Murray-Darling Basin

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:59): Supplementary question arising out of the minister's original answer: why did the minister make a deliberately false statement when he claimed to have met with parliamentary secretary Baldwin in November of that particular year that he quoted when Mr Baldwin did not hold that position in November?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:59): Again, what we see here is the Hon. Mr Lucas paraphrasing and making things up and putting words into minister's mouths and they are never words that the minister ever utters. They are words the Hon. Mr Lucas makes up in his own head. I submitted the package of proposals I think to the minister in June. I met with the minister frequently—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I submitted the package of proposals to the federal government and the minister in June. Here we have the Hon. Mr Lucas not even understanding the process. You submit a package of proposals and then you negotiate on them, and then you secure a deal. I am very happy to stand by the fact that I have secured this deal with the federal government to release these funds to do the business case, and we will do those business cases and seek the approval of the federal government to release the extra amount of $90 million to drive those packages to drive further efficiencies for our water communities.

The Liberals in this state invariably are unable to stand up for South Australians. Why is that? What is it that makes them run up the white flag at every opportunity when the federal government attacks South Australia? It is up to us on this side to stand up for this state, wherever South Australians live, and we will always stand up for our river communities.