Gillman Land Sale

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:04): Supplementary—or it can be a question, I am happy either way. So, Attorney, when you said recently on radio that you were going to get advice as to whether you could make public the subject contract and that there would be some consideration of perhaps the redaction of some of it, had you asked the Crown Solicitor's Office to give you advice on that?

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, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (17:05): Yes, again, Mr Speaker, through you, I thank the honourable member for her question. Yes, I recall a couple of weeks back there was a bit of a flurry of conversation about this particular topic and I sought to ascertain from the Crown what aspects of the documentation associated with this particular contract was confidential or contained elements of intellectual property or something of that nature, and it is my understanding that officers of the Crown, including those who are responsible for advising the government in relation to commercial matters, had a look at the material, and gave consideration to the material.

I believe that they also, in the interests of acting in a transparent fashion, had some communication with the lawyers acting for ACP and asked them to say whatever they wished to say about their view about confidentiality of different provisions—not, in a sense, asking their permission but inviting them to make whatever comment they might like to make.

At the end of that process, I was provided with information which was that there were some elements of the arrangements existing with ACP which presently, because there are still contingent matters lying forward in the contemplative timeline which are yet to crystallise, would be a breach of the confidentiality arrangements and potentially prejudicial to ACP for that material to be publicly disclosed presently. And furthermore, that the public disclosure of material which is protected by confidentiality under the agreement might itself constitute a breach by the state of its contractual obligations to ACP, which in turn might ultimately provide an opportunity for ACP to have some form of legal dispute with the state.

So I am trying to steer the course between providing as much information as I can according to my advice to the member for Bragg and the parliament, and anyone else who wants to know about it, but on the other hand I am trying to make sure that in doing that I do not compromise the interests of the state by revealing something which would be in contravention of the provisions of the deed and, thereby, potentially open up the state of South Australia to some legal dispute with ACP, which we don't obviously wish to have.