Question Time

BRADKEN FOUNDRY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about the Bradken Foundry expansion.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As honourable members would know, the expansion of the Bradken Foundry was declared a major development by this government on 25 January 2006. It has gone through a whole range of processes. I think the declaration was amended on 13 April 2006, and the issues paper was then issued by the Major Developments Panel on 26 April 2006. That particular paper was open for public comment from 26 April to 23 May 2006. The guidelines for the public environmental report (PER) level of the assessment to be determined was released by the Major Developments Panel on Wednesday 28 February 2007, and public comment was extended until 30 April 2007.

There was then a response by the proponent, Bradken, to the public and agency comment on the public environmental report, and that response document was released on Wednesday 18 July 2007. Members would know that this development is an important industrial development in Adelaide's northern suburbs and, in fact, Bradken themselves are now some 10 months behind schedule and are desperately awaiting the government's announcement on this project. My questions to the minister are:

1. When will the final announcement be made?

2. Is the final announcement being delayed until after the federal election?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:23): In relation to the latter point: if anyone has been playing politics with this, it is, of course, the Liberal Party, with a very misleading and dishonest article that was put out by that candidate recently, saying that the government had made a decision but was holding off. That, of course, is not true. As with all major projects, the decision is made by the Governor, and the Governor, of course, will be advised by the government in due course in relation to that matter. I have received a preliminary draft version of the assessment report, which is prepared by Planning SA, which assesses the proposal, including all issues raised during the public consultation period and the proponent's response to the submissions which are raised during the consultation period.

A couple of issues need to be further clarified, and Planning SA has been working on these matters. I understand that I will be having a meeting with Bradken shortly to discuss several of those issues. Once that work is concluded, I will then be in a position to finalise the report and submit it, via cabinet, for the Governor's consideration of the proposal. Along with the Governor's decision the assessment report will, of course, when it is finalised, be publicly released, but I do not intend to pre-empt the decision of the Governor on this matter.