Gillman Land Sale

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:10): Given the deed—yet to be determined and advised by you as to whether it is the final deed or whether it is a draft—that you have presented to the parliament today, can you point to the deed where it provides that it is a condition of the option that there be 6,000 jobs from this project?

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) (17:10): I thank the honourable member for that question. One thing that is very clear is that whatever we have got in those documents is not the whole box and dice. Even if there were a reference to a number of jobs, it would not necessarily be in whatever it is that is in those tender documents—point No. 1. Point No. 2 is that I don't think it has ever been represented by the government, anyway, that there is any provision explicitly about a number of jobs—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: No, no; I don't think, with respect, that's correct. I think what has been said is that various people who have looked at the employment potential of different projects have said—and these are not government people, these are sort of outside consultant-type people—given a development on the scale of whatever it is, if that occurs, then they have some formula for calculating approximately what the employment generating potential of that quantum of space, if applied to certain uses, might be. As I understand it, that is the generator of those numbers. I do not think anyone has ever suggested those numbers are immutable. They are indicative on the basis that if certain industrial activities were to take place in that area, then numbers of people would be employed, and given how much space is there and given what could be put in there, that is a realistic sort of number relating to that; but that is all that I think we are in a position to say.

Mr Bell interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The member for Mount Gambier briefly interjected then that it could be zero. I made it clear in my ministerial statement today, and I think we have made it clear all the way through this, that the capability of ACP to develop those lands to do any number of things is not entirely within the control of ACP even should they be sufficiently funded, as we anticipate they will be, because ACP's always made it clear that they were planning on providing opportunities for other businesses to come in and occupy some of the land that would be made available by ACP.

An honourable member: So they can make a fortune off of it by on-selling it.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I'm trying to explain something here. So—are you still awake?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I don't mean you in particular, I mean everybody.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: A nice hot cocoa would be good. ACP might find themselves in an environment where, let's say, everything goes very, very well and the minister for resources' fantasies all come true (or at least some of them) and BP or somebody winds up finding the Gulf of Mexico somewhere off South Australia. If that were to occur and this development was there I have every confidence that it would be an absolutely successful thing. Or, if the oil price goes back up and it changes, which it eventually has to, I imagine—

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: At some point in time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: At some point in time, when our friends in Saudi Arabia stop pumping as much of it, when the oil price eventually goes up, that will again change the economics of the Cooper Basin, and that may result in—

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired, alas! The deputy leader.