Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is amazing to sit here and listen to the pious rhetoric that is coming from the government benches. It is absolutely disgraceful—they send in here to debate a taking note of answers motion about water someone from the ACT and someone from Western Australia. They could not get people who are further away from the crisis that is confronting the good people of South Australia and the lower lakes than the two we have heard from. At the very least, Senator Wortley has had the decency to come down here and express some solidarity for the South Australian senators on this side of the chamber who are concerned about the dire straits that South Australians and those in the lower lakes are finding themselves exposed to. And all the time we are raising these concerns, all the time we are putting forward alternatives and vision and initiatives to help ease the burden on the South Australian lower lakes communities, this government does nothing. We now see how seriously they take this critical issue.

Just last Friday, Minister Wong put together the seven people for the National Water Commission. How many South Australians do you think were on there? Seven? No. Were there five? No, there were not. Were there three? Were there two? Was there even one? Not one single South Australian made it on to the National Water Commission board. It is a sad indictment. Senator Wortley, I know you feel the shame of the government. You feel it because Minister Wong has once again given up on South Australia. She has said that there is nothing she can do. And she has proved it.

What about the debate today. I came to it just a bit earlier. How important is this to the South Australian senators? We have a whole batch of new ones over there. Do you think they could make some sort of contribution? Do you think they could bring a new fresh perspective? No. They have gone missing in action. They have not even bothered to turn up. They are not prepared to stand up for their state even though they were just elected to represent their state’s interests. So, what do we have? We have a critical environmental issue with local wildlife, graziers, vignerons and whole communities dependent on these lower lakes. And what is going on? Absolutely nothing.

Labor have no sense of urgency about this—although they do say there is an urgent requirement for reports. Senator Wong as the minister requested urgent information. Over the last couple of months we have asked her to provide that information. Do you think we have seen it? No. Unfortunately, it was so urgent that it has not been able to be tabled yet. But it does not even matter if she has got the information, because she is doing absolutely nothing with it. This is a government of, ‘Do nothing.’ And, sure, you should hang your head in shame, Senator Sterle, because you know it yourself. Even though you are not responsible because you are on the back bench, you should be ashamed of your frontbench colleagues because they are letting the people of Australia down. I know that you might have some empathy for some people in rural communities because you have driven your truck through the lower lakes. I would love to know which towns you have got to. But the fact is, not many people on the government side have actually been down there to do anything. Sure, we have had the Prime Minister go down there and mouth a few empathetic words and then wash his hands of it and say, ‘It’s a 50-year program on climate change,’ and utter all sorts of stuff. We have had Minister Wong mouth all sorts of sympathetic words and then fail to turn up at community rallies. She has failed to turn up and observe first-hand the pain that the people in these communities are going through.

We have seen a failure from this government. I would say to the people of Mayo and to the people of Barker who are suffering under the inaction of this government: ‘Don’t give up, because the coalition are going to be introducing legislation to ease your burden.’ We will challenge the government to finally put up and help those people of the lower lakes. And they have a chance this week to send a very clear message to Mr Rudd and his band of snake oil salesmen. A snake oil salesman is any person who peddles a product with exaggerated marketing but of questionable or unverifiable quality, and that is exactly what we have got from this government. A bunch of snake oil salesmen selling snake oil, selling hopes and failing at every turn. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.