Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The bill that we are seeking to resolve, the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023, delivers on Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard's plan on the Murray-Darling Basin, an approach that was supported by the Liberal Party but that has always been opposed by Mr Joyce and the National Party.

What we see from the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate today is a pathetic attempt to hide in consultation on a plan that he knows has been in place for nearly a decade that was sabotaged by Mr Barnaby Joyce. That's what it was. So what I'd say to Senator Birmingham and Senator Ruston and all of the South Australian Liberals is you should hang your heads in shame for the way in which you have been so weak as to allow a plan that you once supported to be sabotaged by members of the National Party, who have no interest in ensuring that the plan that you had in government is delivered.