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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-02-15 Daily Xml
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Carbon Neutral Adelaide

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:48): I seek leave to make an explanation prior to directing a question to the Minister for the Environment on the subject of Carbon Neutral Adelaide.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: In December of last year, I asked a series of questions of the minister in relation to his and the government's bold claim that Adelaide was going to be the first carbon neutral city in the world. I pointed out claims by the City of Melbourne for meeting that particular target many years prior to the 2025 target of the minister and the government. In the series of answers that the minister provided he made the claim on a number of occasions that the Melbourne target 'does not apply' to the 'residents of the city of Melbourne, and it does not apply to businesses' to highlight how the claim for Melbourne didn't relate to the whole of the City of Melbourne but only related to the operations of the Melbourne city council.

On 6 December, I asked the minister whether or not he was now prepared to admit that he was wrong when he made that particular claim. In that last sitting week he said that he would go off and check the documentation and bring back a response. Given that it has been more than two months since he went off to check the answer, is the minister now prepared to stand up and indicate that he was wrong when he claimed on a number of occasions in the Legislative Council that the Melbourne target does not apply to the residents of the City of Melbourne and it does not apply to businesses?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for his recycled question. It's the best they can come up with today after a fascinating day of question time yesterday, where we were trading important ideas to and fro across the chamber. I was helping the opposition skill up and learn up on some complex policy matters around energy policy. Clearly, they were sadly lacking in their primer, and hopefully yesterday was a useful experience for them. Now we come back today and the Hon. Mr Lucas is all they have today, asking for some clarification about a question he asked last year and for which I think I proffered a response. I will have to go back and check Hansard about that.

At the outset, let me again say that I do not accept in any way, shape or form the Hon. Mr Lucas's explanation before asking the question as being anywhere close to veracity. He has a habit in this place of verballing ministers—and others in this chamber—getting up and offering an explanation before he gets to his question, twisting words that have been used, taking words and phrases out of context. That is his history. He is a past master at it and I tip my lid to him. He is very good at it, but I won't fall into the trap of accepting for a single moment anything he says in his prefaces as even approximating the truth.

Of course, I think he was responsible for the promise for the Liberals two or three elections ago—four elections ago, was it?—to never ever privatise ETSA. I think they were his words, the words from his government, 'The Liberal Party will never ever privatise ETSA.' I think he was responsible for that claim. Let's see him get up and refute it. Let's see him up here to refute that. The Hon. Mr Lucas is, out of the whole team here of the Liberal Party on the opposition benches, still shadow treasurer, after 30 years in this place as a failed Liberal Party treasurer. He is the man responsible for privatisation, after his party promised sincerely the electors of South Australia that they would never ever privatise ETSA. That was their promise to the electorate and they came in here after they were elected and just the opposite.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Now, exactly as my leader says, they come in here with their hand on their hearts saying—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —'We will never privatise SA Water. Trust us, we will never privatise SA Water.' We know we have history to learn from. When the Liberals come around to election time and make promises to the community, you cannot trust them. You cannot trust them at any stage.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: And what did you pay him? What did you pay him for his vote? What did you give him? The Hon. Mr Lucas knows. The Hon. Mr Lucas knows what dirty deal was done in this place.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, take your seat. First of all, I would like to make it clear that I don't appreciate accusations of payments across the floor in the chamber. It is totally inappropriate. Secondly, when the minister is on his feet giving an answer to an important question, he has the right to do so without interjection. Minister, please get up now.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, sir, for your protection.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Point of order: the minister has used parliamentary privilege to attack an individual not in this house and make allegations about money being paid. I ask that you rule on the fact that he withdraw that remark because it is grossly unfair and it is inaccurate.

The PRESIDENT: It is not the first time this chamber has been used to muddy up somebody, and it won't be the last. Minister, continue.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. I think it is a salutary lesson for all of us in this place—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Would the honourable Leader of the Government please allow his colleague, the Minister for Environment, to finish.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It is a salutary lesson for all of us in this place to understand that you can't trust a single word the Hon. Mr Rob Lucas says in this place, or even in the lead-up to an election campaign when he promises the community that he and his government will never ever privatise ETSA. Now they say they will never ever privatise SA Water. We take that with a pinch of salt, don't we? In relation to—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, that's been explained as well, and you grabbed onto that with alacrity, didn't you? You grabbed onto that with alacrity, because that's what you want to do; that's exactly what you want to do. That's why you grabbed onto it, because you want to privatise SA Water. Your plan—

The PRESIDENT: Minister, take your seat. First of all, none of the props. Secondly, minister, don't bite. You have been asked—

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Yes, it's fun. We really have an obligation to behave with reasonable behaviour in this chamber, so please get up and finish answering that question.

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: However, it is quite fun to remind the Liberals of how they promise the world to the electorate and then renege on it after they get elected. We will be doing that quite often in the coming months because you know—absolutely, you know from experience and history—they can't be trusted. We will be reminding the community about that at every stage. In relation to the fundamentals of the question, I have been reminded that I answered that on Wednesday 7 December 2016 in response to a question from the Hon. Michelle Lensink where I said:

Whilst I am on my feet, I might go to a question I was asked in this place yesterday by the Hon. Mr Lucas about Adelaide versus Melbourne and Carbon Neutral Adelaide. I undertook for someone in my agency to review the document referred to by the Hon. Mr Lucas. In answering the honourable member's question, I did advise that Melbourne's ambitions related to the city council operations rather than to the entire municipality. I am now advised that that view is incorrect.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, laugh as you may, this answer is in Hansard, Mr Lucas. We gave it to you last year, and here you are—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —Hon. Mr Lucas, asking again because you don't even know—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, take your seat. Would the Hon. Mr Lucas please control himself? Allow the minister to finish his answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr President, when you come to read Hansard tomorrow, you will find out that I presaged that at the very beginning of my discussion. So, the Hon. Mr Lucas has no clue.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He doesn't even know what's going on in this place. He doesn't have the first clue. In fact, he was there looking at me, I recall, when I was making this comment in parliament last year. He had no idea what was going on at all. I went on to say:

There are two initiatives that relate to Melbourne…The first is the carbon neutral status, already obtained by the City of Melbourne for the council's operations alone. This has been achieved through the federal National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS), I am advised. The second initiative from Melbourne relates to net zero emissions for the entire municipality, to which the Hon. Mr Lucas referred in his question. As he remarked, that ambition relates to the entire city—he is quite correct—not just—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well! Had he read this, why did he come in and ask the question again? Clearly, because he has no clue. He has absolutely no clue—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —that I have already given him that response. Either that—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, take your seat. You are getting a little bit unruly here. I don't mind a bit of an interjection or a bit of banter, but it's getting out of control. I will be sitting here thinking in the next few minutes. The next one that unwisely interjects, their side will lose a question and the crossbench will get it. Minister, get on your seat.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: In response, all I can say is at least the Hon. Mr Lucas, in stretching for a question, only had to go back to last year, unlike his leader the Hon. Mr Ridgway who had to trawl back to 2003 to try to find the flimsiest—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —bit of evidence he could possibly muster to justify his ideological position against renewables. That is what he had to do yesterday. At least the Hon. Mr Lucas, with the full knowledge that I had already answered the question, only went back to last year. That's probably why you see the Liberal Party in this state can't do without the Hon. Mr Lucas on their front bench. They haven't got the depth of talent to replace him; that's the problem. He has stuck here for 30 years—the arch privatiser of this state, the arch closer of schools.

That will be on his tombstone, that is his achievement, 'I close schools.' What was it? Sixty-four, Mr Lucas, or was it 65? I can't quite recall. I will have to go back and do a count. 'I closed schools in South Australia and I flogged off the state's asset, the people's assets, of the electricity trust of South Australia.' That is what Mr Lucas will be remembered for and because he lied to the people of South Australia when he promised, and his government promised, never to privatise ETSA.

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