Question Time

MURRAY-DARLING BASIN PLAN

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I promise that the questions will go in order. My first question is to the Premier. Given his rousing endorsement of the recently released draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan in his ministerial statement today, does the Premier not agree with the federal government's decision to have a new inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin, headed by Tony Windsor?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:33): The federal government will ask a new parliamentary committee for regional Australia to examine the possible human costs of cutting water usage in the Murray-Darling Basin. The committee will investigate the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's proposal to cut irrigation use by up to 4,000 gigalitres. It is likely to have a strong focus on understanding the human impact of any proposed changes. The committee will report to the federal parliament by the end of April 2011. The decision comes as the authority wound up a third of its public consultation meetings in the New South Wales irrigation centre of Griffith. I should say that I welcome this; I think this is important.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, listen to the answer!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Rather than yelling out abuse, even though, ostensibly, your party, whoever was the leader at the time, supported an independent commission, in my memory, it would seem to me that if you had listened carefully you would have noted that in this draft of a draft plan I was critical in my ministerial statement of indeed the failure by the draft of the draft to recognise prior commitment in South Australia, when, from the late 1960s in the time of Steele Hall, through to Don Dunstan, action was taken in this state to cap irrigation to make sure that measures were taken to decrease wastage. So the efficiencies were done here, the hard yards—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —were done here, and that was not recognised in the draft of the draft. However, what I am saying is: if anyone believes that, because an independent commission, which all of us called on, is making decisions independently is wrong, then those who called for it on the other side were completely phoney. What we now have to do is prove our case on the basis of facts and science, not politics.