Renewable Energy Target

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): A supplementary, sir: given that the state government was repeatedly warned against becoming too reliant upon intermittent generation, why did the Premier decide to increase the state-based renewable energy target from 33 per cent to 50 per cent?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:34): If the Leader of the Opposition is saying that a renewable energy target has put South Australia's economy at risk, it is not really a criticism of the state government: it is a criticism of the commonwealth. Our renewable energy target has no mechanism. There is no mechanism in place for our renewable energy target. The only renewable energy target that has a mechanism that operates in South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will be heard in silence. He hasn't actually offended yet in terms of relevance.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Could we hear something from the Treasurer first, before the opposition seeks to shut him down?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Leader of the Opposition is trying to characterise our renewable energy target as if it has a mechanism in place that incentivises renewable energy, much like the commonwealth's renewable energy target or the ones proposed in Queensland and Victoria. Our renewable energy target has no market mechanism. The reality of having no market mechanism behind it means that the South Australian renewable energy target used, as its mechanism, the commonwealth one. So the criticism that the Leader of the Opposition is levelling at us really is a criticism of his Prime Minister.

Quite frankly, I think that is where the hypocrisy in this debate has got out of control. These are complex issues, and yelling and shouting slogans and passing pieces of coal around don't give us a solution. This is the fundamental issue: South Australia is blessed with abundant resources, abundant resources of gas, abundant resources of sun and wind. We don't have—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We don't have vast and abundant resources of economic coal, so it is no mistake that South Australia has always relied more on gas generation than it has on coal. Of course, as that renewable energy target in Canberra was implemented, the market did what the market does best. They took its $6 billion and went to where the sun shines the longest and the wind blows the most consistently and they built their infrastructure here in South Australia. That created nearly 1,000 ongoing jobs here in South Australia.

If you want to criticise the renewable energy target, the truth is that you are really criticising the commonwealth government—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is reminded, for the second time, that he is on a full set of warnings.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The question needs then to be asked: if the commonwealth government is incentivising renewable energy, why is it doing that if it is causing harm? Of course, the reality is that the Prime Minister is trying to walk both sides of the street. He has signed an agreement in Paris committing this country to complete decarbonisation of our electricity system; that is, all our energy will be renewable. If what the Leader of the Opposition is saying is true, the Prime Minister is being reckless.

If you play the Leader of the Opposition's question to its ultimate end, all renewable energy in this state will do harm, including a solar thermal plant, which is by nature intermittent, because if the sun is not shining you can't cause storage and you have intermittent energy.

We have these contradictory arguments by the opposition, saying, 'We don't support intermittent energy, but we support solar thermal. We don't want a renewable energy target, but we support the market mechanism the commonwealth has,' even though that mechanism is the one that has built all the renewable energy in South Australia. He doesn't support a dump, but he supports a nuclear power plant, but you can't build a nuclear power plant without a dump. He wants more gas-fired generation, but he wants to ban the mining of gas.

Any way you look at it, there is a word for that kind of behaviour and it is hypocrisy, absolute hypocrisy. This takes a considered, methodical approach to policy change. I will give the Prime Minister credit. He had the answer in 2009, and the Labor government at the time should have implemented Senator Xenophon's and then leader of the opposition Turnbull's plan of the energy incentive scheme. It was the right one then and it is the right one now.