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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-09-27 Daily Xml
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Land Services SA

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): Supplementary: just to be absolutely clear, Treasurer, what documents have been made public in respect of the features of this contract other than your statements in this parliament and material that your department has published, authored by them, that is not parts of the contract? On my assessment, there is not one single clause of this contract that is available publicly.

The SPEAKER: Of course, that question is expressed in an entirely out of order way, but we will let it go.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:04): Yes, sir, I have just been accused of misleading the parliament.

Ms Chapman: No, I'm asking a simple question: what are the documents?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You are asking a question with a veiled accusation in the middle of it, saying how can we possibly trust what we said. The truth is that the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Attorney-General's Department and DPTI, which oversee the Lands Titles Office, are public servants of the highest integrity, and the idea that somehow we are releasing false information to the public about the interaction with the Lands Titles Office commercialisation and them is just false. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has offered no evidence at all. She is just throwing out accusations under privilege hoping to land a mark. I have to say that that sort of conspiracy theory has no place in this parliament.

Ms Chapman: Show us the document.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: There we are—again, you are guilty until proven innocent. Well, if that's the standard that the deputy leader wants, apply it to the member for Mount Gambier.

Members interjecting:

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The week started so well with the live television coverage and now we are back to where we were.

Mr GARDNER: The Treasurer is in breach of standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: He is.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Every aspect of the contract that impacts South Australians has been made public. I know that the Speaker doesn't want me to respond to interjections, but—

The SPEAKER: The standing orders don't want you to respond to interjections.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I won't be, sir, but thank you very much for the impartial advice you are offering me. Again, every aspect of the commercialisation that we have come to an agreement on with the consortium that impacts South Australians has been made public, but there are some aspects of it that remain confidential as they should. For example, many aspects of the privatisation of ETSA still remain confidential to this very day and they remain confidential because members opposite, when they privatised these assets for 200 years, decided to give the proponents who bought these assets a level of confidentiality that lasts the length of the contract.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The shadow treasurer. The member opposite asks, 'Which members of the opposition?' The shadow treasurer, the man that the opposition proposed to make Treasurer of South Australia, that man.

Mr GARDNER: We have strayed again from the matter at hand: 98.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: That's quite okay.

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