DESALINATION PLANT

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:10): As a supplementary, given the Premier's analysis concerning the $228 million of commonwealth funding—and therefore it is not taxpayers' money—when did the Premier and the government first become aware that $216 million of that was going to be offset against our GST payments?

The SPEAKER: That is a completely new question but, Premier, do you wish to answer that?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (15:11): The analysis that we engaged in deciding to go from a 50 to a 100 gigalitre plant is completely and utterly incontrovertible.

Mr Williams: Not based on this report. Not based on this.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is, and we would have made that decision in any of these circumstances. We did have the advantage of the commonwealth contribution which does assist us in the short term to raise the capital costs associated with meeting the cost of the plant. There is no doubt about that. It does have a GST effect over time but this assisted the government to make the capital spending decision that it did and this of course has had the effect of reducing the burden on consumers. By not having that contained—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order. The question was: when did the government become aware—

The SPEAKER: Thank you, there is no point of order.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

Mr WILLIAMS: It's 98, it's relevance. The question was—

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The Premier can answer this as he chooses. We will wait and see what he says.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, we are always aware of the way in which the rules of horizontal fiscal equalisation work. We actually understand how those rules work. We are also very familiar with how Tony Abbott wants to change them to actually rip a billion dollars out of the South Australian budget because he wants to go a per capita funding model, so we understand how HFE works. It works in South Australia's interest and we are defending it.