Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:24): When all of us come into this parliament, when all of us take our oaths or affirmations of office, particularly those people who get to the level of being a minister, it is our duty, it is our responsibility, it is what we are here to do, to stand up for the people of South Australia, stand up for this state and make sure that our state's interests are first and foremost in our mind, make sure that in every aspect of what we are doing in our ministerial responsibilities we are putting this state first. Even if it involves being unpopular sometimes, even it involves upsetting colleagues we might have in the same party in other states or nationally, our job is to stand up for South Australia.

That is what we did when we were in government. We did it repeatedly on issues that mattered for this state: the River Murray, of course, but we also did it on Holden, we also did it on the submarines that were about to go to Japan, and we also did it on the cuts to health services and the cuts to education services that were coming from the federal government. On each of these matters we stood up for South Australia. We campaigned for our state.

When we did that, sometimes we would hear from those opposite that we should not be fighting as hard, that we should not be standing up as much as we did. In fact famously we once heard, in regard to the River Murray, that we should just settle for the Mazda, that we should not be aiming for the Rolls-Royce plan, that we should just settle for what we could get. In terms of the submarines, we were repeatedly told that we should just settle for the frigates, we should not aim for the submarines and get that contract as well because we might lose the frigates. However, we stood up for South Australia and we continued to deliver.

Sadly, we have seen something very different since March last year. What we have seen is an environment minister who is prepared to sell out our state, who is prepared to go interstate, sit around the table and sell out our state from vital water interests in the future. We know we will not get as much water because of the actions of this minister, because of his actions in terms of rubbing the bellies of New South Wales, Victoria and federal government colleagues, making sure that they are happy at the expense of our state.

How do we know this? In particular, we know this because the royal commission has said so. What we have heard today is the government saying, 'Oh, don't worry. It's just seven sentences, just seven sentences in the report.' Well, they are a damning seven sentences; they are an indictment of this minister. In any other government you would expect this minister to be sacked, to resign, to be out the door, but he continues to remain in his job, and every day we will be reminded of what the royal commissioner said. Let me do that right now. The royal commissioner said:

The South Australian Government’s agreement to changes to the socio-economic criteria for efficiency measures should not merely be described as ill-advised. It is nothing short of a capitulation to the interests of the current Commonwealth Government, and those of Victoria and New South Wales. It is so contrary to the interests of South Australians that the decision by the minister responsible is almost certainly a breach of at least cl 2.5 of the South Australian Ministerial Code of Conduct in that no minister acting reasonably could consider these changes to the criteria to be anything but totally antipathetic to the interests of South Australians and the South Australian environment. South Australia's agreement to these changes should be immediately reversed.

What did we hear from the Premier immediately after this report came out? Originally, he said, 'We are going to treat the recommendations very seriously and look into them.' However, very quickly after that he has gone to the point of attacking the royal commission, attacking the royal commission's report, all to try to save his minister.

In fact, he has got to the point of saying that his entire cabinet is to blame for this capitulation; they have all signed off on this arrangement to sell out South Australia just to protect his minister. That is a damning indictment of the Premier, the entire cabinet and, of course, this minister. Selling out South Australia is completely antipathetic to our interests, as the royal commissioner said.

We also saw the Attorney-General constantly trying to trip up this royal commission, not giving the royal commissioner what he wanted in extensions of time to complete his report. Then, right before the commission report came out, we saw the government leaking to journalists against the royal commission because they knew how damning the findings were in regard to their minister.

We will remember what has happened and the people of South Australia will remember, and we will be making sure that we remind people in Black, every single day leading up to the next election, what their local member has done. We will be reminding people in Elder, in Newland, in King, in Adelaide what their government has done, what their minister and their Premier have done to sell out South Australia. We will not let people forget it. This minister should have resigned, but we will make sure that result comes at the next election.