Electricity Market

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): To clarify, can the minister explain to this house how he reconciles his commitment to his statements on 9 February with the representation made by ENGIE executives at the Senate inquiry which state:

ENGIE in Australia is not able to make the capacity of the second unit available to the market given there are no firm gas supply arrangements in place to operate this unit. Under the National Electricity Market rules, generators cannot bring a plant into the market if supply cannot be guaranteed. In the case of the events at the start of the week of 6 February, the second Pelican Point unit has no gas contracts in place which means ENGIE in Australia is unable to guarantee supply to the market.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:22): That just shows you how broken the NEM is because as—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have said two words, sir—two words—and the Leader of the Opposition immediately interjects and you watch him do it, sir. I have to say that I just got up to make a point—that that just goes to show you how broken the NEM is that you have a generator that says it can't turn on, yet the evidence shows that it did turn on. We are working in a system that says that, unless you have gas contracts across—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will be heard in silence. The leader has been warned that his next utterance will see him ejected.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We are witnessing a national market that runs through this farce, where they say that you can't bid into the market unless you have these other things operational, but we can direct you on, and all of a sudden those things that you need to be operational are ready to go. It is a farce. The national market is broken. We had spare capacity that could have been directed on to avoid load shedding and the national operator decided not to turn that on, yet the following day they were able to do so. What does that tell you about the preparation of the national operator? What does that tell you about the management of the National Electricity Market? It's broken and, in fact, it's so broken—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is on a full set of warnings.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's so broken that 90,000 people were shed who didn't need to be shed. They shed more than they needed to. The private operators of our own networks here had a software glitch that took more people off than were necessary, yet members opposite are trying to blame us. This is becoming a farce. The national market is broken. It needs to be reformed.

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: People are passing around lumps of coal as if it's a solution. This needs serious reform. This needs things like an energy intensity scheme. It needs rule changes. It needs engineering solutions.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: This needs a complex debate—

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —not slogans and shouting by members opposite, who didn't even take a resources and energy policy to the last election. So, don't lecture us.

Ms Chapman: Don't take any notice of him. You can lecture him as much as you like.

The SPEAKER: Leader.