Power Infrastructure

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:20): Supplementary: can the minister explain why he is dead against using taxpayers' money to subsidise one generator, namely the Northern Power Station, yet it has been this government's policy since 1 July 2008 to subsidise rooftop solar panels in South Australia, another generator?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:20): I am glad that goal in the back of the net unfortunately wasn't ours, it was theirs. The government wanted to have a feed-in tariff for solar panels to start generating the industry here in South Australia. From memory, the government has proposed a shorter period of time. I think it was either three or five years for the feed-in tariff scheme to operate at a higher rate. The opposition thought, 'No, if we are going to subsidise renewable energy, let's do it over 20 years,' so they sided with the Greens in the upper house and extended that feed-in tariff over 20 years. I understand that there are many members opposite who are the beneficiaries of this very generous feed-in tariff.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Mr Speaker: this has no relevance to the question. If you want to have a debate on that, I will have it, Tom. I will have a debate with you on that. The question was to try to get an understanding of the disparity of the two policies: one not to subsidise generation, and the other one to subsidise generation.

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Since we are talking about subsidies and renewables, the one inconvenient truth that the opposition do not want to talk about in their jihad against renewable energy is that the body that actually subsidises renewable energy is not the South Australian government, it is the commonwealth government. I will bring a detailed piece of work to the house to show exactly what level of subsidy has been paid by the commonwealth since 2013 to today. It would be a very interesting problem for the opposition to deal with because on one hand they want less renewables and more coal, but on the other hand their commonwealth colleagues are subsidising renewables.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, so it is my fault that the commonwealth government are paying Renewable Energy Certificates. Like good little capitalists, the reason people build renewable energy in South Australia is that the resource is good. We have lots of sun, as members opposite know who are advocating for a solar thermal plant in Port Augusta. Why? Because of the sun. Why do the wind farms want to come and locate in South Australia? Because previous to the wind event that took down our transmission backbone, we had a very good transmission spine from Port Augusta down to Adelaide with very good wind resources alongside it.

So, what they have done is that the private sector have built these wind farms, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into South Australia, creating jobs. The subsidy paid by the state government to two generating companies, to two wind farms, is $300,000. I will compare that with what the Liberal Party have paid since 2013 to today. Let's compare that number. Before you look at the splinter in my eye, look at the log in your own.