Adelaide Festival Centre Car Park

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): A final supplementary, if I may, in respect of this issue to the Attorney. Having received that advice, were you satisfied that Walker Corporation had no right to compensation in respect of the consideration of the EEO not proceeding?

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) (14:38): I am not sure, without revealing all of the paperwork for that, that I should even attempt to answer that question. Can I make it very clear that insofar as I am concerned, the issue at that time, and up until the resolution of the matter which occurred some time during the last six months, the issue at the time was how do we get to a landing point with Walker Corporation which is going to work, or do we get to a landing point with Walker Corporation which is going to work? As far as I was concerned, it was never a question of assuming that we were bound to have some unsatisfactory conclusion and consider what the consequences of that might have been. We were working on the basis that we had gone through a very long process with Walker, that they had been in discussion with various instrumentalities of the government over this proposal.

At the same time, the government was, I think, coming to the conclusion, which we have stated many times here, that the plaza development was going to be the anchor piece of the whole of the Riverbank and it was going to hold the whole thing together. So, obviously, we're interested in getting a very good outcome there, a very good outcome. I think the fact that we have been able to reach an agreement with Walker Corporation—I hope before the end of this calendar year we will start to see the beginning of the construction work, or at least the demolition work, down here. It's going to be a great outcome and I think everyone will be extremely happy with that.