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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-29 Daily Xml
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Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:55): Did the minister or did he not breach the Ministerial Code of Conduct?

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: He doesn't want to answer that question.

The PRESIDENT: Do you want to answer that question?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:55): I have, Mr President, but I think I can take another 20 minutes of the chamber's time to reinforce—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Allow the minister to answer the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I say again that I have certainly apologised to those people to whom I spoke in a very inappropriate way. Absolutely, I have, but standing up for South Australia is what is expected of us in this place. I would think that members opposite should be asking why their federal government has plans to tear up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Why has Barnaby Joyce swaggered into Adelaide and tried it on by saying, 'That 450 gigs that South Australia required'—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Let the minister answer the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —'to sign up to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, we're going to take that away from you. We're going to go hell for leather on that bit of the plan that South Australia doesn't like, the down water, which New South Wales and Victoria insisted be part of the plan for them to sign up, but that component of the plan that South Australia insisted be in there'—so that we would sign up to that compromise plan—'we're going to take that away from you.' That was Barnaby Joyce's line to us in Adelaide: 'The bits that you don't like, we're going for that, full steam ahead, but those bits that took you, South Australia, over the line'—

The PRESIDENT: Point of order, the Hon. Ms Lensink.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Mr President, I draw honourable members' attention to standing order 186 in regard to a member who persists in continued irrelevance, prolixity or tedious repetition.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, can you quickly finish your answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I have asked you to finish answering the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Of course, I respect your ruling, Mr President, but I remind you that when a minister might be a little bit prolix or repetitive, it is probably due to the question being asked of him time and time and time again, which I answer time and time and time again in a consistent manner. The important thing here is: who is going to stand up for South Australia? Is it the Liberal Party of South Australia? No, not in a million years.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: That's right.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! If you don't want to hear his answer, I will ask the minister to sit down and I will go to the next question. The fact is, though, that the standing order as mentioned by the Hon. Ms Lensink is during debate, not questions without notice.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President, for your erudite ruling on that matter. I will bear that in mind as well for future points of order. The only thing the Liberal Party brought back was a selfie. That is all they brought back from Canberra—a selfie, a JPEG, a meme for the Leader of the Opposition's, the member for Dunstan's, Facebook page. That is all he had.

It wasn't even Chamberlain's bit of paper with a signature on it. It wasn't even that. He did not come back with a signed statement. He did not come back with a signed promise. He came back with a selfie. We need more than that from the Liberal Party in South Australia: we need some leadership. The only leadership that is coming in parliament is from the Labor Party and Jay Weatherill's government.

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