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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-30 Daily Xml
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MARBLE HILL

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (14:29): Can the Minister for Environment and Conservation outline to the house the latest developments regarding the restoration and protection of the Marble Hill site?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:30): Mr Speaker, as you would be aware, some time ago the government entered into a heads of agreement with the Bishop and Michell family to restore Marble Hill to its former glory, but that did not please everybody, particularly the Leader of the Opposition.

Indeed, his party in the upper house promoted some changes. Those changes promote a degree of uncertainty about the arrangements, and we are quite concerned about that, because the whole deal was really called into question. Then, to our surprise, I must say, we find that, in this session, members opposite sought to restore that bill to the Notice Paper. They did not seek to progress it; they just sought to have it sit there, continuing the uncertainty in relation to the restoration of this facility.

So, today we took the extraordinary step of bringing it on during private members' time, because we wanted to end that uncertainty. The Leader of the Opposition was—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: He did a good job, didn't he?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes. The Leader of the Opposition came in here—it is true to say that he did not want to be here promoting the bill that he put on the—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: It was his bill, wasn't it?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It was.

Ms CHAPMAN: On a point of order, the minister has provided no new information to the house on this question. He has simply repeated what the house is already aware of; in fact, what they debated this morning. It is entirely a repeat of what happened here in the parliament this morning. There is no new information, and I think they are all out of order.

The SPEAKER: No; I do not uphold the point of order. I will listen to what the minister says. The question was about developments regarding the upgrade of the Marble Hill site. I presume that the legislation debated this morning has relevance to that. I will listen to the minister's answer.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, sir. It is important to state the background, because it has a lot of relevance. The Leader of the Opposition came in—he did not want to be here, of course—and had to listen to the debate. He knew, of course, that the—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Fumbled his way through it.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right—fumbled his way through it.

Ms CHAPMAN: I again raise a point of order, this time 137. There is clearly a personal reflection on the member—in this case the Leader of the Opposition—as to his alleged motives in relation to this matter; and, secondly, as in placitum one, he digresses from the subject matter of the question under discussion.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport will come to order! A personal reflection means, as I understand it, that there is some implication—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Impropriety.

The SPEAKER: As the Attorney said—that there has been some impropriety, some criminal motive, on behalf of another member. I do not think that the minister has said that. With regard to answering the substance of the question, I have already ruled that I think he is answering the substance of the question, but I will continue to monitor his answer. The minister.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, sir. It is very important because, at the very end of the debate, the Leader of the Opposition—and he acknowledged that the numbers were not going to be for him; he could see that the writing was on the wall in terms of the disposal of the bill, and I should remind the house that the representatives of the Michell and Bishop family were in the chamber—said these words:

I foreshadow to the house and to stakeholders, including the Michells, that I have made the view of a future Liberal government very clear. As this deal between the government and the private owner proceeds, should we form government at some point in the future, let there be no doubt about what the view of a state Liberal government will be.

I then sought clarification about whether that meant that he was proposing to retrospectively override their rights, and he repeated his position: the Liberal Party's position is very clear. Let us be very clear about what is being suggested here by the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is proposing that property rights that will be entered into as between the government and—

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: I have a point of order, Mr Speaker. What is said, is said. If the minister wants to infer things—I mean, really, Mr Speaker, he is making it up.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will take his seat. There is no point of order. The minister.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. This—

The SPEAKER: The minister does have to be careful that in his answer he is not simply repeating a debate on which the house has already made a decision.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you for that assistance, Mr Speaker. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition asked me to say what is the new development, and I will explain that. The new development is that we now have a very clear statement, and if you do not take my word for it you should ask the Michell family, who are in the chamber: they took this as a threat. The new development is that this agreement is very much under threat. The agreement that was meant to be entered into between the state government and the developer is now under threat because we do not know, and they do not know, what would happen under a future Liberal government.

It needs to be understood precisely what this means. This is the party of private property over there on the other side of the house threatening to retrospectively overrule property rights, should it form a government. Let us remember—

Ms CHAPMAN: I rise on a point of order. In contravention of standing order 127, the minister is impugning the motives in relation to the leader's position.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms CHAPMAN: He is simply repeating and reflecting upon the member's motives in relation to this morning's debate in—

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order; I do not think the minister is alleging any impropriety on the part of the Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It spreads beyond Marble Hill. There are 1,600 private properties which have heritage agreements over them and which are registered with the Lands Titles Office, and those people should be very fearful should the Liberal Party come into government.

However, I think another observation needs to be made about this, and that is about the recklessness of the Leader of the Opposition. He did not expect to be in here; he was knocked a little bit off balance, and we got to see the real Leader of the Opposition.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will come to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: He realised that he had to put away the barking dog routine. I conclude with—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —the immortal words of Homer Simpson, who said, 'I guess some people never change, or they quickly change and then quickly change back.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Attorney-General will come to order. The house will come to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: When the house has come to order; the member for Morphett.

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