Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong says I should tell the truth. The truth is that Senator Wong did her best to frustrate the process of the Senate inquiry that was being proposed last week. The truth is that Senator Wong put up her own alternative terms of reference rather than attempting to cooperate with the Greens, Senator Xenophon and the coalition senators and then, when she could not manage to get the support for her terms of reference, withdrew her motion, leaving standing the work that Senator Xenophon, Senator Hanson-Young and others had done. So South Australians have every reason to be concerned and, when Senator Wong says that she sought urgent advice, to question whether or not that urgent advice really exists, whether or not it was provided in a timely manner and whether, if it does exist, all of the options have been considered. These are the issues that I have no doubt the Senate inquiry will look into, but we do have good reason to be concerned that Senator Wong is not taking the people of South Australia and the people of Australia into her confidence.

Last week she announced seven new water commissioners for the National Water Commission, not one of them a South Australian. That does not fill South Australians with lots of confidence. Today she comes in, some days after a Senate return to order motion required and asked her to present her urgent advice, and tells us that, no, she is not presenting it in the manner that the Senate wanted or asked for—that, in fact, she is going to go about an alternative route and take it through the committee process. There is no commitment as to what this urgent advice clearly is or that it will be presented in the manner to which she referred earlier—little wonder that South Australians are very concerned that the government does not seem to get the urgency of this issue. My challenge to Senator Wong today is to reconsider the statement that she made and the release of this urgent advice or, if it does not exist in the manner to which she referred in June, to fess up to the fact that it does not exist, to tell us what advice she has got and to make sure that she releases it as soon as possible.

I welcome the submission this afternoon. I look forward to it being made publicly available. I hope that it goes as far as the minister seems to suggest it does, that it clarifies the concerns that I have put on the record today and that, in fact, we will all be amazed to see that this urgent advice has been released there. But I do question why the minister has failed to present it in the manner that the Senate requested last week.