House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-07 Daily Xml

Contents

STATE DEBT

88 Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (30 September 2008). With respect to the forecasted $5.23 billion state debt by 2011-12:

(a) which agencies and departments have placed this debt;

(b) is this debt placed directly in the market by each agency or via SAFA;

(c) who are the lenders; and

(d) what are the terms of the borrowings, including value, interest rates, and terms to maturity?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations): I have been provided with the following information:

(a) It is assumed that the $5.23 billion state debt that the Leader of the opposition is referring to is the estimate for the non-financial public sector net debt at 30 June 2012 (table 5.8).

The debt figure as at 30 June 2012 has not yet been incurred and is only a projection. The net debt of the non-financial public sector is administered by a number of agencies. As net debt is represented by gross debt less financial assets, it is not feasible to produce a list by agency. However, the majority of the net debt is administered by the Treasurer and SA Water.

(b) Except for finance leases, all debt is placed directly in the market by the South Australian Financing Authority (SAFA), which in turn lends the money either directly to agencies or via the Treasurer to the relevant agency.

(c) The majority of the funds are borrowed from wholesale investors both in Australia and offshore.

Such borrowings are undertaken through SAFA's domestic Select Line (fixed interest) and commercial paper programs and if required, through its global debt instrument program. Due to the good funding levels achieved through SAFA's domestic funding program, it has not needed to utilise its offshore funding facility for a number of years.

SAFA also has a retail bond program, however this comprises only a very small component of its overall funding program.

(d) The amount, weighted average interest rates and maturities of the funds raised by SAFA as at 30 June 2008 are detailed in the Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2008 in its 2007-08 Annual Report, in particular, Note 22.2 Interest Rate Risk and Note 22.3 Maturity Analysis of Financial Instruments.