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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 (14:48): Supplementary: did the minister or did he not breach the code of conduct?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:48): The Liberal's constant negativity and their lack of ideas—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —are bad enough for this state. They are so out of touch with South Australians, it is embarrassing. They are so out of touch with the people of this state, it is amazing. They are skirting around the issue that is most important to this state, which is about: will the Liberal government stand up and deliver what they have promised to do as a federal government? Will they do it? Will they haul in Barnaby Joyce?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Will they haul in Barnaby Joyce, who had his own little plan when he ascended to the acting prime minister status to think, 'Well, I'm going to give this a go. I'm coming to Adelaide, I'm the acting prime minister, I'm going to blow this plan up and see if the states cave in.' Then he would have gone back to his Liberal National Party cabinet and said, 'Well, everybody's caved in. There's not an issue. Let's take that water out of the plan and then give it to rice farmers and cotton farmers in the north of the basin.' That's what he wanted to do. You can see his thinking as plain as day.

Unfortunately for Barnaby Joyce there was a South Australian at the table. There was a South Australian at the table who was prepared to say, 'We will not take it.' I have to contrast that with the spineless behaviour of the member for Dunstan, the Leader of the Opposition, who, lickety-split, ran off to Canberra for a photo opportunity with the Prime Minister. What did he come back with?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: What did he come back with? Nothing at all, but a photo. He came back with a JPEG. That's all he had, a JPEG for his social media and—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr President, I have to say it is offensive that the Liberal Party in this state will never stand up to the federal Liberal government—they will never stand up to a federal Liberal government, even in the interests of South Australians. Just to give you a little bit of background: on 22 September 2015, I sent a letter to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce, the federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, outlining South Australia's ambition to work constructively with the government to implement the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

I sent the letter because the Premier and I were worried when the Prime Minister appointed Barnaby Joyce as the federal minister for water. I was worried because Barnaby is someone who has consistently ignored South Australia and the lower regions of the Murray. He seems to have the attitude that any water that goes past his front gate is wasted water. This is the same Barnaby Joyce who said that South Australian irrigators should just get up and move to where the water is. That was his plan. That was his solution: don't make the river work for everybody on the river, just move north where the water is, because they weren't going to let any water come over the border. I seek leave to table his response, dated 20 October 2015.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He, at the time, in 2015, recommitted to the water recovery volumes required under the basin plan. He states in that letter:

The Australian Government is committed to achieving healthy rivers, strong communities and sustainable food and fibre production in the Murray-Darling Basin by implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full and on time.

That was 2015—that was before the federal election, of course. Fast forward a year, and we see how quickly things have changed in Barnaby Joyce's thinking. His 17 November 2016 letter to me revealed his true intentions: to walk away from those commitments and protect the interests of his cotton and rice farmer mates.

He states in his letter that the return of the 450 gigalitres, which is critical environmental water, is 'unsolvable'. That is his view: it's unsolvable. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed to by all four basin states and the federal government. It is clear that South Australia is not the only state that is concerned by lack of progress on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, thankfully. I have been advised that the Minister for Environment and Heritage in the ACT has written, sharing this view:

I share your concern about the lack of progress on the integrated package of measures related to the sustainable diversion limit and the constraints measures since the April Ministerial Council meeting, and indeed the apparent lack of commitment from New South Wales and Victoria especially in pilot efficiency measures.

This legislation that delivered the plan was voted for and passed by federal parliament in 2012, supported by both sides of politics. Four years later, we have a federal government, led by a water minister, trashing that agreement. Instead of leadership, we have a federal water minister eyeing that $1.77 billion allocated to providing 450 gigalitres of critical environmental water, wanting to hand it out to his mates upstream.

We expect this kind of treatment from the National Party. We even expect it from the federal Liberal Party, but I don't expect from the South Australian Liberal Party, but that's what we have got. For once, I thought the opposition would join with the government and the entire state and stand up, united, fighting for our fair share of water. I couldn't believe it when the member for Chaffey, Mr Tim Whetstone, as I said, on 19 November told regional radio listeners in the Riverland that the 450 gigalitres of water allocated to the Murray was 'something separate from the basin plan.'

South Australians deserve better than that from the state Liberals. Being in government is about delivering and defending policies that benefit our community. I make absolutely no apology that I will stand up for the Murray River and for South Australia's interests, and ensure that the federal government demonstrates that they will deliver this plan on time and in full. No longer will we accept promises of action: we want to see action.

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