Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. As I was saying, what we see here today is a process game being played by an opposition that have got the facts that they sought. The reality is that the submission to this inquiry, which sets out the options that the government was presented with, shows very clearly that there is not an easy option—there are only hard choices. But instead of being up to the responsibility of dealing with this issue and being up to the hard policy decisions that are required in relation to the Murray-Darling Basin, what we see is an attempt to play process politics from that side of the chamber. Yet again what we know is that the opposition when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin have absolutely no credibility. Twelve years in government and they never purchased a single drop of water, as the national government, to return water to the river. We know in opposition that Senator Birmingham says one thing to the lower lakes community while Mr Cobb and Dr Stone criticise water purchase and say, as Dr Stone has said, that we should flood the lower lakes with seawater. On that side we see game-playing and politicking when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin. What Senator Minchin did not say, and will not say, is: which of these options the government was presented with would the opposition support?