Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to the urgent advice she apparently requested from her department on 18 June in relation to options to address the very dire situation in the lower lakes of the Murray-Darling Basin. Will the minister advise the Senate of the date on which she received this so-called urgent and secret advice from her department? Could the minister also advise when she advised the Prime Minister that she had sought this urgent advice and when was the Prime Minister informed of the contents of this advice?

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

What appears to be the case here is that the opposition, having got the information about the options that the government was presented with then and now, and having got that information—

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We asked for the date! What date? Give us the date!

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

a level of accountability you never provided in government—is now seeking to run a process argument because they are not up to the task of facing the hard policy decisions on the Murray-Darling Basin.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. When Senator Wong screams like that I have difficulty quite understanding what she is saying. I thought my question was a fairly simple one. I was just asking for some dates. I would ask her to tone it down and refer to the question.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr President, as you quite rightly would have observed, Senator Wong had been going about 30 seconds in her answer under constant interjection by the opposition. If the opposition are actually interested in answers, she will provide the answer, and the fact that she has to raise her voice to get over the interjections is the opposition’s fault. I ask you to rule that there is no point of order.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Evans, Senator Minchin, there is no point of order. I remind senators that senators are entitled to be heard in silence and I advise senators also that they should remember that their comments should be directed to the chair.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to 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?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, you are in government!

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order. The minister makes a complete farce of question time. She was asked for three dates. We are not interested in her account of what might be happening. She should be answering the questions, which were about three dates. That is all we want to know. If question time is going to mean anything, ministers must be obliged to actually answer the questions and not go off on a debate among themselves.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, Mr President, as the coalition know—and you should rule accordingly and I ask you to do so—the minister is answering the question. The minister is directing her response to the question. But the manner in which the minister responds to that question is a matter for the minister. The question that the opposition seek to raise of course concerns the specificity which they want from the answer. Given that there are three minutes to go or thereabouts, it would be pleasant for the opposition to listen to the answer in silence.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. As is known, there is no way that I can direct a minister to answer the question in a particular or specific way. However, I do draw the attention of the minister to the question that was asked by Senator Minchin and I ask the minister to address the question.

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

Thank you, Mr President. As I was saying, what the opposition has been given is the outline of the options that I was presented with, and the government has been presented with, about this issue. I note the interjection from Senator Johnston prior to the point of order when he said, ‘You are in government.’ That is their approach: Labor are in government so the opposition does not have any responsibility. It is a bit like the interest rates discussion yesterday with Dr Nelson. The alternative government does not believe that it has a responsibility to address this policy issue.

I will ascertain the date on which I received that advice in June and, in relation to the Prime Minister’s involvement, I will make this clear: the Prime Minister has attended the lower lakes and announced policies and projects for the lower lakes with the Premier, Mr Rann. Also subsequently, he has announced policies and options at the cabinet meeting, which I think, from memory, was a community cabinet on 14 August in Adelaide, but I will check the date. The Prime Minister has taken a very clear interest in this issue.

Unlike those opposite, this is a government that faces up to the hard choices. We do not send one of our backbench senators down to give one message to the lower lakes while one of our frontbenchers gives a different message upstream. We make the hard choices. We do not send our backbenchers down to run a different line.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Mark Bishop interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Wong, resume your seat. Senator Bishop, you are out of order. Senator Wong, have you finished your answer?

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

Yes.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. In that non-answer, I appreciate that the minister is prepared to ascertain the date on which she received the advice, but I ask again: when did she advise the Prime Minister that she had actually sought this urgent advice, and when was the Prime Minister informed of the contents of this advice?

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

Clearly, there are a range of discussions in government—and Senator Minchin knows this—that ministers and the Prime Minister have on these issues. What is important is what the government has done. On 14 August we announced programs that you never implemented in government—programs for the purchase of water, which is still an issue that causes division in your party room. The reality is that what has been provided to the Senate through the inquiry process is a greater level of accountability than has ever been given by ministers when you on the other side were in government. What is demonstrated today in this question time is the absolute lack of ability of the opposition to deal with the hard policy issue that is the Murray-Darling Basin.