Compulsory Land Acquisition

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:14): Supplementary, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: With all respect, member for Florey, I think I am going to call the member—

Ms BEDFORD: Last question time you owed me a question.

The SPEAKER: I did, actually. Member for Florey, then the member for West Torrens if we have time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I did.

Ms BEDFORD: I hate to have to pull rank, although he is my contemporary. How does the conduct of the department in evicting Mr Lam and Ms Loo accord with the avowed policy of successive governments to act as a model litigant, and would this happen if this were a member of your family?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:14): I thank the member for Florey for her question and reject the premise of the question that the government hasn't acted as a model litigant in this circumstance. We have sought to give us much time as possible to help people make arrangements, including contacting them as soon as the project was announced, which was, from memory, earlier last year—March, April, May, somewhere around there. I know that there was further contact made in October, and I know that there has been a series of contacts made over the course of time until now.

So this is something that we have been working on with potentially affected residents for over a year. We have, as I understand it, also given extensions of time because COVID-19 had interrupted, especially in the earlier stages, the opportunity for people to be able to purchase other properties. We did see open inspections close for a period of time. That situation has now passed. We have done everything we can to deal with this as sensitively as possible, understanding that there are some people who still consider this to be an imposition that is unfairly put upon them.