Nuclear Waste

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:00): My question is to the Premier. Why has the cost of the nuclear dump consultation blown out from $4.6 million to $8.2 million for the 2016-17 year alone?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:00): Of course, this is the consultation that the Leader of the Opposition relied upon to take his party to the position it has, so that is the consultation that is being spoken about here. The lion's share of the consultation was actually a royal commission that was described by the Leader of the Opposition just the other day as excellent. Although, of course, his shadow treasurer did go out and say it had some gross distortions in the numbers.

Nevertheless, you can rely upon the Leader of the Opposition to say that this was value for money because he describes all of the processes as either excellent or sufficient to take his party into a position to rely upon it. Indeed, if you look at his public remarks he has been saying consistently that we should have the very consultation process that was undertaken by the royal commissioner.