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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-13 Daily Xml
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Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Did anyone advise the minister that he should update his submission to the Productivity Commission so that it was operating with full knowledge of the SA government's position? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Dr CLOSE: The final report of the Productivity Commission's five-year assessment of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan states, inaccurately as it now turns out:

The Government of South Australia argued the legal requirement of voluntary participation in efficiency measures should be retained, as it does not inhibit projects being delivered on time and in budget to deliver the 450 GL.

The Hon. R. Sanderson: But you delivered none.

The SPEAKER: Minister for Child Protection!

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. A. Piccolo: The Productivity Commission got it wrong now, did they?

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is warned. The Minister for Environment and Water has the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:15): These matters were all public. There was nothing hidden here. Our submission to the Productivity Commission was made public. Our submission to the royal commission was made public. Of course, we never heard anything, not a word—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —at any stage along the way—not a word. They didn't provide any information on their time in government. They didn't—

Mr Malinauskas: You changed the submission.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. Marshall: We made it public.

The SPEAKER: Premier!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The submissions were public.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: this is debate. The minister is talking about the opposition—

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate. I will allow the minister some preamble, but then I do expect him to return to the substance of the question. In the minister's defence, there is a cacophony of noise, as there has been for the last couple of answers—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: —I haven't finished—on both sides. I ask for that to please cease. The minister has the call. I will be listening very carefully. Minister.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: All this material was already in the public domain and when the negotiations between myself, Victoria, New South Wales, the federal government, the ACT and Queensland were delivered and we reached consensus, the pathway to water, on 14 December 2018, this was put out publicly as well. In fact, I stood at a press conference in Melbourne alongside ministers of multiple political persuasions and we announced that this decision had been reached, that this position had been reached. Did we hear anything from Labor that day? Nothing. There was nothing because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —their eye was completely off the ball and no more so than the deputy leader's, whose full outrage arrived at the time of the royal commission's—

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: again, sir, debating the question.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order for debate. There was a fair bit in the question. The interjections have continued, despite me asking for them to stop, and I will have to deal with them very, very shortly. Minister, please return to the substance. You have finished? The minister has concluded his answer.

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