Electricity Prices

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): Supplementary, sir: will prices go up when Hazelwood closes?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:28): They certainly will in Victoria and they are going up in New South Wales and they are going up in Queensland. That is entirely the problem. In the absence of a national policy on carbon, you are having the disorderly exit of coal-fired generation. What they are doing is pushing up prices—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Barossa komitadji will be quiet.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: They are pushing up prices with a disorderly exit of generation because there is no signal for reinvestment in the market. If there was a signal for reinvestment in the market, like an energy intensity scheme or a carbon price or emissions trading scheme, you would have an orderly exit of generation replaced by new generation that could benefit from the scheme, but currently the commonwealth government is burying its head in the sand, saying, 'No, no, no, coal is good.'

Coal generation is closing. They know there is no imperative on them to close other generation, so they are making money while they can. They are pushing prices up in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and that's why we need there to be national intervention. That's why we need there to be a policy in place that gives us the opportunity to use South Australian gas, not Victorian coal.