National Electricity Market

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): Has the Premier read AEMO's publication on the South Australian electricity market published only last month?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:34): Mr Speaker—

Mr Bell: Future premier takes it.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mount Gambier is on two warnings.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The entire cabinet gets a regular briefing from me and our energy division on the latest reports on what is occurring in our system, and we are responding. We are working cooperatively with the COAG Energy Council. We are working cooperatively with AEMO (the Australian Energy Market Commission).

I have to say that Matt Zema, God rest his soul, and I worked tirelessly to help us integrate renewable energy into the National Electricity Market. His successors and Tony Marxsen at the Australian Energy Market Operator have been fine advisers to the state government; indeed, they are great advisers to all state governments. They are the first port of call that we make because these people run our market.

A couple of basic principles about the National Electricity Market. First and foremost, the state does not operate it; we don't run it. That is operated nationally by the Australian Energy Market Operator, and it is governed by a set of rules and legislation from this parliament. We are the mother parliament of all those rules, and they have been decided at COAG, unanimously by Labor and Liberal governments, and voted on in this—

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: Standing order 98. The question was very simply whether the Premier has read a particular report.

The SPEAKER: I think it is cognate for the government to say what it knows about the topic.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: As I said, the entire framework for AEMO's operation, for the operation of the National Electricity Market, is based in this parliament. In bipartisan ways, we have built the National Electricity Market in this chamber and in the other chamber by bringing amendments and bills here to this parliament on behalf of all other Australian parliaments, and we voted on them.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I don't know how the interjections make any sense, but of course we are regularly briefed on what AEMO tell us. We are in regular contact with AEMO, of course we read the reports and of course we act on them, but the reality is this: this is a market that is privately owned. This is a market that is not owned by the government any more—I wish it was.

Mr Duluk: We wish the State Bank never happened.

The SPEAKER: Was that the member for Davenport interjecting or was he talking to himself?