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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Gillman Land Sale

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. Given the findings of Commissioner Lander's report, does the Premier stand by his comments that the Gillman land deal followed proper processes?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:25): Well, I stand by the proposition that the Gillman land deal is a good deal for the people of South Australia. There have been criticisms of the process—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: There have been criticisms of the process that have been made by both the Supreme Court and the Ombudsman. A number of the criticisms of the process were about matters that I was unaware of and have now been the subject of findings. So, certainly there can be no denying that there are substantial criticisms of the process, but I certainly stand by the proposition that this is a good deal for the people of South Australia. And just to remind you, we had 400 hectares of land lying there at Gillman that's been lying idle for 30 years. The only people that seemed to have any ideas to do anything about it was to actually dump some waste on it. What we have here is a proposition about turning it into employment lands—and I might remind the house that employment is an issue at the moment in relation to South Australia.

A couple of young entrepreneurs, who matched up with a very experienced entrepreneur in the mining and resources sector, came to us with a proposition for them to raise hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to actually lift this idle swampland into employment lands and to pay us—pay us—to do it. We're going to look very closely at such a proposition every day of the week. There's nothing that I've seen in this report that leads me to the conclusion that we did not get good value for money for this land—nothing in this report leads me to that conclusion. Indeed, the commissioner himself makes the finding that he cannot reach a view about that—he cannot reach a view about that.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, he had plenty of evidence before him. Don't worry, he didn't hesitate about making negative findings about the government. If he could have reached a view about that, if he was driven to that conclusion, I don't think he would have hesitated from making that conclusion, but he didn't. Neither did he say, and nor could he say, that this agreement was entered into for anything other than the purpose we've always said it was for, and that is to create employment in South Australia and to take advantage of some of the great opportunities that exist in front of us in our state. So I certainly stand by this proposition. Frankly, with all that's gone on it's going to make it very hard for this proposition to succeed—very hard indeed. I hope that it does succeed, but with all of the attacks—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, with all of the attacks that have been made on this—I have said this consistently for months—this proposition will become even more difficult to be successful. If it is unsuccessful and it's lying there for the next 30 years it will be a monument, it will be a magnificent monument to the Liberal Party of South Australia.

The SPEAKER: Before the leader asks his next question, I warn for the first time the members for Mount Gambier, Adelaide, Hartley and Kavel. Leader.

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