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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-14 Daily Xml
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Question Time

FORESTRYSA

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and Forests a question about the forests.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In May 2011, cabinet approved proceeding with the forward sale of the South Australian forest resource. The buyer was OneFortyOne Plantations, which paid $670 million for an initial term of 70 years, but we all know it is for three rotations that will go well past 100 years.

The forest resource is still managed by the public sector by the South Australian Forestry Corporation. OneFortyOne pays ForestrySA for this work, but there is a shortfall. It costs ForestrySA more to deliver the service than OneFortyOne pays. In other words, it costs taxpayers money, year after year. It's a losing deal for the taxpayer and a boon for OneFortyOne.

The amount of those losses so far has been a deeply-guarded secret. I have endeavoured to ask the minister in this place at other times, but she said the budget papers only show the final position which, of course, includes the forest reserves and assets from the Fleurieu Peninsula and in the Mid North.

On Tuesday 12 November this week, the minister told parliament that questions relating to this arrangement were outside the scope of an examination into the Auditor-General's Report, but she invited me to ask for those details in question time this week. 'The honourable member is able to ask me in question time...' she said on Tuesday. When I inquired as to whether the minister was committed to bringing back an answer, she again invited me to ask the question in question time. So, today: what is the difference between the fee that ForestrySA charges OneFortyOne and the cost of delivering that service to OneFortyOne Plantations?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:22): I thank the honourable member for his—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I have. Minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Someone is counting, are they?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Just because it's your birthday, doesn't mean you get a free question, you know.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: It would be a gift if I got an answer to the question.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I give comprehensive answers to every question I am ever asked. I am happy to say I have already answered this question in a number of different forums. I have made it very clear that the fee that the government has agreed to receive from OneFortyOne is a commercially confidential sum, so we are not able to divulge that.

To give details of the figures that the Hon. David Ridgway has asked means that, given the budget documents that I have referred him to, which he didn't know existed, I have to say, at the time—he had no idea. Not only didn't the Hon. David Ridgway know that these budget documents existed, no-one in the Liberal opposition knew they existed at the time of our estimates committee. It's a disgrace that the opposition has no idea of these documents existing.

I have referred him to those documents, and they are on the record. They outline what the budget for ForestrySA is. If I were to outline the details of the question that he is asking, it would be quite a simple matter to be able to deduce what the fee is for OneFortyOne, which I am not able to for commercially confidential reasons. So the questions around ForestrySA, and the amount the government is providing to ForestrySA, is in the budget document. The amount ForestrySA expends is in the budget documents, and it is very clearly on the public record, very transparent.

I have talked about the costs of our Mid North and Mount Lofty forests before in this place; I have talked about the slump in the forestry industry because of the international marketplace and the difficulties that is having on our ability to generate profits, particularly from our Mount Lofty forests. We know that the costs of those forests are challenges to us, and we know that they have to be subsidised for the time being while we work forward.

We recently signed up an export contract for Mount Lofty, so there are some slight improvements in that marketplace, and we would be looking to generate more income from those forests that will help balance the books into the future. The figures, in terms of what the government pays for ForestrySA, the costs for ForestrySA, are all on the public record, and I have referred the honourable member to page 95 of a budget document that he had no idea existed. He has obviously failed to find the document or has failed to understand the figures in that document, and it just shows the incredible ineptitude of the opposition.

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