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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-10-17 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Privatisation

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer regarding privatisation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Before the 1997 election, the then Liberal leader, John Olsen, stated, 'We are not pursuing a privatisation course with ETSA.' On ABC radio on 10 October 2017, not that long before this state election, the member for Dunstan and then Liberal leader of the opposition, Steven Marshall, said, 'We don't have a privatisation agenda.' My question is to the Treasurer. Will he explain why Liberal leaders, including the now Premier, Steven Marshall, continue to lie to the people of South Australia about privatisation and selling energy assets?

The PRESIDENT: That is a series of assertions. I am going to strike them out, but the Treasurer may wish to answer it, if he chooses; otherwise I will rule it out of order. Treasurer, do you wish to answer it?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:20): I am always happy to answer the question, even when the leader uses intemperate and unparliamentary language.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, it is unparliamentary.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The last person in the world who ought to talk about, to use his phrase, that unparliamentary word that he used in relation to broken promises on privatisation, would be the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Answer the question.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I am answering the question. Prior to the 2014 election, prior to the 2010 election—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Leader of the Opposition, order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —the leader of the party said that they wouldn't privatise. Prior to 2002—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Sit down, Treasurer, for a moment. Leader of the Opposition, he is responding to your question. Do him the courtesy of allowing him to respond to your question. I have done you the courtesy of allowing you to ask the question, even if it had inflammatory rhetoric and some additional rhetorical flourishes, which you know I do not like. Treasurer, continue.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Indeed, inflammatory rhetorical flourishes, if I might be able to use the phrase. This is a Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council that represents the party that produced tens of thousands of pledge cards, which pledged, in 2002 and every election onwards, that they would not privatise. Let's just run through the list: the Labor Party—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, restrain your language.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: He doesn't like getting his own medicine back. He is a representative of a party who pledged they would not privatise. When his Premier was elected in 2002 he then subsequently signed pledges in front of the media cameras, an edict to all CEOs, that there will be no privatisation under a Labor government.

Let's run through them: the South-East forests—our forests in the South-East. The Hon. Mr Maher, the Hon. Ms Scriven, all of us understand the importance of the forests to the South-East of South Australia and Mount Gambier. Which was the government that privatised the forests? It was the Labor government, contrary to the promises that were made. The Lotteries Commission, the Motor Accident Commission—he doesn't like it when he gets his own medicine.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order: the question was directed at what the Liberal Party has done and their lies.

The PRESIDENT: I am not upholding that point of order. You are not on high moral ground, Leader of the Opposition. Good try. The Treasurer, let's hear from you.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Mr President, as you rightly pointed out, the inflammatory rhetorical flourishes of the Leader of the Opposition open this question up. I am very happy to respond in kind. The Lotteries Commission, the Motor Accident Commission, the Lands Titles Office. With a secret report that you paid $100,000 for, you tried to privatise SA Water. You had a secret report—$100,000 you spent on a secret report to try to privatise SA Water.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Lensink, please stop using props. You should know better as a minister.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, you are stretching my patience. Please exercise restraint; you have outdone yourself. Treasurer.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The Hon. Mr Hunter was indeed a minister for water at a time in a government where secretly they commissioned a $100,000 report as to how they could privatise SA Water. There isn't and wasn't an asset in the state that wasn't nailed down that they didn't try to privatise. What we found hidden in the secret deal in relation to the Lands Titles Office was their intention to privatise the motor registry division in South Australia without having told the people of South Australia. They actually took—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: What rubbish; absolute rubbish!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The Hon. Mr Hunter says it's absolute rubbish. They took $80 million from the private sector consortium on the condition that they be given first mover advantage about the privatisation of the motor registry division. They took the cash and ran. They banked it. They spent it but they didn't tell the people of South Australia in relation to that particular asset.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Please restrain yourself. You are stretching my patience.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I love it when the Labor Party starts talking about privatisation and tries to pretend in some way that they are the anti-privatisation party. The people of South Australia heard that prior to the election and they threw them out of office. They threw them out of office because they heard the same rhetoric, they heard the same scare campaign about the privatisation agenda of the government, and they threw the Labor government out of office because they didn't believe the sort of rubbish that they heard prior to the election and they won't believe the same sort of rubbish after the election either.

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