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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-23 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:08): My question is again to the Treasurer. In light of the global equity market uncertainty which has substantially increased the cost of borrowings, has the Treasurer reviewed whether a public-private partnership remains the best procurement option for each of its PPPs that are yet to reach contractual close, including the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital? On 10 April 2008, the Treasurer told the house:

When you make a decision to use a PPP you do a piece of work to decide what is the best financial option for procurement for taxpayers.

Has that work been done and, if not, when will it?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:09): The issue of the financial market contagion spreading around the world obviously means that the government, whilst monitoring the effect it has on our own funds, also monitors the effect it has on assets such as the Northern Power Station, which was sold by the Liberal Party and which is now owned by Babcock & Brown Power. It is out of government control, so I watch that very closely thanks to the efforts of the Liberal Party. The effect that it may or may not have on the public-private partnership program of this government is something that I constantly discuss with the Under Treasurer and advisers who are involved in this process. The latest verbal advice I have had from the Under Treasurer is that, at this stage, there is nothing for us to alter our current program of going to the market as we have done now with short-listing consortia on both schools and prisons and that there is still sufficient liquidity.

The advisers can smirk and shake their head, but I can assure you that I will take the advice of the Under Treasurer of this state before I will take it from advisers to the Liberal opposition. The Under Treasurer has advised me and advisers to government that, in his opinion, there is sufficient liquidity in the current market and that the price of debt is still in the range that makes this very attractive and the best option for government.

On matters of financial prudence, my colleague the Minister for Housing has provided me with a financial report from HomeStart and I am getting some more details from my office. I note here that the report of the Auditor-General states:

In my opinion the controls exercised by HomeStart Finance in relation to the receipt, expenditure and investment of money, the acquisition and disposal of property and the incurring of liabilities are sufficient to provide reasonable assurances that the financial transactions of HomeStart Finance have been conducted properly and in accordance with the law.

As I said, I am waiting on my office to get some material from Treasury, but there is a comment in this report on bad and impaired loans expenses. It states:

The bad and impaired loans expenses for the year was $1.8 million—a decrease of $597,000 over the previous year. The decrease reflects the movement in the level of impairment provisions over the year out of a portfolio of some $1.2 billion.

I will have more specific details to make sure that we knock on the head the alarmist and scaremongering question we witnessed at the beginning of parliament.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There are inane interjections from the deputy leader. You know, banks lose money.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: A billion? I said $1.8 million, sorry.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: What is she talking about? The amount of $1.2 billion is the loan book of Funds SA.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: So we should loan $1.2 billion to Families and Communities. The deputy leader has just said in this parliament that we should increase borrowings by $1.2 billion in the government sector to fund Families and Communities. That is what she just said. She said that we should have that debt funding families and communities.

Mr WILLIAMS: I have a point of order, sir. Once again, there is no relevance in what the Deputy Premier is saying and he is using question time to debate an issue. Worse still—

The SPEAKER: Order! I get the thrust of the honourable member's point of order. We will proceed to the next question.

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