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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-30 Daily Xml
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Question Time

NationBuilder

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the minister responsible for the public sector regarding public sector practices. Will the minister responsible for the public sector assure the council that no data gathered through interactions with government websites, surveys, media releases or emails to government departments has been shared with the Liberal Party?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:25): I am delighted to be able to report public statements made by the Premier today and also by NationBuilder. The Premier has issued a statement this morning which was unequivocal. The Marshall Liberal government has not been using state government websites to collect or track data for the Liberal Party. Reports that this has occurred are false.

I am also pleased to be able to put on the public record a statement issued by NationBuilder, which I understand has written to the ABC about various claims that the ABC have made. Part of their statement is as follows:

The core premise of the ABC's article is that state government links are redirecting users to a domain operated by the South Australian Liberal Party and supported by NationBuilder enabling the collection of user data. This is untrue. The links that were identified are not redirecting any users to NationBuilder's platform. The URL in question was generated by Mimecast, a website analytics company used by the South Australian government.

I interpose that the ABC, through one of its senior journalists, was claiming that Mimecast was a platform that was being used by the Liberal Party. NationBuilder has made that clear and that's also supported by the Premier, as I understand it. Just to continue with the statement from NationBuilder:

No data is being collected or retained by NationBuilder when users click on these links.

The confected outrage from several members opposite, in particular the member for West Torrens, that this was the biggest political scandal in the state's history—given his experience with Gillman, which was the subject of an ICAC inquiry, and his and his government's experience with Oakden and various other scandals, which may well be entitled to be considered as political scandals, the worst political scandals in the state's history—these clear rebuttals from both NationBuilder and the Premier make it clear that the premise of the original allegations was untrue and incorrect.

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