Electricity Generation

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:34): Supplementary: given that the minister said in his answer that he had met with all these companies, can he advise the house what this investment in new generators will cost and, also, did any of these companies express their concerns with him about government's policy and the amount of installed wind energy that's unreliable in our state?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:35): I think a lot of them are very concerned about the heavy subsidies the commonwealth government is giving to renewable energy in South Australia.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan: You give all the permissions.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Isn't it amazing? The people who pay the wind generators to operate, they are clean, but the Development Act is guilty. So, paying them to operate when it—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When Malcolm Turnbull pays wind generators to operate through Renewable Energy Certificates, which they voted for—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The interjections will cease. The interjectors are mostly on two warnings already. I don't want a procession out of the chamber. The Treasurer is uncharacteristically not provoking the opposition just at this moment.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will get there, sir, eventually. I think these companies are very concerned about a lack of national policy at a national level and they are very concerned about the vacuum created by the commonwealth government signing the Paris agreement, committing us to decarbonise and putting no mechanism in place to meet that decarbonisation. So, what is the use of signing the Paris agreement? Why commit to it?

At the very least, Tony Abbott was consistent in his ideology: he does not believe climate change is real. He is intellectually consistent. And he doesn't believe there should be a price on carbon. That is consistent. That is an honest argument. But when you sign the Paris agreement and you say that climate change is real and you need to decarbonise and then do nothing about it, you get perverse outcomes in the National Electricity Market.

While the commonwealth government is subsidising renewable energy and that renewable energy is doing what it does best—going to where the conditions are best, which is South Australia because we have very good wind resources and very good sun resources to capture that commonwealth subsidy—they then attack the development assessment process rather than the subsidy.

The real argument here is: what is causing renewable energy to be built in South Australia? Is it the commonwealth subsidy that pays them to operate every single day that they are there or is it a development assessment approval? That is the inconvenient truth for members opposite. Are we to forgo the thousand jobs created in renewable energy? Are we to forgo the billions of dollars invested in South Australia? Are we to forgo all of that?

Where is the criticism of the subsidy paid to renewable energy? At least Abbott is consistent. Members opposite say they support the RET but oppose the Development Act. They support the commonwealth Renewable Energy Target but not the state-based one. They support nuclear power but not a dump.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order: standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: Debate?

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Debate, yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: I am afraid I would have to uphold that point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That's disappointing, sir. Ultimately, what these companies all need, what they are all crying out for, what they have all said through their various organisations, whether it's the Business Council of Australia or the AI Group, and even the worker organisations like the ACTU, is national leadership, in a rare bipartisan display of crying out for national leadership.

The Chief Scientist, the Australian Energy Market Commission, the CSIRO and even Malcolm Turnbull all agreed at one stage or another that an energy intensity scheme would help us transition and maintain reliable, affordable electricity, but some members are addicted to coal, and that coal is driving prices up in New South Wales, in Queensland and now in Victoria.