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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier made any representations to protect the Murray-Darling Basin Plan from any potential future Palmer-Liberal Coalition government?

Mr Pederick interjecting:

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

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:17): This is such a poor line of questioning, and it's difficult to understand—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —why the Leader of the Opposition is going down this path. We haven't been in this place for a couple of weeks. You would think that would have given the opposition leader some time to actually come up—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with some questions which might be important to the people of South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: For those opposite, maybe we can reiterate our commitment on this side of the house of just how important the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is for the people of our state. The Murray River is more than just a supply of water for the people of our state. It also supports many of our country communities across our state. Irrigation is extraordinarily important in terms of our river communities for creating the exports of wonderful food and also wine that we send from South Australia right around the world, bringing valuable dollars into our state. So it's important from an irrigation perspective. It's important from a drinking water perspective.

It's also incredibly important from a tourism perspective. We on this side of the house want to see regional tourism in South Australia continue to grow because we know that that's going to create many more jobs. The Riverland community, the Coorong community and the Lower Lakes community are vital tourism precincts for our state, so we will be doing everything we can to advocate for the health of the Murray-Darling Basin and we will be doing everything that we can to make sure that all the states—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —along the Murray, from Queensland to New South Wales, the ACT, of course, and Victoria, do their part, as they signed up to, as part of that Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I would like to commend the minister for the work that he has done to get all of the other states and the Territory back to the table. We know those opposite like to play political games. We know that they like to try to win some cheap political points. Quite frankly, this issue—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is far too important to play political games with—far too important for all the reasons I have already outlined. I reiterate to this house our commitment to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I note that it was a plan that was originally envisaged by John Howard, the former prime minister of Australia, when he put the act in place. The final negotiation for the deal was actually a deal signed up to when there was a federal Labor government in power—

Mr Malinauskas: Correct, and then it's been undermined ever since.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and a state Labor government in power.

Mr Malinauskas: That's right, and it's been undermined ever since.

The SPEAKER: Leader, order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We know that in the most recent royal commission report that was handed down, the commission report was very critical of that plan. He said—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —it was unlawful, an unlawful plan.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford will not gesticulate.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: He said it was an unlawful plan and it was signed up to by the previous government. We are absolutely convinced that we need every single drop of water envisaged in that plan delivered into South Australia and that's what we are working for every single day that we are in power.

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