BHP Billiton

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Does it remain the minister's position that it is BHP Billiton's responsibility to provide sufficient generation capacity at Olympic Dam?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:16): Olympic Dam built its own powerline to guarantee certainty. They were contemplating building their own desalination plant, which was very controversial. They have contemplated building their own ports. Indeed, where they have gone in other jurisdictions around the world, they have built infrastructure like ports, like rail lines, like generation, but obviously it's not optimal. I can't stop tornadoes taking down powerlines, and any member of parliament who says that they can is lying.

Mr Wingard: The whole state.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Ignorant comments like the member for Mitchell's about 'the whole state' fundamentally misunderstand what occurred. This wasn't renewable energy spiralling the system out of control, leading to some frequency event. This was a massive disruption of transmission lines where the spine of the state's transmission network was cut in half.

How are we to guarantee BHP supply if, through a weather event, the two lines that link Olympic Dam to the grid are cut? Are we to build a generator for them at their mine site, just for them and no-one else? Is that what members opposite are saying? But you get ignorant comments from the member for Mitchell, who probably can't spell electricity, to try and tell us that the whole state went out. There's an AEMO report—

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order: the minister is debating and, by his own admission, responding to interjections.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I uphold the point of order and I would like the minister to address the substance of the question or wind up.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. There is no way that any government can guarantee continuous supply in the face of weather events. If BHP want to have continuous supply regardless of the conditions that they are operating in, regardless of whatever occurs to the national electricity grid, then they will need to put in their own redundancy, because no government can guarantee that level of continuous supply because it is impossible.

Mr Marshall: BYO power in South Australia.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Leader of the Opposition interjects 'BYO power', because we used to own our power—that's how we came to this situation. We absolutely believe we should own our own power. We absolutely believe we should own our own generation. We absolutely believe we should own our own poles and wires. I voted against it and the member for Playford voted against it and members opposite supported the privatisation of ETSA, so don't lecture us about not owning our own power supply because, if members thought it was so important, why did they sell it? Why did they sell it? If it was so important to keep that power asset, why sell it?

Members interjecting: