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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-15 Daily Xml
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CONSULTANTS AND CONTRACTORS

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): My question is to the Premier and Treasurer. Can the Treasurer comment on whether he believes that taxpayers received value for money when we spent $25.6 million on consultant costs on selling the forests and lotteries, as outlined on page 16 of the Auditor-General's Report?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:54): I obviously haven't had an opportunity to consider the Auditor-General's Report, as it has just been handed down—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I preface my remarks by saying that I haven't had an opportunity to consider the Auditor-General's Report, which has just been distributed. I can make some general remarks about the forestry sale; that is, the Auditor-General makes the observation that there was a comprehensive framework, and he gives it a clean bill of health in relation to the way in which that was undertaken in a general sense.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I am not addressing the specifics of the matter: I am giving you the general assessment that has been made.

Mr Pengilly: You haven't read the report; you just said that.

The SPEAKER: The member for Finniss is called to order at last.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Mr Speaker, I am more than happy just to sit down and answer these questions in the allotted time we actually set aside to answer Auditor-General's questions, but I was attempting to be as helpful as possible to the house with the very limited access we have to this information.

What I can indicate is that I understand that it is also one of the findings of the Auditor-General that the price that was achieved for the sale of the forests was actually in the upper bounds of all of the possible reserve prices that were capable of being achieved for this particular sale, so that is a substantial achievement. In a general sense, a clean bill of health has been given to the way in which the process has been undertaken.

There are some matters that have been raised, matters of detail. In a transaction as complex as this, you would imagine that there are some learnings, but in a general sense it was approved as a thorough and comprehensive process which has achieved extraordinary value for money for the South Australian taxpayer.

I might just contrast that with the sale of the TAB, where I think we paid somebody to take it off our hands at the end of the day; I think that is how the transaction ended up. So desperate were they to hand over public assets, by the time you net out all of the costs we ended up basically handing over a public asset. Those opposite are the only people in the world who actually thought that punting was a risky business for the person running the books.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: That is clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: In that the Premier is not responsible for the sale of the Totalizator Agency Board?

Ms CHAPMAN: Thankfully, no.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I uphold that point of order. Has the Premier finished? Before proceeding to the next question, I was mistaken: the member for Finniss is warned a first time, not called to order, and the members for Adelaide and Hammond are called to order and warned a first time each. Leader.

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