REBEL backbencher Nick McBride has defended crossing the floor as saving the State Liberals from “complete turmoil” over voter backlash, despite the rare move being labelled as an embarrassing blow to the Marshall Government.
In remarkable scenes in parliament on Tuesday night, Mr McBride defected to the crossbench to vote with the State Opposition in a bid to delay a final vote on the Liberals’ mining act until next year.
Mr McBride said the Liberals’ election pledge for an extensive consultation process on the mining bill had not been undertaken, prompting revolt from farmers across South Australia on its introduction to parliament.
“Before coming into government, we promised a consultation process in key regions,” he said.
“This has not happened.
“So when the minister puts papers on a party room table on a Monday afternoon without any consultation with the Member for Narungga and does not have the consultation wprocess that he thought was due, that is when I said ‘oh dear’.
“This is not how this process is meant to work.
“What happened yesterday and all we have actually done, I believe, is save the government from complete turmoil among our own key constituents and Liberals from our regions.”
Labor leader Peter Malinauskas labelled the move as exhibiting “chaos and division” and undermining Premier Steven Marshall’s authority.
His colleague and former mining minister Tom Koutsantonis expressed shock at the defiant act, with the veteran MP saying he had never seen four government members of parliament cross the floor to vote against the government.
Mr Koutsantonis rejected notions Labor’s opposition to the mining bill, which it had sought to introduce while in government, was a political play.
He said the move to adjourn debate followed unsuccessful attempts to change the bill and the lack of consultation on the act.
The senior MP said the four Liberals’ opposition to their party’s legislation demonstrated a deeper disunity within the State Government.
“This sort of disunity, this sort of mismanagement of critical pieces of legislation like this, I think paint a very dire picture of future investment in South Australia,” Mr Koutsantonis said.
“We now have civil war in the Liberal Party over mining.
“Some in the Liberal Party want to ban mining on freehold land altogether with a right of veto, then there are others in the Liberal Party who understand Labor’s position about growing prosperity and growing jobs.”
Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan told parliament there had been a long process of consultation with the community and in the party
room.
“The Member for MacKillop and I are talking very, very regularly about this,” he said.
“We know if a Labor MP dared to say anything against a party or a minister, that person would be lost with concrete boots and would be gone.
“On our side, we work through these things.
“Without wanting to reflect on a bill in front of the house, if it happens to be that a bill does not have the support of 21 of 25 members of parliament, we keep working through.
“We are not ashamed of that.”
Mr van Holst Pellekaan told the house he did not support the farmers’ right to veto, which was echoed by Mr Marshall when asked by the State Opposition.
Mr Koutsantonis also indicated he did not support farmers being able to reject mining activity on their land.
He said the introduction of a right to veto would cost the state hundreds of millions, “if not billions”, of dollars in lost investment and royalties.
