Electricity Market

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:26): A supplementary question: given the minister's answer about how COAG works and how the national legislation works across all states, if he is unsuccessful tomorrow in his phone hook-up in convincing the COAG Energy Council to allow South Australia—

The SPEAKER: It's expressed in a hypothetical way.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —to retake control of our power network, will he introduce legislation into this parliament to do it anyway?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:26): First and foremost, I will be outlining to the COAG my concerns about the operation of AEMO. I will be outlining my concerns about the operations of the South Australian Power Networks. I will be outlining my concerns about the event that occurred in New South Wales, as I am sure the New South Wales minister will be, when AEMO gave the New South Wales government a lot more notice than they gave us.

I would like to know some answers, as I think most of my COAG colleagues want to know, as to why the price signals, which are the armoury, the tools, that AEMO have to incentivise new generation on to meet demand, didn't work. What was it about that Wednesday when prices were at the highest possible cost to the market? Why is it that that second unit didn't turn on? Why is it that, in a jurisdiction like New South Wales, which has one of the highest penetrations of coal-fired generation in the world, they couldn't meet their demands with their so-called beautiful, base load coal?

Mr Marshall: They are completely different reasons.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Completely different reasons! It wasn't hot in New South Wales? It was hot here. What were the differences? The differences were this: demand management by AEMO. They can't let the North Shore go out. We can't help the North Shore with our power, so they are all over it, but in South Australia, 'We just dropped the ball. We got our demand management wrong.' It's not good enough. We want to know exactly why it occurred and what we can do to make sure we fix it.

About the operations of AEMO, I have had a conversation today with the federal minister, minister Frydenberg, and we have agreed to work together to understand exactly what AEMO did wrong, what we can do to repair it, and what the COAG can do to get through this energy situation together and to work cooperatively together. We are going to have our disagreements. We are going to disagree on renewable energy. We believe renewable energy is the path to the future; members opposite think that coal is. If coal is the solution for South Australia, why did the coal-fired power station close?

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I ask you to direct the minister to answer the question: will he introduce legislation to the parliament if COAG disagrees that South Australia take over its own control again?

The SPEAKER: I think the Treasurer has escaped the hawser of relevance, so if he could come back to the substance of the question, that would be good.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you again for your guidance, sir—always valuable information to the house. The government reserves its rights on all matters when it comes to retaking control of our system, whether it be expenditure, whether it be intervention, whether it be rule changes, whether it be legislation. We reserve our rights on everything. I tell you what we won't do. We won't be making contradictory statements like 'We support a nuclear power station but not a dump,' 'We support gas-fired power stations but not gas mining,' 'We don't support renewable energy but want intermittent energy in Port Augusta.' It has to be consistent, thought out—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —policy that will actually make an impact on the National Electricity Market and make power work for South Australians again.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned.