House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-16 Daily Xml

Contents

Public Transport Inquiry

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister please inform the house how long a commission of inquiry into train and tram operations will take?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:49): That is a good question. Hopefully, not too long. It will depend on the complexity of the contract negotiations with Keolis Downer and the commissioner we appoint ultimately.

I do not expect it to be a very long process, but one of the key recommendations, which we talked about before the election, was an investigation into any break clauses and whether they were unusual or extraordinary in standard government contracts. And if there are, those public officers involved in that will obviously have to deal with the consequences of that because if any government put in extraordinary clauses that are unusual in standard contracts for break clauses—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —that would be unusual, and it could be close to maladministration or misconduct. But we will have a look at that, and the commission of inquiry will report back to the cabinet and let us know exactly what has occurred, and if there are any examples of that in those contracts, obviously there will have to be further action from there, but we will get to the bottom of it very, very quickly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Taylor! Member for Wright!