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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-10-18 Daily Xml
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Privatisation

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:32): I want to talk about the hypocrisy, the blatant untruths and the broken promises being told by the Weatherill government, in particular the Premier, the Treasurer, minister Hunter and minister Maher in this house on the issue of privatisation.

In 2002 the Labor government went to the election with a pledge card which stated, ‘My pledge to you: under Labor there will be no more privatisations.’ Then, at the bottom, signed by the premier (premier Rann at the time) is a very useful reminder which states, ‘Keep this card as a check that I keep my pledges.’ ‘Keep this card’—members of this chamber and members of the community have kept that pledge card and their judgement is that the Labor government have broken that particular promise, have not kept the promises that they made and, in fact, what they have sought to do in recent elections is try to redefine what they promised. They said, ‘Well, we didn’t really promise no more privatisations. We said we wouldn’t privatise essential utilities.’ The only essential utility they say they have left is SA Water because there is no other essential utility, they claim—

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: Yes, because you privatised those, that's why.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: So their promise was no more privatisations—

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: There's no essential services left to privatise, apart from SA Water—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: —because you privatised them, that's why—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —but now, having broken that promise, having broken every promise that they made—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —they can’t be trusted in relation to this particular issue—

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: —you privatised ETSA—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Lucas, please take a seat.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: I ask that the minister withdraw.

The PRESIDENT: Withdraw what?

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: He said, ‘That’s a lie.’

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: I didn’t say that.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Yes, you did.

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: You need to get your hearing checked.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: You did, you said, ‘That’s a lie.’

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: No, I did not. You’re wrong.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Will the honourable minister—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Dawkins, I will check the Hansard.

The Hon. P. Malinauskas: Please do.

The PRESIDENT: But please desist while the Hon. Mr Lucas is on his feet. He has five minutes for a matter of importance. He has every right to do it without interjection. The Hon. Mr Lucas.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The blatant untruth, the hypocrisy and the broken promises of ministers and supporters of the Labor government, like minister Malinauskas at the time, is quite apparent. They have tried to redefine their promise and say, 'We didn't really say no more privatisations.' The reason they have tried to do that is because they have privatised anything that has moved in the last few years: the Motor Accident Commission, $2.8 billion; the Lands Titles Office, $1.6 billion, the forests were about $600 million, SA Lotteries. More than $5 billion has been recouped as a result of privatisations which they promised they would not undertake; at every election since 2002 they promised no more privatisations.

Now, having got caught, they say, 'Well, we really didn't say that. We said no privatisation of essential utilities.' Of course, they now say that the only essential utility left is SA Water, and that is the only promise they are now making, if you believe—and none of us do—that they are going to keep it. That means things like HomeStart and a whole variety of other government assets are ripe for privatisation should this government be re-elected.

You cannot trust this government in relation to privatisation, or any promise that they make. It is clear that if re-elected, a Weatherill Labor government would be privatising SA Water. They have now confirmed that they can do that without bringing legislation to parliament, unlike previous governments who fought their battles through parliament and who, with the support of Labor members, got the legislation passed. They privatised the MAC, they privatised the Lands Titles Office without bringing legislation through the parliament. They did it outside the parliament through contracts.

They have now confirmed that they have had legal advice. Why would they be getting that sort of legal advice? They have had legal advice that they can do it without bringing it to parliament. We have had confirmed that they undertook a secret study with KPMG to look at the privatisation of SA Water; $100,000 paid for by Treasury. The former CEO of ESCOSA, the well-respected and now university academic Dr Paul Kerin, confirmed that he had been told by the Under Treasurer that the Weatherill government had been considering the privatisation of parts of SA Water. Since then we have also had confirmed, in 2014/15, that the SA Water board, having clearly been encouraged by the Under Treasurer and the Labor government, was also considering studies in relation to privatisation of SA Water assets.

So this government, these ministers, have no credibility at all in relation to the keeping of election promises right across the board but, in particular, in relation to privatisation. They made the pledge card, they gave the commitment, they said no privatisations at all, yet with the MAC, the Lands Titles Office, SA Lotteries, the forests and many others they have broken those commitments so far that they are now trying to redefine it. They cannot be trusted in relation to these issues. Their commitment not to privatise SA Water or to construct some new government department or agency cannot be trusted. It is just a device, a façade.

We have caught them out. We know they have commissioned KPMG; they have done the secret studies, they have done the work, and they have also had the advice that they do not need to bring it to parliament, because they took that legal advice from Crown law.

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