John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

that has delivered beyond what it promised, it is the Commonwealth government, because not only have we delivered the hundreds of millions of dollars we agreed with the premiers that we would deliver back in 2004 but, in the last budget, without being required under any of the intergovernmental agreements to do so, we put another $500 million in.

I pray for rain every day and I hope the member for Grayndler does, but it is a bit hard to meet aspirations about returning water to the Murray River when it does not rain. If the member for Grayndler has access to a solution to this problem, I am prepared to amend the opinion I currently have of him. If he is a rainmaker—if he has powers beyond what anybody on this side of the House ever thought he had—I am prepared to say I am totally wrong, I am prepared to apologise to him, I am prepared to say that he is a genius.

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