Electricity Prices

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:19): My question is for the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Given that the Australian Energy Regulator has announced a 4.4 per cent increase in electricity prices effective 1 July, does the minister still stand by his public prediction of December 2013 that South Australian electricity prices will fall by 0.9 per cent each year for the next three years?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:20): I am very disappointed with the Australian Energy Regulator.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you. I am very disappointed with the Australian Energy Regulator. I believe that the Energy Regulator is not equipped to make the appropriate determinations. I think its place within the commonwealth government is not appropriate. It should be an independent body, separate from the ACCC. I think its determinations are not wise.

The current increase from 2014-15—a proposal that SA Power Networks has submitted to the regulator—is for network charges to increase by approximately 4.38 per cent, or about $85 per typical residential customer. It's about $53 for increased distribution costs; of that, $28 is for vegetation.

There are approximately $30 of recovery costs associated with the solar feed-in scheme, and that's important because that scheme would have expired last year had it not been for the opposition and the Greens voting together in the upper house to extend it. So, while the Leader of the Opposition was fighting losing battles, that he lost, at the election campaign in the last term, the reality is the opposition are the ones who banded together with the Greens in like a Bob Brown agreement, which included having a solar feed-in tariff.

Mr Marshall: You wanted to increase the rebate and make it retrospective for 17 years—to increase the rebate.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, our rebate was for five years. I think it's disappointing that the Leader of the Opposition doesn't know his own policy.

Mr Marshall: Fifty-four dollars.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Fifty-four dollars? The Leader of the Opposition is claiming now, in the house, that we wanted $55 per kilowatt hour.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Is it 54¢ now? Oh, 44¢, $55—only a slight difference! Perhaps what's going on is the nightmare in his head. He is waking up every morning realising he is still Leader of the Opposition.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: In your head, over and over again.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer has finished his answer and that, I hope, will obviate the need for the member for Morialta's point of order. The member for Stuart.