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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.S. LEE (15:05): My question is directed to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. What counselling has the minister received since his abusive tirade towards his female Victorian Labor colleague at an Adelaide restaurant, and will the minister be receiving ongoing counselling regarding his uncontrollable and abusive behaviour?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for her most intriguing question. Once again, I put on the record at the outset that I have apologised to those concerned for the inappropriate language I used whilst I was still making a very firm point about the interests of South Australia that Barnaby Joyce simply did not want to hear.

I spent the best part of two hours in a private meeting with those ministers, where I was politely and diplomatically trying to encourage them to pursue delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and was getting absolutely nowhere, because, in my view, the Hon. Barnaby Joyce had already made up his mind that he had no intention—no intention at all—of delivering the water that South Australia was promised. In fact, he had every intention of taking that water away—plus the $1.77 billion attached to delivery of that water—and utilising it on his own favoured projects, for his own mates up in the north of the basin.

I made it very clear, and it is unfortunate that the only way of actually getting through to the federal government and Barnaby Joyce was to raise my voice. As I said, standing up for South Australia is something that I won't resile from. Using appropriate language in the future is what I will endeavour to do, but I will again stand up to Barnaby Joyce and the federal Liberal-National Coalition government if they ever come into South Australia again and try to take away the water that we have been promised as a state for our irrigators. That is what I am here for. I don't resile from that; I don't resile from that for one moment, but of course, having firmly made my point, I will keep a civil tongue in my head.

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