Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (15:05): I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia (Senator Canavan) and the Attorney‑General (Senator Brandis) to questions without notice asked by Senators Farrell, Chisholm, Moore and Sterle today. You may recall, Deputy President, that I asked Minister Canavan a very simple question. I asked him: did he agree with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Barnaby Joyce, that the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was impossible? When I did not get an answer to that, I took a point of order. When I took the point of order, regrettably, the President let the minister continue with his answer and we never found out the answer to that question. It was a very simple question, very straightforward, and it should have had a straightforward answer—yes or no. We never got an answer to it. I can only conclude from the fact that we did not get a straight answer that it is the view of the minister that he agrees with Deputy Prime Minister Joyce that it is impossible to deliver on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. That is a terrible outcome, not only for the people in South Australia, where I come from, but for all Australians. It was one of the crowning achievements of the Gillard government that they got the Murray-Darling Basin Plan through the parliament—through the lower house and through the Senate—and it got with the cooperation of all of the states, because that is what was required to get the legislation through. That was a crowning achievement because of the years and years of drought that affected south-eastern Australia and the desperate state that we found the Murray-Darling Basin in when we came into government. Something needed to be done about it. Of course, John Howard did attempt to do something about it. Senator Brandis will recall this. I know he has such a good relationship with former Prime Minister Howard. Senator Brandis: We were great friends. Senator FARRELL: You may be now. You were not back then, as I recall, Senator Brandis. Prime Minister Howard gave $10 billion to the then minister, Minister Turnbull, to fix the problem. But of course he could not fix it. He did not have the skills to fix it. Senator Brandis interjecting— Senator FARRELL: Well, let's be clear about this. We got the Murray-Darling Basin Plan through—Senator Wong, Tony Burke and I, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water at the time. We got this plan through the parliament. What is happening now is that this government is on the cusp of ripping up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Okay, there has been a little bit of rain in the system, but the whole point of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is not to deal with circumstances when there is rain. The whole point of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is to deal with the droughts and the dreadful circumstances, particularly in South Australia, that happened to the communities along the Murray-Darling Basin. What we need to do is to have a strong Prime Minister in this country. We need a strong— Senator Brandis interjecting— Senator FARRELL: I can see you are agreeing with me, Senator Brandis, because you know what I am saying is true. You know that this is not a strong Prime Minister. He is a weak Prime Minister. He has caved in once again to the Nationals. He has caved in on so many occasions and he is caving in on this one. He is failing to pull the Deputy Prime Minister into line. He is failing to pull him into line and the consequences could be catastrophic for the great Murray-Darling Basin. If this Prime Minister does not restore some of his authority and say to the Deputy Prime Minister— Senator Brandis interjecting— Senator FARRELL: Well, it is starting to look that way—he does not have any authority, I am afraid to say. It is starting to look like he has no authority and he is unable to do what he needs to do. He has to pull the Deputy Prime Minister into line. He has to come in and back the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and he has to do it quickly. (Time expired)