‘Super’ minister tackles fuel crisis after ‘awfully horrible’ start to year
After his troubled portfolio and personal life dominated headlines, Minister Chris Picton starts work on his economic “super portfolio”. He tells InDaily about being the country’s first Minister for AI and a major airline’s move into the CBD today.
When Chris Picton took on the health portfolio in the Malinauskas government’s first term, there was a clear mandate: tackle the ramping crisis.
Now, the newly appointed state development minister is tasked with supercharging the state’s economy against the backdrop of a fuel crisis.
When asked if he considers himself the crisis manager of the cabinet, he said: “I’m happy working really hard for this government in whatever role I need to do”.
Last month, that included apologising and taking responsibility for an email bungle that saw patient information leaked to the media. For the past four years, it meant fronting up to questions about the almost 48,500 hours lost to ambulance ramping.
Picton said he was “really proud” of the health achievements his government made, including ambulance response times, a “generational boost” in hospital beds, extra doctors and nurses, and a nation-leading health prevention agency.
After what was “such an awfully horrible year” for his family after his brother’s tragic death, Picton is focused on the opportunities of artificial intelligence and economic development in his next chapter.
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“Of course, in any portfolio, you’re going to have to manage the ups and downs, but in state development, this is all about chasing every possible lead that we can for this state,” Picton told InDaily.
The state development portfolio was dubbed the “super portfolio” – bringing together the intersections of trade, investment, defence, space and artificial intelligence. Along with state development, Picton also holds the titles of Minister for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy, Defence and Space Industries, and Veterans’ Affairs.
As businesses battle freight costs and impacts of the fuel crisis, Picton said his office is consulting industries, understanding impacts on supply chain, while the Premier and Energy Minister work with the federal government on the national fuel security plan announced yesterday.
In the first week of the job, Picton met with the Australia India Council to discuss “huge” trade opportunities, and the former ambassador to Australia from the US to talk about space and artificial intelligence.
“There’s no doubt that it’s a turbulent time internationally…But I don’t think any of that takes away from the fact that we have to continue to press the case for South Australia to seize the opportunities ahead of us,” Picton said.
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Today, 12 Qantas staff have started work in Adelaide ahead of the opening of a new CBD Qantas Innovation Centre later this year – the first of 400 jobs the centre will create – and Picton says it is an example of the state being “at the forefront” of technology and AI development.
“Which is obviously incredibly exciting for a major national brand like Qantas to be deciding to place their growing innovation workforce here in South Australia,” he said.
It’s the first Qantas centre outside of Sydney, where staff are developing digital features for the airline, including a partnership with Adelaide University’s machine learning institute to employ graduates.
“This is coming at us, and we need to make sure that we are harnessing the opportunities and also managing the risk,” Picton said about the government’s focus on AI.
“To the best of my knowledge, I’m the First Minister for Artificial Intelligence that we’ve had around the country, and I think that that is a signal that South Australia is taking this incredibly seriously and taking a forward-leaning approach to it.”
When he was sworn into his new roles at Government House last week, Picton was surrounded by family, about two months after the death of his brother, who died tragically in January after being attacked outside a licensed premises in Perth.
Picton said it was “incredibly special” having his sister-in-law, niece Charlotte and parents join him along with his own wife Connie Blefari and three children Anna, Alex and Clara, for the occasion after the election.
“It’s still really raw in terms of losing my brother,” he said.
“It’s a really unspeakably horrible thing to have to go through but it has been so nice to have so many people, both that we know, but also people that we’ve never met before, share how much that this has touched them as well.”
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