Gillman Land Sale

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:53): My question is to the Treasurer. Why didn't the government sell the Gillman land via an open market, given that the Treasurer told the ICAC that if he were advised to do that he would have?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:54): Well, the government made a decision. It was not prepared to take the risk that it would lose the deal. The proponents told us, and they repeated their evidence on oath to the Ombudsman, that they would not have been in this arrangement if they did not have an exclusive option to pursue it.

They were being asked to spend millions of their dollars to actually put themselves in a position to actually settle this transaction. They weren't prepared to go out and actually attract those international investors and actually put that arrangement together and expend their own money unless they thought there was something at the end of it. Given that this was a unique business model that they had come up with, it was something that we were prepared to entertain, having regard to the challenges for the South Australian economy and seeing a piece of land that was just sitting there idle for 30 years, we decided we wanted to do something and actually turn it into employment rather than just have it sitting there lying idle.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel is warned and the member for Schubert is warned for the second and final time. Deputy leader.