Leigh Creek

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:07): Minister, I appreciate the fact that you are looking at the issue, but there is an enormous amount of urgency. When will you be able to let the company know what your intentions are, given that they have millions of dollars' worth of infrastructure that I think they are prepared to gift to the South Australian people but they may well destroy if we can't give them some certainty as to what you intend to do with the township?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:08): I thank the honourable member for his supplementary question. I think they are two separate issues. Some of the infrastructure is infrastructure for the mine that will take more than a few weeks to sort out exactly what the future of some of that infrastructure is.

In terms of the infrastructure for the town, Leigh Creek, under the obligations of the lease, need to maintain the infrastructure that they have there for a period of three years from giving notice, which happened earlier this year. So, much of the town infrastructure Alinta has responsibility, under the agreement when they took over the mine, to continue to maintain for the next 2½ or so years. But in terms of some of the other services that government provides, that is what we are working with the community.