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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Minister for Environment and Water

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is again to the Minister for Environment and Water. Has the minister received any dividends from South32 in the time that he has been the minister responsible for climate change?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:09): It would be very difficult for me to refuse dividends from a company that I have invested in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Playford!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —so I am certain there have been dividends during this time.

Members interjecting:.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Listen to this false—

Mr Picton: They're just throwing their money at you.

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

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —surprise over here. The woke rhetoric just is ridiculous—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The idea that a minister responsible for climate change—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —should divest themselves of any investments associated with emissions-creating industries of which the parliamentary super scheme and many other things—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —would probably have connections—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: There are all sorts of things here. I neither understand the line of questioning nor think that would pass the pub test. The lecturing, finger waving Empress of Woke, the deputy leader, says, 'I don't understand it.' It is yet another distraction from the practical environmental agenda that this government has been progressing for four years: banning single-use plastics, expanding our national parks and network, restoring—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Under the Labor Party—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —the rangers became an endangered species while the deputy leader sat in silence appeasing those decisions, I am sure, around the cabinet table. The environment department under the Labor Party was diminished, diluted, and its capacity massively curtailed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: They divested themselves of the environment department—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —and they should be ashamed of that very, very sad journey, narrative and rhetoric that occurred under their time in office. We have gone about building the environment department, and we have in many ways, and I have said this publicly, built on their record around climate change. We have invested in infrastructure, such as the interconnector over to New South Wales, to build resilience into—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for West Torrens!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —our grid so that we can export renewable power into the future. We have an ambition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee! Premier!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —to reach up to 500 per cent of our electricity needs in renewables in the coming decades. We will not only lead the nation but potentially lead the world in this area, enabling us to produce green commodities, green steel, green hydrogen, and lead the world. That is just the reality—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: You were upset about closing Leigh Creek!

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —of the situation.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: This government, the Marshall Liberal government, has worked endlessly to ensure that we have a practical approach to climate change, emissions reduction—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The deputy leader is called to order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —and adaptation. Canopy cover in the future—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —using water sensibly to cool our urban environments, not only Adelaide but regional communities like Port Pirie, with the announcement recently that we were looking at ways to green that city and give it more resilience not only in the face of heavy industry in that community but also in the face of a changing climate. I am exceptionally proud of what we have done. We can talk about it at an international level. We should be proud of our record, and for the deputy leader to once again go down a woke spiral in her criticism and patronising rhetoric is unsurprising but disappointing.

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