MURRAY-DARLING BASIN PLAN

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:07): My question is to the Premier. Can he explain how it has occurred that the guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has failed to recognise the long-standing cap on diversions in South Australia and irrigators' investment in efficient water use measures, given that the South Australian government was invited to make submissions to the authority during the plan's development?

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) (15:08): I think that during the evolution of the process there has been enormous contact between the officers of the department—in fact, I am sure that the minister will be able to give more details of that—and those involved in this process, and that will be ongoing. A lot of people around the country are unhappy with the plan, but do not forget that, during the middle of the drought, when we were told at a COAG meeting by someone who had been introduced to us by John Howard—he was the head of the then authority—that we were facing a one in one thousand year low inflow, and it then got worse—

Mr WILLIAMS: I rise on a point of order. The question was: how did the key to South Australia's future get left out of the plan when this government had the opportunity to make submissions to the drafters of the plan?

The SPEAKER: So, your point of order, I presume, is relevance. I think that the Premier might be getting to it, because I have been listening carefully to what is said.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: What I am trying to do in, perhaps, a discursive way and without the normal rhetorical interruptions from the other side, is to explain that they have considered an incredibly complex range of inputs. What we hope we will see happen is that in the final plan there will be some recognition of prior commitment.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: If you want to know why, perhaps you should ask the independent commission.