Federal Liberal Government

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:07): Can the Premier update the house on his travel to Canberra yesterday to ensure delivery of key priorities for South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:07): Absolutely, I can, sir. It's a great pleasure to update the house on my visit to Canberra yesterday, and I thank the member for Kavel for his question. It goes without saying that we have established a good working relationship with the returned Coalition government in Canberra. We saw an improved relationship in our first 15 months of government with the federal Coalition, so we are of course delighted with the federal election result with the continuing Morrison government in place.

Scott Morrison is a great friend of South Australia. He has demonstrated this time and time and time again. He was the one who announced in South Australia, towards the end of last year, that Adelaide would host the national Space Agency headquarters and Mission Control, and the Space Discovery Centre. Earlier this year, of course, he announced that we would have the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre—the largest research project of space in the history of Australia. We have been the beneficiaries of the great friendship and affection that he has for the people of South Australia.

On my agenda with the Prime Minister yesterday were a number of key issues which are important to the people of our state: (1) the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, (2) developing cyber as a really important strategic sector for our state, (3) bringing some of the infrastructure investments in South Australia promised beyond the forward estimates into the forward estimates and, finally, the issue of the submarine workforce going forward.

In addition to my meeting with the Prime Minister—who was, might I say, very generous with his time—I had meetings with other cabinet ministers, other ministers and key personnel in Canberra, including Ken Wyatt, who I had a lengthy discussion with; minister Paul Fletcher, who I met with; minister Stuart Robert; and, of course, Senator Linda Reynolds, who is defence minister for Australia.

Just going into a little bit more detail in the allocated time that I have today with regard to my discussions with the Prime Minister, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is an incredibly important plan for us here in South Australia at the end of the river. I emphasised the importance of making sure that all jurisdictions stayed at the table, that we didn't have people leaving the table, leaving the plan and not implementing the plan.

We know that there are difficult circumstances in the part of Australia that is affected very significantly by drought at the moment, but Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and the commonwealth signed up to the plan. We need to see that plan implemented in time and in full, and that is our position in South Australia. We want to keep every single jurisdiction at the table but, more than that, we emphasise that we need to have as part of that plan an independent umpire because we do not believe that states and other jurisdictions should be essentially marking their own homework.

To restore trust into the plan—negotiated, I might say, under a federal Labor government and a state Labor government here in South Australia—and to make sure that that plan is implemented, we think that there needs to be an independent umpire. I gave warning to the Prime Minister that we will be advocating hard for this at the upcoming COAG meeting, which will be held on 9 August. We will be arguing hard with the other jurisdictions. We will be fighting to ensure that every single drop of water that we are entitled to—the 2,750 right up to the 3,200 gig—is delivered on time and in full to us here in South Australia.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the Minister for Transport and the Leader of the Opposition. The deputy leader.