Power Outages, Arrium

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): Supplementary: the administrator and owner of the Arrium steelworks in Whyalla has made it clear that power is needed by 5 o'clock this afternoon to avoid a 'critical stage'. What is that critical stage?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:50): I am not going to reveal confidential—

Mr Marshall: Because you don't know. A few minutes ago you were telling the house there was plenty of time—

The SPEAKER: The leader has gone through all his warnings. I have given him scope to be the locomotive of the opposition, but he is now disrupting the proceedings of the house.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I don't want to quarrel with the opposition today. Trust me, it's not like me, but today I don't want to quarrel with them. Today is about us getting on with the job and about returning power to the people who need it. We are in deep discussions with the administrator, and I am not going to come in here and hypothesise about what may or may not occur just to score a political point. I'm just not going to do it. We are working to get them power.

This community, this state government and this parliament has agreed to make $50 million available to the people of Whyalla and that company because we want to see it continue into the future. You can't question our commitment to Arrium. You can't question our commitment to Nyrstar. What has happened here is a major natural event that has ripped up the spine of our electricity system. To try and cause political gamesmanship out of it, quite frankly, is beneath all of you.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart has used all his warnings.