Personal Explanation

DESALINATION PLANT

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:25): I seek leave to make a personal explanation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: In question time today, I indicated—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Bring back Mitch; he should listen to this—that the state government has not made an application to Infrastructure Australia in respect of the desal plant. In October 2008, an application was made. However, before those processes were complete, the state government wrote directly to the Prime Minister seeking Australian government funding for the expansion of the plant. We did so because we did not have confidence that the Infrastructure Australia process would prove fruitful, for the reasons I set out earlier today.