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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-15 Daily Xml
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SANTOS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received any advice from Santos in relation to the change in investment focus from the Cooper Basin to the coal seam methane assets in Queensland, and how many jobs are at risk in South Australia because of this change of investment focus by Santos?

Last year legislation was passed in this parliament to remove the cap on share ownership with Santos. At the time, the Premier and the minister gave assurances that the operations of Santos would continue as they had been in the past in South Australia. The opposition has been made aware that Santos intends to change some of its investment focus from the Cooper Basin to its coal seam methane assets in Queensland.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (15:03): This is really interesting. Santos is a private company, which proudly has its headquarters and heart in South Australia. In fact, I would have thought that the honourable member would realise that just in recent weeks we have seen events honouring the contribution of Santos to the Royal Institution ($5 million) and to the University College London, which will be having masters in energy and in the resources area ($10 million).

Santos operates nationally and internationally and is based in this state. All members of this parliament from my memory—it might be inexact, I don't know—supported the lifting of the cap on Santos so that it could operate unfettered in fundraising—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Are you saying therefore that we should interfere in the operations of a commercially-listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I am happy to talk to you about South Australian jobs. Two AAMI stadiums more full of jobs in this state under us compared to when you were in because you were not interested in jobs. You had only one philosophy, which was to privatise state assets—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Mr Speaker. The Premier is clearly debating the answer to the question.

The SPEAKER: The Premier is debating. The member for MacKillop.

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