House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-07 Daily Xml

Contents

Gillman Land Sale

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. Was an independent valuation of the land at Gilman undertaken and was the advice provided to cabinet when making a decision regarding the Adelaide Capital Partners proposal?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:22): The advice that we based our decision on was whether this was good value for money in relation to the offer that we received for this piece of land. We were told that we were gaining a premium price. That was the very clear advice that we received from Renewal SA. The way in which they gathered their information is a matter for them. They presented that to us. We relied upon that advice we received in reaching that judgement.

Can I just add this particular caveat? This has not been an agreement that has been settled yet. This is an option for a company to go out to investigate whether it can gain the international investors necessary to be able to proceed with this process. They were not going to spend the money necessary to do that unless they had a period of exclusivity. That is all that has been given. We are preserving the capacity for them to be able to raise the funds to allow them to be able to make this extraordinary investment which will develop this important piece of land for the future of South Australia.

So, in all of your efforts about scrutinising this matter—and I have no difficulty with the scrutiny at all; in fact, I think you will be surprised at what you will find when you do participate in the select committee in the upper house—I ask you to take care in ensuring that you do not do this in a way that puts in jeopardy this important arrangement for the future of South Australia. Of course it is a massive threat to South Australia if you behave badly and destructively and cause us to lose this opportunity. The people of South Australia will visit at your feet the loss of the opportunity to develop a piece of land that has been lying idle for decades and decades. If that happens, we will place it firmly at your feet.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary from the leader.