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

What I was going to say is that this report is amongst a number of reports and comments in the public arena over many years about the state of the Coorong, about the state of the lower lakes and the state of the River Murray. This report, as was discussed today in the media, was provided to the ministerial council in May. But I would stress that this is one of a range of issues that the government is aware of when it comes to the Coorong and when it comes to the lower lakes. That is why the ministerial council has commissioned the Murray-Darling Basin Commission to provide advice on a range of management strategies for the lower lakes, which I believe I have spoken about previously in this chamber. It is why we have also allocated $6 million for urgent pumping into Lake Albert, to deal with the acid sulphate situation in that lake as an urgent measure. More broadly, the issues associated with the Coorong and the lower lakes are a symptom of the problems that the River Murray is experiencing, and those problems—