Nyrstar

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:03): Supplementary: Treasurer, in light of this news, which is likely to spook stock markets and also the people in Port Pirie, will you also hasten to call Nyrstar just to get an assurance that they are on track to make that payment or to reassure the government of South Australia and taxpayers that they will get paid?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:04): We have been doing that on a continuing basis since November/December of last year, and that involves senior officers from within SAFA, within Treasury and within the energy and mining department, which has had an ongoing role, evidently, in this particular deal since it was first established, and there is a senior consultant, who the former government employed, with a commercial background, who continues to advise the current government in relation to this particular deal.

If it requires me to have a further conversation with key players, I will do so, but at this stage it is being handled within the constraints of the statement that I have issued to The Advertiser—that is, I am advised that there is still constructive discussions; we are still hopeful of resolving the issue.

We are not in a position, until we strike a deal, to get any guarantee or assurance from Nyrstar's principals at this stage. That is what the whole discussion about the renegotiation is going on about: can we actually renegotiate our financial arrangements together with the renegotiation they are going on with with Trafigura and some of their banks and other financiers as well? So until we reach a successful conclusion or otherwise it is not going to be possible to get an assurance or a guarantee, or it would not count for much even if we got it—until you actually get binding legal documentation which is signed on both sides.

As comforting as it might be to get verbal assurances, that is not the world that I live in. The world I live in is that we have got an existing binding contractual legal obligation, and until we can get a binding legal contractual amendment to that obligation in some form or another which is able to be pursued through channels if it needs to, then nothing much has changed. Verbal assurances, as opposed to binding legal documents, do not count for much at all.

If it requires further discussions at my level, I certainly will do so, but at this stage we are hopeful that there is still the possibility of reaching a successful conclusion to the renegotiation that I first indicated back in November.