growth and that is something we share; we are a cabinet government, so every minister every day looks at ways that they can grow the state's economy. We don't shy away from the fact that we see that as an important function of the new Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

As members opposite would be aware, the Steven Joyce review recommended that we have, if you like, a single agency charged with making sure that we get our message right when it comes to inbound investment and exports. Of course, we have a great record already with tourism at $7.6 billion and international education now very close to 40,000 in number. Through the budget process, one of the questions was when I became aware—the department actually puts together how it wants to manage its budget for the next year. I became aware through the budget process.

On the second part, when it comes to the actual appointment of the state promotions officer, I do believe the honourable member asked if anybody was involved and anybody had anything—the answer to that is no. It went through a procurement process; I am sure the honourable members were scouring the job advertisements. It was advertised and a process was followed. I was advised only about three or four days before it was ventilated in The Advertiser that the successful applicant was Ms Belinda Redman.

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