FORESTRYSA

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Minister for Forests. Will the minister guarantee that there will be no job losses due to the sale of the state's forests?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (14:20): The world's greatest agriculture minister he may be, but he is not responsible for the sale of ForestrySA; I am as Treasurer.

Mrs Redmond: He has been talking about it.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will be quiet.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, it was unfortunate that information was released publicly about options the government was considering, because that was never intended and, unfortunately, anxieties and concerns were unnecessarily raised.

Mr Williams: No, not unnecessarily; you've been exposed.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The minister should not have made public information that he did, and that is regrettable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: And I don't know why he did, but what I can say as the minister responsible, the Treasurer, is that that particular piece of work was done to give advice to government in the broad as to what options were available in the lead-up to our budget, and there were a whole number of options that were immediately discarded, such as full privatisation. As the Premier has said—

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Madam Speaker, on relevance. The question was about guaranteeing no job losses in the South-East as a result of the sale.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer can answer, and this is quite a comprehensive answer so I think we should listen. I am sure he will wind up soon.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The intent of the 2008 decision, if it was financially prudent to do so, would be to sell two or three timber rotations, maintain ForestrySA as the commercial entity, have contractual obligations and have them maintaining the commercial sale and business model that they currently have. The Premier said it very well. We sell a certain number of logs a year. What we are doing here is capitalising, in a sense—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I tell you what, if we ever made a decision to ban the sale of timber, ForestrySA would go broke, so they have to sell timber.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I and the cabinet had a view that it is not inappropriate for government to consider the sale of forward rotations, bearing in mind the Liberal Party sold harvesting rights of the forests for many, many years. Remember that?

Ms Chapman: Remember the State Bank?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Remember that?

The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy Premier, get back to the question.

Mr Williams: You are making it up.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am making it up?

Mr Williams: We signed forward contracts.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Forward contracts. I think that is what we are talking about doing—there you go! The deputy leader has admitted that the Liberal Party sold forward contracts for the harvesting rights of Forestry SA, and that was such a good method we are looking at doing it for the trees themselves.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy leader, be quiet!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I just quoted what you just said. Were you wrong?

Mr Williams: They weren't to the Chinese either.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Sorry?

Mr Williams: They weren't to the Chinese either.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: What have the Chinese got to do with it?

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, don't respond to the deputy leader.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Are you saying that we are selling the timber to the Chinese?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Throw a bit of xenophobia in there, too. That's trademark Liberal Party: throw in a bit of xenophobia. This is a very important issue, because it does concern me that there are people here today, people out the front of the parliament today and people in the South-East—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, Madam Speaker, I think this is important for the people who have made the effort to come to hear my answer.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I would ask the opposition to show some respect for people who have come a long way and have anxieties and concerns about their future.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There will be no decision by the government that will adversely impact on jobs and the timber industry in the South-East of this state. I said that back in 2008, I have said that repeatedly in the parliament.

Ms Chapman: You said that on budget day.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I beg your pardon? What did I say on budget day?

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, do not respond to questions from the opposite side.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It is unfortunate that anxieties were raised in the South-East that need not have been raised. The government is not selling the business; it never was selling the business.

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Finniss, behave!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The only decision that we will take as a government will be this: the sale of the forward rotations—which is the timber itself—contracted for the full life of the sale to be processed and commercially traded and sold as it currently exists. The front end of the business, the operations of ForestrySA, the way they market, sell—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Own the land.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —own the land, whatever they choose to do in their normal course of business as of today, will not change. It may well be an investment fund. It may well be Cbus, for example. I would not be at all surprised if the union industry fund that covers timber workers might not want a slice of that as a good long-term investment. I would be very surprised, given the type of investments that they like to do. It is a good guaranteed income stream for a superannuation fund, pension fund, an investment fund—

Mr Williams: But not for the state—a good guaranteed income stream. It's so good that you want—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is answering the question, not you.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I would not be at all surprised if you see some very strong interest from domestic fund management companies and superannuation companies. As I said, the impact statement will ensure that, if there are any negative impacts on employment—and I cannot see how there will be, other than the normal threats and risks that go along with the forestry business itself; and talking to the chairman today, there are talks about potential sawmills in the South-East. The reason we took this decision is that there has been a global financial crisis—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Have a look at what the Auditor-General said.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You say there is not a global financial crisis; what has happened in Ireland in the last 48 hours?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Those people across the aisle have no concept of what is going on in the real world. What would happen if Spain should go the way of other countries?

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Greece.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Greece. You have only to look at what occurs on the world stock markets, you have only to look at the bond yields, to see the direction they are heading in, to see the volatility that is still out there. What we can do, if it goes well—the sale of this asset, the timber—is we can relieve from the state's balance sheet a substantial amount of debt. In this environment, that is a sensible thing to do, but it will not be done—and I apologise to the people of the South-East for any concern that they may have, because this government has no intention of doing anything to the business of ForestrySA that will negatively impact on the livelihood and the future of the businesses. That will not occur. That was always the case; that has never changed, and it won't change in the future.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!