Minister for Environment and Water

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question again is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Has the minister ever had to excuse himself from cabinet discussions over climate change because he held shares in a coalmining company?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:08): I also—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —drive a petrol car. Maybe one day I will drive an electric vehicle, but at the moment I drive a petrol car and I am not excusing myself from cabinet for that. There are many activities that we undertake in life which have a potentially detrimental impact on emissions going into the atmosphere, but you try to do your best as a citizen—in my case, as the minister—to lower your carbon footprint. When I fly, I sometimes pay the carbon offset there.

I think that probably the vast majority of people in this house have exposure to mining companies, and potentially coalmining companies—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Well, we do—we're in here with you.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —through superannuation investments, and I don't think that they feel they needed to excuse themselves from climate-related discussions as a consequence of that. Actually, we can see this drift into exactly what I was talking about yesterday and over recent days, this drift into the sort of crazy, woke left, lecturing, patronising stuff rather than taking a practical, sensible approach.