Brown

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:34): I seek leave to make—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Water and the River Murray on the subject of the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The member for Bragg has obtained some correspondence, under FOI, between this government and the federal government and, indeed, I note that the minister himself wrote to his good friend minister Barnaby Joyce on 28 July last year and the Premier wrote to the Prime Minister on 16 October last year. There was further correspondence, and a response was returned from the Minister for Justice to minister Hunter, dated 11 November 2016. In part, minister Hunter's letter to minister Joyce says:

The development of a stormwater management plan (SMP) for the catchment has been underway for the last decade

The response from minister Keenan refers to natural disaster resilience funding being provided to the state government and refers to an implementation plan that the South Australian government needs to finalise. My questions for the minister are:

1. Why did he wait until after the federal election to seek federal funding?

2. Did he provide any documentation to the then candidate for Hindmarsh, Mr Steve Georganas?

3. Has he completed an implementation plan for the federal funding as referred to by minister Keenan?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions. She gives me an opportunity to once again explain to this council and to the state why the Liberal Party has a huge problem with South Australia. She asked me why—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: You have a problem telling the truth.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Excuse me. It was pot the calling the kettle black, the Liberals saying we have a problem with telling the truth. These guys haven't told the truth to South Australia for over a decade. They can't even tell the truth to South Australia about their privatisation plans, let alone what they are going to do to support this state.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: We all know that the DNA on privatisation is all in the Liberal Party. It's what they stand for, it's what they believe in, it's the food they eat, it's what they drink. They dream of privatisation of everything that the state owns in trust for the public, to give it to their mates, who go off and run those programs into the ground and then try to give them back to the state to accept like a tar baby. Unfortunately, we are a little smarter than that and we don't fall for the three-card trick the Liberals try to con the state with: privatise state assets, let private enterprise run it into the ground and then try to hand it back so all the liabilities accrue back to the state and the taxpayers. That's the Liberal Party plan.

'No worries at all.' That's the economic expertise. That's why we are in such difficulties at the federal level right now. The federal Liberal government doesn't understand how to run the economy. They don't understand how to run the economy. Have a look at the deficit. The deficit at the moment is about three times what it was when they came into government. The deficit that the Liberal government at a federal level lead now is three times what it was when they came into government. They have not got a shred of credibility.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It happened on your watch, your Liberal Party watch. There is no way of getting away from it. You are bad economic managers however you look at it. The only people who can actually rescue an economy are the Labor Party in this country. Thank goodness we have them in government in most states now.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The question asked by Michelle Lensink just exemplifies the fact that they don't listen. Where were they when we were out calling for federal government investment in the Brown Hill Keswick Creek development proposal from state government councils? Where were they when they heard from councils, pleading with the federal government? I spoke to Simon Birmingham when he was a minister about this, about seeing the benefit of investing now in preventative measures.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order: the minister knows that it's actually Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham. The minister likes to be called honourable, and I would like him to—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Yes, he does.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Will the honourable Leader of the Government please desist. You should actually set the example in this chamber. The honourable minister, can you please use the correct titles.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Absolutely, Mr President: 'incompetent federal Liberal government'—that's the correct title for them. Where were they when the councils involved in the Brown Hill Keswick Creek plan were asking and begging for a contribution from the federal Liberal government? I can recall asking Senator Simon Birmingham to contribute on a rational basis as a preventative mechanism rather than wait for a flood and then have to contribute as part of a national disaster relief flood program, maybe five, 10 or 100 times more than they would have spent on preventative measures. Of course, the federal Liberal government were nowhere to be seen.

Thank goodness the Labor opposition at a federal level stood up and said, 'We will contribute.' I think it was the member for Adelaide and the member for Hindmarsh who both stood with me at a media conference and said if they were elected to government they would contribute equal thirds with council and state government to invest in this program. Where were the Liberals? Nowhere. What did the state Liberals say? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Were they in our corner—the state's corner—advocating for this program to be funded by the federal government? Of course they weren't, they weren't anywhere near this because they have absolutely no commitment to this state.

All they can do is run off and kowtow to the feds. They can't actually get up in the morning and make a statement to the media until they get their lines out of Chris Pyne's office in Sturt. That is exactly what they wait for: the phone call to come through saying, 'This is your line for today. Don't deviate from it. By all means, go out and talk to the media, but certainly don't take the side of South Australia—take our side, the federal government's side at every opportunity.' That is what the Liberal Party in South Australia does. They have no spine and they can't stand up for our state.

At least we have a state government that has been chipping away at this for some time with the councils. Any person who has been following this situation would understand that, for the first several years, trying to get the councils in a room to agree to the plan in the first place was the big problem. They have not yet, still, set up a subsidiary organisation of local government to deal with this, unlike the Gawler River Floodplain Management Authority. Those councils out there are well advanced. They have their subsidiary formed. They work cooperatively. It has taken us a long, long time to get the councils to agree, and we are very grateful for that.

To date, the federal Liberal government have been nowhere. They didn't want to be near us, didn't want to contribute, didn't want to share in terms of preventative work. They just said, 'No, look, if there is a disaster we will come and pay you with disaster relief funding, as we normally would.' Where is the common sense in that?

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Have you even done the equalisation plan?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, the Hon. Michelle Lensink, have you even asked? Didn't she just hear me say that I spoke to minister Birmingham. I'm not sure whether he was minister for this portfolio then, but he was a South Australian and I asked him to use his best endeavours to persuade the federal government to contribute up to a third for this plan: a third for the state government, a third for council and a third for the federal government, and he just shrugged and said, 'I can't do it.'

I think that is a great shame. I think it is not rational. There will be floods in this catchment. There will be, at some stage, damage done to infrastructure and then we go to the federal government and say, 'Now can we access the emergency funding stream,' which will be much more expensive—much more expensive—than investing in some preventative work right now, but of course the federal government aren't rational in any respect, they are actually panicking at every turn.

You have a Prime Minister in this country who is actually run by the hard right wing of his party and the National Party. That is what has happened. He can't actually get up and institute anything that he actually believes in—nothing at all. All he can do is swing on the rope that is given to him by the National Party and the hard right wing. And what sort of loyalty do they show in response to him obeying them? They quit the party and go out and set up a new one. That is what Senator Cory Bernardi has done, of course. That's what happens when you give in to bullies.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: What has this got to do with it?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It's about the federal government not being able, in any way, shape or form, to contribute to a very important infrastructure plan to protect, not just households in Adelaide, but important infrastructure like the airport (federal commonwealth land), like the rail, the ARTC track (federal infrastructure). They don't want to contribute any preventative mechanisms whatsoever and I think it is a very short-sighted approach—for a little bit of money, shared with the state and the councils who will chip in as well. We are not asking for the government to chip in 90 per cent. We are saying, 'Go a third,' and yet they can't even bring themselves to do that.

I can't say that this is a rational policy decision taken by a government, but we have a federal Liberal government in this country that seems to want, at every turn, to look after the North Shore of Sydney and other blue ribbon seats on the east coast. They don't spend any time at all thinking about South Australian issues. They think it is a waste of their time and they try to kowtow to the hard right wing of the Liberal Party and deal with issues like 18C. That's their big thing at the moment.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Exactly right, the Hon. Michelle Lensink: why don't they turn their mind to the stormwater issues in Keswick? Instead, they are caught up in a cultural war about 18C, and the federal government has said, 'No, we'd rather do this than actually invest in real infrastructure programs that will benefit households in Adelaide and important economic infrastructure.'

All I can say to the Hon. Michelle Lensink is: good luck, I hope you can go and convince your federal colleagues to come in with council, to come in with the state government, in investment in this very important program, but I don't like your luck, because when I have tried (and I have tried mightily) I have been told 'No' at every junction.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: You swear at people.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I traditionally don't, the Hon. Mr Dawkins. In fact, I would spend a lot of time, an awful lot of time, sweet talking the federal government to get the best outcome for our state. It is only when we have the Deputy Prime Minister come into this state and thumb his nose at promises made to South Australians, that I occasionally have lost control, which I should never do. But, that is an indication of the mindset of the federal Liberal government about South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, can you please take your seat for a minute. You are all making a total mockery out of this chamber. The next side that interjects will have their next question given to the crossbench, as simple as that.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: No; well, they don't. The crossbench sit there and listen to all this nonsense while they are waiting to give their question. Minister, can you please come to a conclusion.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: On Monday 27 February of this year, I jointly announced, at last, the approval of the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Management Plan with the mayors of the five catchment councils and the presiding member of the Stormwater Management Authority. At that announcement I think at least one, and perhaps more, of those mayors made heartfelt pleas to the federal government to consider investment once more. It is a vital infrastructure program for these five councils.

I also announced on that day that the government has committed the funding, up to 50 per cent of the total capital cost of the works identified. We will honour that. Should the federal government come in, we will be very pleased that we can share one-third of the cost each, but to give certainty to this program, without any certainty of investment from the federal government, the state government has said that we will share the cost fifty-fifty with local government. That is a massive undertaking, but we think it is so necessary and so important that we are prepared to do it.

I am pleased that the final plan is now in place, agreed to by the councils. We now need to move to set up a subsidiary organisation of the councils and the Stormwater Management Authority, as we have done in the Gawler River flood plain management area, and to proceed with the infrastructure investment. I have already said to two of the mayors, to kick this along very quickly let's see some of the programs come forward, I think it's the mayor of Unley and the Lord Mayor himself—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —to try to put some of these programs in place at the earliest opportunity. In closing, I thank my adviser, Dr Tara Bates, for her work in this area over many, many years. I look forward to getting postcards from her as she moves to a new life in Melbourne, and every time I see Gone with the Wind or Psycho come on TV I will remember her fondly.