Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question and I thank the minister for the brevity at least of that answer. Can I advise the minister that the MDBA chairman, Mike Taylor, has publicly stated that he raised this concern with Minister Burke at their first meeting. I ask the minister: had Mr Taylor also earlier advised Minister Wong of this fact and, regardless of that, why did the government wait until the wave of public outrage to get legal advice clarifying the authority’s interpretation of the Water Act when it was advised of this problem before the guide was released?