Jamie Briggs MP

 

Two pollies who get up when you do, Jamie Briggs Liberal MP for Mayo. Good morning Jamie Briggs. 

 

Jamie Briggs: 

 

Good morning. 

 

 

And Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston. Good morning Amanda Rishworth. 

 

Good morning. 

 

Both of you have water on your mind. Amanda Rishworth, you...

 

You’re heading off to the ALP National Conference? 

 

Yes, yep, I will be there, off at the National Conference and I’m planning to move an amendment to the platform, just to really put this issue about ensuring that we have enough water in the Murray Darling right in the front and centre of our conference, so that we can ensure that it gets debated and gets passed as part of our platform. 

 

And you’re doing that because what, you don’t think that MPs, it’s a Labor conference so it would be Labor MPs, particularly on the east coast, care? 

 

Well, look I think making sure that our voice and the issues that we face in South Australia when it comes to the Murray Darling are front and centre. I don’t think it’s not because people don’t care, but I think it’s got to be front and centre as a core Labor value as part of our platform. So I will certainly be moving a motion which ensures that that does happen. 

 

What, and that is that the Labor Party should remember people need enough water to drink? 

 

Well, no it needs to ensure that also that we have enough at the lower end of the system to ensure that the Murray mouth does stay open and that we do have enough water for our environmental assets down at the lower end as well the higher end. 

 

Are these things binding on the government? Does it actually turn up in policy or is it going through the motions? 

 

No our platform is required that the parliamentary Labor Party does indeed follow the platform and that their policy is consistent with the platform. Certainly that’s part of the way that the Labor Party does vote on these things. So if it does get up as part of the platform then certainly the Labor Party’s policy must be consistent with the platform.

 

Is that right? From memory, covering too many ALP state conferences and some federal ones, there are things in the platform that are left of the back-burner. 

 

Well...

 

If they’re a bit inconvenient for a government. 

 

Well, the platform is a very broad area. But I will certainly be calling for some specific things to be addressed in the plan, the Murray Darling plan, which includes ensuring that there is enough water returned to the system. 

 

Alright, Jamie Briggs. I think you were not all that (inaudible) with Barnaby Joyce’s response to the Murray Darling, the draft plan. 

 

No, not at all. I think Barnaby has made some reasonable points about the lack of detail in the plan. But what I, I think we need to, well I know we need to, certainly the community leaders I saw yesterday down at the Lower Lakes want us all to do, is to take a constructive role in ensuring that while this plan may not be perfect, and certainly there are areas where it can be improved, in the next 20 weeks we should go about finding those areas. The last thing that we really want is the old political grandstanding of State versus State and threats of, ridiculous threats frankly, threats of High Court action and the Greens threatening to disallow it in the Senate.  I mean we have been as a State calling for over a hundred years the national government to have an independent authority make decisions in relation to the amount of water and the outcomes that we want – outcomes such as the mouth being open nine times out of ten years, fresh water flowing out which I welcome in this draft plan. 

 

You do wonder how they arrived at that figure, frankly, don’t you? 

 

Well that’s what the 20 week consultation is about, surely. For the South Australian Premier to try and make populist politics out of this at this point of time by threatening High Court action. If we do that, let’s make this very clear – we will have no plan at all. 

 

So you’re actually quite positive about this plan. 

 

I’m positive about the step that we are heading in the direction of having an independent authority make decisions outside of parochial politics because parochial politics has failed the system for over 100 years. 

 

Look I think this is the most positive reaction I’ve heard from anyone about the plan, apart from the people who’ve written it. 

 

David, there are things in the plan I think we should do better. For instance, Henry Jones and Kym McHugh yesterday on the Lower Lakes, well known identities down there made the point that we should have testing stations below Lock 1 to ensure that the level of salt below Lock 1 is kept below 1000 EC units. Now I think that is a really good suggestion and I’m going to write to Craig Knowles and make that suggestion. At the end of the day, let me just say this though, if we take this on the High Court, if Jay Weatherill goes through with his childish threat – we will have no plan at all. None. 

 

Ok, just quickly Amanda Rishworth. 

 

Well I have to say that I am very pleased to hear Jamie talk like this, and I think it is very positive. Unfortunately the Nationals...

 

Well call Jay Weatherill today, Amanda. 

 

His National Party colleagues are not doing that up-stream. You’ve got Barnaby Joyce pretty much not committing...

 

You’re Premier is not doing that here in South Australia! 

 

...to any water buybacks and unfortunately I’d like to think that Jamie is running the policy in the party room, but we know that it is the National Party. 

 

Amanda, this is pathetic. 

 

Well, it’s not. 

 

Look we are going to have to leave it there. We will revisit the issue after 7 o’clock because we’ve got the Federal Water Minister Tony Burke in the studio. But thanks, it’s been an interesting insight. 

 

An interesting conversation. 

 

Jamie Briggs, Liberal MP for Mayo, which takes in the Lower Lakes and Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.