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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-10 Daily Xml
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WATER TRADING

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is again for the Premier. Has the Premier received crown law advice not to proceed with the High Court action against Victoria?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:25): Oh dear. Can I say that the advice that I have received is quite the opposite. The advice that I have received only today is that not only are we intent on continuing with the challenge—not only has the challenge already scored us significant results, with the Victorians backing out of commitments they made to their own irrigators. Here we have the Victorian government backing down, but we are not backing off.

Let me tell you this. The advice that I received today, in discussions with several of my ministers, is that I will be receiving some legal advice very shortly that will have the support, I believe, of both sides of parliament and that the people of this state will be united behind it, just as they were united behind our challenge to the former federal Liberal government imposing a nuclear waste dump on this state. I remember what the sneers were. I remember the sneers were that we had not got a snowball's chance in hell—

Mrs REDMOND: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. The relevance of the Premier's answer escapes me.

The SPEAKER: No, I do not uphold the point of order. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I think that courtesy is really important. If you ask a question of a minister, I think it is really important that courtesy is given to both sides of the house. If I can just finish this, because this is really important. The fact is that the opposition believed that there was absolutely no point, that it would cost this state millions of dollars and that we would be unsuccessful in mounting a High Court challenge against a nuclear waste dump being established in South Australia.

Mrs REDMOND: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Premier's answer has nothing whatsoever to do with my question which was quite straightforward. Has he received legal advice not to proceed with the High Court challenge against Victoria?

The SPEAKER: No, I do not uphold the point of order. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: What happened? Because we had the guts, because we had the vision to stop a nuclear waste dump being established in South Australia, we took them to court and we won. We beat the federal government. We fought for our state, rather than fight amongst themselves—

Mr GRIFFITHS: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —and that is exactly what we will do again.

The SPEAKER: Order! There being a point of order, the Premier will take his seat.

Mr GRIFFITHS: I again refer to the matter of relevance. The leader's question was specifically about water issues.

The SPEAKER: Order! The question was about a High Court challenge and the Premier is answering that question. The Premier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I close by saying this. If the opposition wants to side with the upstream states, if the opposition wants to side with Victoria, we will be taking legal action in the interest of all South Australians, and I appeal to members opposite to put your state before your party and join us in taking on Victoria.

The SPEAKER: I think the Premier is now engaging in debate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Attorney-General will come to order!

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