Government Land

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (14:57): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government questions regarding the sale, purchase and leasing of government land.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: The current Minister for Health recently made a statement that the previous government proposed to sell the site of the former Repatriation General Hospital for much less than market value. There is a proliferation of agencies such as the department for environment, water and natural resources, the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, the Department of Treasury and Finance, and possibly others, that all undertake buying, disposing and leasing of land on behalf of the government. This results in a duplication of services and resources as each agency needs qualified property staff to undertake these tasks. Merging the services will result in savings to the taxpayer. My questions are:

1. Can the minister advise which departments have their own property purchase, disposal and leasing sections?

2. Can the minister advise how many people are in each of these sections and the total salaries of all staff combined?

3. Has the government given consideration to consolidate all activities in relation to the purchase, sale and leasing of state government property into one agency such as Renewal SA, formerly the Land Management Corporation?

4. Has the government undertaken any work to see what savings could be achieved if this is done?

5. If not, will the government undertake this exercise?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:58): I thank the honourable member. That's an excellent question and certainly the answer as to the detail of the question is that I will take it on notice and bring a reply back to the house as expeditiously as possible. The honourable member, given his background, makes good sense in terms of the potential for greater coordination in terms of handling these sorts of processes within government. Certainly my recollection of governments past was that there was a comprehensive Land Management Corporation-led role on behalf of former governments in relation to the sorts of issues the honourable member has raised.

If that's not the case now, and the honourable member's question certainly infers that that isn't the case now, then I will get that answer for the member and bring it back. The notion of centralised coordination management of processes in relation to some of these issues, at least on the surface of it, to me, makes good sense. It is certainly consistent with practice some years ago in relation to the disposal of government assets. We will consider the issues the member has raised and bring back a reply.