LAND MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:20): Today I raise a matter of concern arising out of some information that has been provided to me under freedom of information. Members would be aware that the Land Management Corporation—which operates under a board chaired by Mr Mike Terlet and other appointed members—makes tens of millions of dollars a year for the government. It has a prescribed charter and last year the Land Management Corporation provided the government with about a $52 million dividend. It is a substantial income earner for the government. It obviously has a significant property development role and, to some degree, that was considerably expanded under legislation that was passed in this parliament by this government.

It is no question that the government itself has now become a significant property developer through this vehicle and others. The Land Management Corporation sells our assets, so we should know what is being sold, who it is being sold to and for how much. Even now, unfortunately, most of this information is hidden from the public eye and even through freedom of information requests, land title and company searches we still cannot find out where our state assets are going.

Recently it came to my attention that there was a sale of five hectares of prime real estate on the corner of Prospect and Churchill roads last year. This sale—and the lack of transparency and disclosure publicly about the circumstances of that sale—raised a number of issues of transparency. This land was sold to a private developer for $2 million less than the valuation assigned to the property some six months prior to the sale.

For the benefit of the house I indicate that Churchill Road Properties Pty Ltd purchased Lot 500 Churchill Road in June last year for $3.3 million, which had been valued at $4.5 million, and Lot 501 Pty Ltd purchased Lot 501 Churchill Road in July last year for $3.3 million, which had been valued at $4.1 million.

The properties are purchased, on the face of it, with a deficit to taxpayers of some $2 million from their valuation assessment. It is land which the Prospect council has identified for rezoning and major development and on which it has also proposed to spend $1 million in landscaping on the adjoining council land. The government has also identified potential major development around Churchill Road and even the Premier has mentioned this when releasing the government's 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide which was out for consideration in draft last year and now has been published in its final form. This was featured in that draft.

This is very valuable land and, like all state asset sales, details should be as transparent as possible. A considerable search had to be undertaken of the public records but this is information which is simply not published in the annual report by the LMC, which is under the direct responsibility of the government and whose profits go to the government, and this is yet another example of what the government is doing in its failure to provide this information to the people of South Australia who have investment in these assets. There are a lot of questions surrounding this sale. I make no personal reflection on members of the board of the LMC. I have read their charter and I understand what their job entails. What I do say to the government is: I have a lot of questions asked about this and they will be forthcoming.