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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-13 Daily Xml
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Keolis Downer

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:48): Does the minister stand by his statement to the house on 4 July that Keolis Downer had not made any unsolicited bids to own or operate the tram network, given that FOIs show that Keolis Downer held discussions in the minister's office on 11 May to discuss infrastructure and, in particular, transport opportunities and issues with the government?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:48): An unsolicited bid means something specific. What's interesting is that an unsolicited bid process actually doesn't get run by my office: it gets run by the Department of Treasury and Finance. In fact, there are strict confidentiality provisions around how that works.

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: But I certainly stand by my statements. I also stand by the fact I have never met this guy. More than that, who I do meet with are people who are public transport operators, and of course I have discussions with them—for instance, going to visit Newcastle and having a look at some innovative work that's being done there, or going with Torrens Transit to have a look at their on-demand bus trials in New South Wales. The reason you do that, especially as a young minister, is to learn. You do that to get smarter, and you do that by engaging with people who have experience in this area for decades.

I stand by everything I have said but, more than that, to try to somehow insinuate that anything that this government has done is improper is wrong and needs to be called out for what it is, and that is an attempt to denigrate what is otherwise an attempt to improve public transport services in South Australia.

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