Gillman Land Sale

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): I have a supplementary question, again for the Deputy Premier. Did the former minister for urban development, now Treasurer, mislead the people of South Australia when he stated in February:

The agreement with ACP includes a series of performance targets focused on employment and economic development, with a target specifically requiring part of the land to be developed into a resources hub…?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:05): There presently is what I think is technically to be called an option deed, or a deed of option. That option deed has a number of conditions precedent built into it, and as I have been trying to explain to the parliament, those things are being worked through.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: All I am saying to the deputy leader is that the Treasurer, former minister in this portfolio, has said on many occasions—and I think more than him; the Premier and others of us have said this on many occasions—that the desire of the government is that if this project is to proceed, it proceeds to facilitate a hub which could be a centre for the mining industry. There is nothing about that that has changed.

My point is simply this: it is one thing to create the opportunity for a mining hub to proceed. It is another to have the third parties in this context, who are any number of miners or mining engineering companies, or whoever they are, participate in the agreement. I am simply saying, as I have said before, that that is a matter over which we have no control, 'we' being the government.