Question Time

Gillman Land Sale

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question is to the Premier. Given that it has been almost two years since the government and Adelaide Capital Partners signed the Gillman land deal, why hasn't ACP paid the government for any of the land?

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) (14:03): We did canvass some of this stuff yesterday but the situation with the arrangements with ACP is that there was, in effect, an options deed granted to ACP and, under that, there was an obligation on the government as part of that—once the initial option had been exercised, which it has been by ACP—for the government to go forward and to undertake certain works in respect of the development, which included amongst other things a zoning exercise.

Those works have been completed and there are now obligations under the agreement upon the proponents of the agreement, ACP, to move forward expeditiously and in good faith with the bits and pieces that they have to attend to. It is my expectation that they will get on with it and, as soon as those additional steps have been undertaken by them, it would be my expectation that there would be a settlement as contemplated in the agreement. As I explained yesterday, in my view that should be possible in the not too distant future, but I made it clear to the parliament yesterday that it is not appropriate for me to put a particular date on it, because I would be misleading the parliament because I would be saying something about a particular point in time wherein we expected that to happen. I am not able to be that specific about that point in time, other than to say that, as far I am concerned, the government part of the obligations have now been discharged and it is a matter for them to get on with discharging theirs.