Treasurer Rob Lucas claims ‘secret’ Labor deal on Lands Title Office sale may force privatisation of Motor Vehicle Registry

THE Government has been “forced” to privatise the state’s Motor Vehicle Registry or pay up to $104 million due to a “secret deal” struck by the former Labor Government, Treasurer Rob Lucas alleges.

• Government privatises Lands Title Office for $1.6 billion windfall
• LTO staff offered “inferior deals”: union

THE Government has been “forced” to privatise the state’s Motor Vehicle Registry or pay up to $104 million due to a “secret deal” struck by the former Labor Government, Treasurer Rob Lucas alleges.

Mr Lucas said the Government would be forced to pay $80 million, plus up to $24 million in interest, to the same consortium which bought the state’s Lands Titles Office if it did not privatise the registry.

Its only other option would be to provide the consortium with a seven-year extension to the 40-year-long Lands Title Office sale agreement.

Mr Lucas said the “secret deal” for an exclusive right to negotiate for the registry’s privatisation was struck with Land Services SA as part of the controversial $1.605 billion sale. That exclusive right to negotiate extended to any service the Government considered privatising in the next 40 years, Mr Lucas said.

Treasurer Rob Lucas. Picture: AAP / David Mariuz

Former treasurer Tom Koutsantonis in Parliament. Picture: AAP / David Mariuz

Mr Lucas said legal advice indicated he had no option but to conduct a scoping study into the potential privatisation, before deciding whether or not to proceed with a sale.

He said the study would inform whether the Government opted to privatise the registry or not, stressing it was not something the Liberals had considered before.

Former treasurer Tom Koutsantonis issued a press release on August 10 last year saying that “certain optionality for the life of the contract” was included in the LTO deal, but provided no further details, citing confidentiality.

Mr Koutsantonis, who executed about $4 billion of privatisations, said he never planned to also privatise the registry, and Mr Lucas should simply extend the LTO lease for another seven years.

“Unless there was some exceptional circumstance I can’t see a reason why you privatise motor vehicle registration. (The LTO) is a very different option,” he said.