Alinta Energy

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Treasurer, how much assistance did Alinta request to keep the Northern Power Station open and South Australian electricity prices low?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:25): The two don't correspond, and it is important that I point this out to the house. When a company comes to the South Australian government to talk about assistance, its financial state and where it is at, they need to know that they can come to the South Australian government, speak to ministers and speak to the government confidentially. I am not going to release those details. Those details are Alinta's. They are the ones who came to us. They are the ones who sought assistance. They are in the middle of a share float, and if—

Mr Whetstone: It's taxpayers' money. Whose money?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The shadow trade minister says, 'Whose money?'

Mr Whetstone: Taxpayers' money, isn't it?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Taxpayer money wasn't given—

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Chaffey to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —therefore the question of whether or not we make this public is about how we treat businesses who are doing business in South Australia. Do we go public when they come to us confidentially? It is my very strong view as Treasurer that we do not. If we had given commercial assistance to Alinta, then, yes, absolutely, we should be out there publicly telling the public how much that is, but there would have been dire consequences to this state if we had. There would have been huge consequences if we had.

The moment you pay one generator to operate, the very next phone call you get is from every other generator saying, 'By the way, we're about to shut Torrens Island unless you pay us,' or 'By the way, we won't operate our gas-fired generators unless you pay us as well.' Then we are spiralling downwards with the government paying every single generator to operate, regardless of the market. That would be a disaster for South Australia—an absolute disaster.

That sort of policy is probably why the Leader of the Opposition in the upper house is out actively seeking another Treasury spokesperson to replace the poor old member for Morphett, who has done an exceptional job in his seat—to replace him to bring in some guy who hasn't lived in this state for 20 years—and the Leader of the Opposition doesn't know anything about it. He is in the dark.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order: the arrangements in relation to members in the upper house have nothing to do with this issue.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: Thank you, sir.