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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-10-14 Daily Xml
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Gillman Land Sale

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): Given the Premier's answer to the last question, does the Premier now concede to this parliament that his government did not follow proper processes with regard to the sale of the Gillman land?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:29): I do welcome the findings of the Ombudsman's report and acknowledge that he has pointed out some significant deficiencies, as did the Auditor-General and indeed the Supreme Court in their findings, and they're very consistent; they're similar sorts of criticisms. I do accept that there were those deficiencies because we have acted to remedy them. But let's be—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, from our perspective they were. From the things that we were told they were; and, indeed, if you read the report carefully you will see that we were assured that they were followed, and in fact we now know—

Mr Marshall: Have you read the report?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —yes, I have—through the courtesy of the Ombudsman's report that certain things that we were assured about did not in fact happen. But nevertheless, even taking those criticisms at their highest—take for example the whole question of valuation: of 400 hectares, 300 hectares of the land itself was valued properly, albeit in 2010. The criticism is that it was not a current valuation. Now, there is no—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: But wait for a moment. The—

Mr Marshall: You said nobody was interested in it. It's a very large section of that.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We are talking about the Dean Rifle Range and the fact that it was subject to a compulsory acquisition from the Adelaide City Council, and, for the purposes of that, there was a valuation. So, 300 of 400 hectares of land was valued and there is every reason to believe that the last 100 that was not valued was of lower value. And of the 300 hectares that was valued, I think it was something less than $10 a square metre. We are talking here about $30 a square metre, and there is nothing to suggest the market conditions have improved since 2010. If anything—

Mr Marshall: Oh, come on! You had multiple works done in—

The SPEAKER: I warn the leader.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —most of the best evidence is that it probably worsened. But notwithstanding that a current market valuation would have been prudent, also l remind the house that it was never the motivation of the government to maximise the sale price for the land. That wasn't the motivation. The motivation was the creation of employment lands. It was a bonus that we got good value for the land, but it was not an objective. So I know a lot of attention has been focused on the value of the land but it wasn't our intention. The only way of actually knowing the true value of the land was to go out to market.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: And the reason we did not do that is because the proponents said they would not participate in the transaction. Now we were not prepared—

Ms Chapman: Big deal!

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is on two warnings.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We were not prepared to potentially lose this opportunity for the state on that basis, and the full Supreme Court said that was a legitimate matter for the government to take into account as a matter of policy. Now, in this state, given the challenges we face in terms of employment, we are going to have do a few new things in a few new ways.

We are going to have to take risks, to try on some activities to actually get the level of growth that we need to embark on the transformation of our economy. I am not prepared for one to just quietly sleepwalk into the future as those opposite would have us do. I want to take control of our own future. We are going to back in young entrepreneurs who come to us with great ideas about South Australia's future.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members for Adelaide, Unley, Mount Gambier and Hartley are warned for the second and the final time, and the member for Davenport is warned. Leader.

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