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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-20 Daily Xml
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Murray River

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:48): In July 2017, the ABC's Four Corners aired a story on the River Murray. The investigative report raised very serious concerns that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority had been undermined, with serious allegations about illegal water use, the pumping of waters from fragile rivers and persistent tampering with meters. The former state Labor government acted on these reports and initiated a royal commission, with former premier, Jay Weatherill, stating that it was 'clear some irrigators in upstream states have no regard for people who live and work downstream.'

At that time, the then opposition leader, now Premier, said he would, and I quote, 'fully support' the royal commission and that, and again I quote, 'if other states have done the wrong thing…we want to see that they're held fully accountable.' The then opposition leader went even further, saying, and I quote:

We've got to make sure that that water which is owed to South Australia comes down to our state.

These are strong words from an opposition leader during an election campaign. But what have we seen from the Premier's office since the state election?

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: He's gone to water.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: He has; he has gone to water—absolutely. The state Liberal government started out by undermining the process of the royal commission. Now listen to the facts: they sat idly by while the federal Liberal government took out an injunction to prevent staff from giving evidence to the royal commission. I note that this was in direct contradiction to the federal Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Anne Ruston, who said that the federal government would not stand in the way of the South Australian inquiry.

Poorly chosen words from our state Attorney-General led to the commissioner stating that a media release issued by the Attorney-General's office was, and I quote, 'Wrong, discourteous and inappropriate' and required a retraction and an apology. This is an unprecedented act and calls into question how serious the state Liberal government are about protecting the Murray. They should be ashamed of their conduct. This undermining of the royal commission process pales in comparison to the findings of the fate of the 450 gigalitres of water, which, of course, is in direct contradiction to Steven Marshall's previous comments that:

We've got to make sure that that water which is owed to South Australia comes down to our state.

Now we know exactly the opposite to be true. One of the Premier's own ministers agreed to a dud deal, which sold our state up the river. Labor has always stood up for South Australia and has never shied away from taking a fight to Canberra to defend the best interests of our state. In opposition, we continue to stand up for South Australia. The actions of minister David Speirs, who is directly responsible, are, and I quote:

…nothing short of a capitulation to the interests of the current Commonwealth Government, and those of Victoria and New South Wales…

And it is 'so antipathetic to the interests of South Australia' that it was a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. These are quite strong words by the commissioner. I am reading from the findings of the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission. Labor has called on David Speirs to resign in light of his failure as a minister. I note not only his refusal to step down but also the lack of leadership shown by Premier Steven Marshall in refusing to sack his incompetent minister. How can minister Speirs continue to serve on the front bench when his actions have led to such poor outcomes for this state?

Various Liberal governments have had good form in undermining South Australia's best interests. We all remember when the federal Liberal government had such a contemptible position to the River Murray that they put Barnaby Joyce in as the water minister. Barnaby Joyce was famous for telling people that if they want water they should go to where the water is, which means, basically, go to Queensland. The attitude of many of these very strong conservative people is that any water that goes past their farm is wasted water, and we saw this in an inquiry I was on when we went up the Murray River.

They have a contempt for the River Murray, and it is only by strong action by a Labor government that we will ever fix this. The actions of the government both in the undermining of the royal commission process and their responses to the findings have been appalling. They have betrayed the people who elected them to fight for their best interests and they should be ashamed of themselves.

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