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

The Auditor-General’s report No. 21 deals with what I think is perhaps the most important issue for my state of South Australia, and that is water. It is dealing with not only water but also the environment. Those are two very important issues for my state.

As you would well know, Mr Acting Deputy President, in a week and a bit there is going to be an election in South Australia and I think a matter of great concern to all South Australians is probably the behaviour of the alternative candidate for the premiership, Ms Isobel Redmond. In the middle of a very important election campaign, Ms Redmond decided to flee South Australia and come up to Canberra unannounced on what was an extremely busy day. We had the President of Indonesia coming to address the joint houses of parliament, a very rare honour awarded to the President of Indonesia. It was busy not only for the Prime Minister but also for the Leader of the Opposition and all of the government ministers. So we had Ms Redmond flying up at the crack of dawn unannounced, wanting to talk to the government, and presumably the opposition, about water. Is this really the way we want the leader of our state to behave when it comes to dealing with what is the most important issue for South Australians; namely, water?