MINING ROYALTIES

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier reveal in which year South Australia's mining royalties, currently at $203 million a year, will reach Western Australia's annual royalties, currently at $4,800 million a year, and will he release the departmental advice supporting his statement on radio yesterday morning that, 'It's no exaggeration to say that we will be the next Western Australia in a decade or so's time.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:50): In fact—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, can you sit down until we have some quiet.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes, thank you.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The question was very provocative but I think the Premier has chosen to answer it.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I might just say by way of explanation, for those opposite who complain about the nature of our answers, when you get the sort of nonsense questions that you see from those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: When you get the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You have asked the question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: When you get the scorn and ridicule associated with their questions—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —if you think you are going to get anything different back, then you are sadly mistaken. Madam Speaker—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Norwood, you are warned for the second time.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I'm very happy to answer this question, Madam Speaker, because this goes precisely to—

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, the member for Norwood.

Mr MARSHALL: It's a standing order of this parliament that all remarks are to be addressed through the chair. The Premier, after taking on the role—

The SPEAKER: Thank you; you have made your point. You can sit down.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Sit down.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Norwood, you are warned for the second time and if I warn you again you will go out.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: You don't shout across at the Premier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Norwood—

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Send him out.

The SPEAKER: Sit down, Premier. Member for Norwood, you will behave or you will go. The next time I speak to you, you will go. You are shouting out and you do not shout across the floor at the Premier. You have asked the question, give him respect and listen to him quietly. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I think this question actually defines the essential difference between those sitting on this side and those sitting on the other. We are enormously ambitious for the future of this state and any rational analysis of our mining prospectivity over the period that we have seen it in this state is following precisely the same trajectory that exists in relation to Western Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We say that because we did not choose the words that the Governor uttered in the speech the other day—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We did not choose the words that the Governor uttered in his speech the other day without some care. We chose them because we seriously do believe that this is the decade that will define the decades to come within this state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: And that the decisions that we take—and I invited those opposite to participate in the debate of ideas. We made a range of choices—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —about what we thought were the most important things that would define the future of our state. Those opposite have chosen not to participate in that debate. They have, in fact, decided to descend into the invective and negativity that is characterised—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: The Premier is clearly debating the answer. The question was very specific: when does he expect that South Australia will match Western Australia's mining industry—

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr WILLIAMS: And what departmental advice did he get to support that statement—

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr WILLIAMS: —that non-exaggerated statement yesterday, and will he table the advice?

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Deputy Leader of the Opposition, I cannot direct the Premier in how he answers your question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: You actually have to sit down—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order: in reality you can direct the Premier not to debate his answer, and that is what I was asking you to do.

The SPEAKER: It is a matter of relevance, deputy leader.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order: can I again point out to the other side, who refuse to learn the standing orders, that if they disagree with you there is a standing order with which they can deal with that, but they can't do it—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Sit down, member for Morialta, we have not finished hearing this one.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Can I say: they cannot do it otherwise. And before we get the usual hectoring, which number is it because they obviously struggle with that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: From memory, I think it is 135.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, we have another point of order. Member for Morialta.

Mr GARDNER: 134: the Minister for Transport continually ignores the appropriate process for putting points of order.

The SPEAKER: I don't know what the point of order was about; but I don't uphold what you're talking about. Premier—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Can we have some quiet? You can listen to the end, and then you have 11 minutes to get more questions up.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, can I repeat that we will not be deflected from our view that we are amongst the most exciting times that this state has ever faced. That is why we are preparing ourselves with the decisions that we announced through the Governor's speech the other day for us to take advantage of that future. I might say, Madam Speaker, these are not just my views. In fact, that well-known Labor supporter, Mr Kerry Stokes, at the opening of the Channel 7 building, described South Australia as the next Western Australia.