Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Okay. When the dirty deal was done between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to take the Water portfolio and ensure that it went out of the Environment and into Agriculture, I was deeply concerned. Some people felt I might have been overreacting and that indeed the Deputy Prime Minister might make a good water minister.

Late last year, we got our first sign that he wanted to walk away from the plan. In fact, in a letter to the minister for the environment and water, the South Australian minister, he made it very, very clear that he did not believe that the extra 450 gigalitres that were to be delivered on top of the plan would ever be delivered. Did he have any discussion with his state colleagues? No. Did he discuss this with the parliament? No. No, this is his own belief that we could not deliver the plan. So that was our first indication that this Deputy Prime Minister was walking away from the plan.

Of course, we also heard in the pub what his true intention was in getting hold of the water portfolio. His true intention was, 'We have taken water,' and I assume that is the National Party, 'to put it back into agriculture so we look after you.' There you go, in his own words, he does not care about restoring the Murray-Darling river to health.

What this Deputy Prime Minister forgets is that downstream it is not just South Australian residents in Adelaide that rely on the Murray, it is irrigating communities down in South Australia as well. If I could give some advice to the Deputy Prime Minister: there is a reason why the National Party is floundering in South Australia, and there is a reason why, when National Party members are elected to the state parliament, they join a Labor cabinet. That is because the federal National Party doesn't care about South Australia. They don't care about the Adelaide residents, they don't care about the environment of South Australia and they certainly don't care about the irrigators of South Australia. If they did, they would stick to the plan—a plan that took a lot of hard effort. The member for Watson does recognise the former Prime Minister John Howard but I want to recognise the member for Watson, who did the hard yards to deliver this plan. We will not stand by while the Deputy Prime Minister tries to walk away from this plan. It is too important. (Time expired)

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