HomeStart Finance

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:09): My question is to the Treasurer. How does the Treasurer expect the house to believe he had no knowledge of the work being undertaken to scope HomeStart Finance for sale, as he told the house yesterday, when at the time the government scoped HomeStart Finance for sale he was the minister responsible for it?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:09): I was not Treasurer at the moment in time that the member for Davenport is talking about, and if I refer him to the Hansard yesterday, he said my own agency was concerned with the FOI that he had received. The FOI was from the Department of Treasury and Finance. It is a longstanding practice in this place that we do not discuss cabinet deliberations, but I will say this, sir: departments and agencies offer up advice on all sorts of matters on a continual basis. I say to the opposition to judge us on what we do, judge us on the decisions that we make and the announcements that we make. I point out to the opposition that HomeStart Finance has not been privatised.