HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-10 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Grievance Debate

WATER TRADING

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:19): Today, we saw the Premier exposed. We saw him exposed for what he is—that is, somebody who sets up the people of South Australia and their expectations in the hope that they will think he is doing something good for this state. Today, it has been revealed that what the Premier did yesterday in once again trying to invoke patriotism amongst the South Australian public against our cousins across the border in Victoria is a sham.

On Tuesday, the Premier came into this place and told the house, by way of ministerial statement, that, if the Victorian government did not lift the 10 per cent on water trade out of individual water districts in Victoria, he would proceed immediately with the High Court challenge.

The reality is that, way back on 9 May, the Victorian water minister (Tim Holding) told the Victorian parliament and the people of Victoria that he would move immediately to legislate the change to lift the 10 per cent cap, yet our Premier threatened yesterday to go ahead with the High Court challenge.

I can tell the house today that the process is almost complete in Victoria. In fact, the Victorian parliament has almost completed the legislation; it has gone through the upper house. I can tell members that the government controls the lower house, and it is a mere formality. The opposition is very reliably informed that, come the 15th day of this month, that legislation will be assented to.

So, the Premier came into this place yesterday knowing full well that, well before the Premier's sham October deadline, the Victorian government would remove that 10 per cent cap. Why did the Premier do that? Because he wanted to go out there and tell the public what a good job he had done. Back on 5 March this year, when we first heard that the Premier was contemplating making a High Court challenge, the Premier said that he was going to the High Court to remove the 4 per cent annual cap on trade out of any Victorian water because he thought that was uncompetitive.

The reality is that it was only in July last year that the Premier signed off on an agreement of the scaling down of that trade barrier. In fact, in a press release on 3 July last year, following the COAG meeting, the Premier had this to say:

I came to Sydney to make sure this agreement was signed. This is a stunning result for South Australia and a victory for the environment. In addition, a significant agreement was reached today for the states to work toward lifting the trading cap on water between regions along the Murray-Darling Basin from 4 to 6 per cent by the end of 2009, with a view to the complete removal of the trading cap by 2014. This will help in the process of purchasing water licences along the river to return that water for environmental flows.

That is what the Premier said in July last year, just over 12 months ago; yet, all of this year, he has been beating this patriotism drum that he is going to take the Victorians to court to try to get them to lift the cap. He, the Premier, signed the deal, and he, the Premier, is aware and was aware on Tuesday that the Victorian government is well down the path to passing the legislation and will have it assented it to well before the date he set as a challenge.

The Premier has oversold on this one. Yet again, he has overspun, and he is now trying to make his way out of this High Court challenge sham that he has been running for the last six months. The reality is that the Premier knows that he has little chance. The reality is that the Premier has received, we believe, high level advice from within his government that he should not proceed with the challenge, that it will be very expensive and that he has no chance of success.

It was in 1775 that Samuel Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. It ill behoves the Premier of the state to instil hatred between the people of this state and their cousins across the border. What we need is sensible debate, sensible discussion and sensible decisions—something we have not seen from this government.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT