Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, she would be embarrassed, because for all the years that the Howard government was in power—those 11 disastrous years for Australia—the federal cabinet was chock-a-block full of South Australians. There was Minchin, Vanstone and Hill. Pyne even got a go. There was Downer. There were all these South Australians in the Howard government cabinet, and for all the time they were there they must have been seeing all of the scientific data that is now available to us about the catastrophe that was about to engulf the Murray River. They must have seen that information, but what did they do? They did nothing. They did not spend a single cent on providing additional water for South Australia. Now we have a cabinet minister from South Australia who is doing exactly what should have been done under the Howard government.