Personal Explanation

Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (17:02): I seek leave to make a personal explanation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Yesterday, I was asked a supplementary question by the member for Croydon regarding the findings of the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission, specifically:

Given the Premier's previous answer, will the Premier rule out reversing the deal his minister agreed with the upstream states as called for by the royal commissioner Bret Walker [SC].

The member then sought leave to read an explanation, and again I quote:

The royal commissioner states on pages 414 and 415 of his report, and I quote:

'…no minister acting reasonably could consider these changes to the criteria to be anything but totally antipathetic to the interests of South Australia, and the South Australian environment. South Australia's agreement to these changes should be immediately reversed.'

The explanation provided, which was used to assert that a statement regarding minister Speirs' conduct was, in fact, a finding, was only half a sentence in the body of the report. This is not a formal recommendation or finding. The beginning of the sentence, which was partially quoted by the member in explanation, relates to the conduct of the Minister for Environment and Water and the Ministerial Code of Conduct. When responding to the member, I responded to the assertion made in the explanation, which relates to the Minister for Environment and Water's conduct and not the question which preceded the member's explanation.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition does not have the call.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!