Electricity Prices

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:22): Given the minister's answer that he is extremely disappointed with the Australian Energy Regulator, my supplementary question is for the Minister for Investment and Trade. Does the minister stand by his comments of 2 May this year regarding electricity regulation that 'Labor has set the rules and must take responsibility for the outcome'?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:23): First and foremost, what the shadow minister didn't say in his question is that I was talking, of course, about retail pricing. The monopoly that's been established for SA Power Networks was established by the Liberal opposition when they were last in government, when they privatised our assets.

Mr Marshall: You predicted that prices were going down for the next three years.

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When the commonwealth government's regulator increases prices, the opposition are quick to blame the state Labor government, but I notice—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for the first time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I notice there is no criticism of their friends in Canberra, who appoint the regulator, who answers to them. The national body that runs it through the SCER—

Mr Marshall: Whoops!

The SPEAKER: Was that the member for Bragg?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, that was the Leader of the Opposition reliving the nightmare in his head over and over again. I think what the Leader of the Opposition is saying is, 'Did I have a moment when I came out and told everyone to vote Liberal? No, that wasn't me.' The Leader of the Opposition came out and told everyone to vote Labor. That's the moment you are trying to make up in your head that I did. What we are actually seeing is retail prices in electricity change dramatically under deregulation. I might also point out to the Leader of the Opposition that the opposition claimed at the time that they supported our move to deregulate retail pricing of electricity. Are they now saying—

Members interjecting:

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —that they do not support deregulation of retail pricing?

The SPEAKER: Thank you for the pause created by the member for Stuart and, in that pause, could I ask the member for Unley to withdraw from the chamber for an hour.

The honourable member for Unley having withdrawn from the chamber:

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I refer to standing order 98. I understand that the Treasurer has chosen to answer the question on behalf of the Minister for Investment and Trade but the question was, 'Does he believe that Labor set the rules and takes responsibility for the outcome?'

The SPEAKER: Yes, we know what the question is; that is probably a bogus point of order. The Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Last time I checked, Ian Macfarlane was in the Liberal Party.

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill: You never know, these days.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is true. Ian Macfarlane is the federal resources or industry minister who has carriage for energy, and he chairs the SCER. The SCER is the body that sets national policies. The SCER—of which I am a member, because I am the Minister for Energy—recently resolved, including Mr Macfarlane, that we would separate the AER from the ACCC. The people who are holding us back in this decision are, of course, the commonwealth. Now, Mr Macfarlane is bound by his cabinet colleagues—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is not my fault that the Leader of the Opposition doesn't understand the difference between retail pricing and transmission, and if he doesn't understand the difference between the two and how they are regulated, I am happy for you to criticise me about decisions I have made and I have taken. So if deregulating electricity prices is the wrong thing to do, I am happy for members opposite to say, 'What impact you've made on retail pricing is your fault.' But the idea that you could criticise me about a regulator who has made a decision on monopoly—

The SPEAKER: No, I am not criticising the Treasurer.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The only person in this chamber who has been wrong recently is the Leader of the Opposition. I think he predicted he would win 28 seats and you told everyone to vote Labor on the day before the election. It's not my fault you are an amateur.

Mr Marshall: How will the budget go on Thursday?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The budget is going to go exceptionally well. I'm glad the Leader of the Opposition is asking about the budget. I look forward to receiving questions from him because, like the last state election campaign, we can go one on one and we can beat him again and again and outclass him, and outcampaign him, and outmanoeuvre him, and run better strategies than him over and over again.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer has finished. The member for Adelaide.