MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): I have a supplementary question. If there is no effect on the AAA credit rating, why has the government not moved to resolve this much sooner?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:23): I am going to explain this.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The polling was in, and the polling said that the Liberal Party was hopelessly divided and unfit to govern. That is the truth, the absolute truth. Now, I would like to say this—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PENGILLY: I have a point of order, sir. Can I again ask that the Premier address his response through the chair?

The SPEAKER: The Premier is; but if the member for Finniss continues to make frivolous points of order he is in danger of finding himself on the wrong side of the chair.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Let me explain this, and I will try to do it as best I can, because I am a very big supporter of the Leader of the Opposition. She gets more support from me than she does from some of her frontbench colleagues. The point is: give her a chance.

The key thing is this: there was a $600 million PPP proposal and project. Because of the global financial crisis and the impact on revenue, the state could not afford to proceed on schedule with that project. Wrapped into that project was the building of new high security prisons as well as new youth training facilities. So, what we have done is we have very carefully unpicked the youth part of it, and then we have arranged some land sales, which means that we can fund it.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: It is interesting that members of the opposition are so disappointed that we are going ahead with demolishing Magill and building brand-new facilities. This is why you do not understand the people of this state. The people of this state know the difference between responsible financial management and record jobs growth. They know that during difficult times you have to cut your cloth. They know that we try to do the right thing. They know that we wanted to bowl over Magill. They know now that we are doing so responsibly, because we have arranged the finances in a way that we have unpicked it from the rest of the prisons deal, and we can deliver the goods.