House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-11 Daily Xml

Contents

Gillman Land Sale

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:52): Does the Premier deny that he had a meeting with a senior member of Renewal SA in the presence of the Deputy Premier and the now Treasurer during the assessment process?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (14:54): In relation to this one, I did see today that InDaily had a piece about this. I did read it with some interest because it was basically new material from my point of view.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I beg your pardon?

Ms Chapman: Check the big pile of documents you gave to—

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes, I understand that.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is warned.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I have to tell all members, including the deputy leader, that it is quite frequent for ministers to meet with public servants. Sometimes those public servants are public servants who respond directly to one as a minister, sometimes they are not. As to any particular meeting referred to in those documents with, I think it was Mr Buchan, I can say that as at that date, I was not the relevant minister to whom Mr Buchan reported. I can also say that from time to time, the Premier, the now Treasurer and I meet and have a talk about things.

I have no recollection of any particular meeting with Mr Buchan, but that is not surprising, because one has many meetings which are not memorable—and that is no reflection on Mr Buchan, I might say—and it may or may not have been that there was such a meeting. I do not know; but, I do know that any assessment of the matter, as I was trying to say before, ultimately comes back to this: the decision-making body in this matter was the cabinet, and the cabinet made a decision, from which nobody is seeking to hide.