Question Time

Alinta Energy

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:38): My question is again to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Given that the minister has claimed that South Australians are at the mercy of a small group of electricity generators acting like a monopoly, why is it that he has allowed the marketplace to become even smaller by refusing to help the Northern Power Station stay operational?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:38): If the policy of the Liberal Party is to fire up a coal-fired—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sensitive, bad day! The kids have been out negotiating with a brand-new treasurer, a brand-new member for Morphett, and they don't like it. I will not pay a generator to operate. The idea of the state government entering into contractual negotiations with electricity generators that are in the private market—that the opposition privatised to a monopoly—and then asking them to come back into the market and paying them to operate is absurd, absolutely absurd.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Shop around, Tom; shop around, Josh Frydenberg; shop around, Chris Pyne. The federal government is saying the same thing as well. I have to say that the Leader of the Opposition is yet to release an energy policy. They are yet to release an energy policy. Perhaps Grant Kelley will. Perhaps Grant Kelley and David Ridgway will release an energy policy. Perhaps they will tell us what it is, Mr Speaker. But the shouting and spewing Botox out into the chamber will not change the facts. The opposition has no energy policy. They have announced nothing, but what they are saying now is that we should be subsidising a coal-fired generator.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order, member for Morialta.

Mr GARDNER: The Treasurer is again debating, and I put it to you that by continuing to do so he is obstructing as well.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I believe the member for Morialta is correct and I uphold his point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: Mr Speaker, a point of clarification.

The SPEAKER: I don't like points of clarification. Let's make it a point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: Well, I am seeking some advice from you, sir. Having named one of the opposition members for, I believe, several transgressions, I am just wondering: how many transgressions are we going to have from the Treasurer before some further action is taken against him?

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to what the Treasurer has to say, but I don't believe it is anything as personal or loathsome as the utterances of the member for Unley today. The member for Stuart.