SA Water

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): What assets did the KPMG report contemplate the sale of, and does the government rule out the sale of any SA Water assets?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:51): So committed am I to not privatising SA Water that I don't think I have even read the KPMG report. But I am sure that Treasury are always looking for options for divestment, always looking for options for purchase, and always looking at alternative appraisals, whether they be things that the government of the day does not wish to proceed with. I am sure that somewhere in Treasury they have models on all sorts of things that this government will never contemplate.

So, we are not planning on privatising SA Water, and if we do intend privatising any assets we will make it public, like we did with the Motor Accident Commission. The Motor Accident Commission—the government did not attempt to say, 'We are going to run down the asset bay or sell off a title,' we called it a privatisation. We called it what it was, and we will be returning those funds to the roads fund to be spent on road users. But it surprises me that the Liberal Party of South Australia are the only ones opposed to privatisation.