Grievance Debate

Power Outages

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:05): The good people of Morphett living in their single residences, in their apartments, in their flats, and also the many hundreds of small, medium and large businesses that exist in Morphett, deserve something better than intermittent power supplies in South Australia. It is absolutely no fun to watch your stock wither, the ice-cream melt or be stuck in a lift in one of the high-rise buildings at the Bay because there is no power.

This government has absolutely failed the people of South Australia for 15 years now, and what do we see? No solid answers at all from this government, only excuses and more and more blame. If you own one of the 160 restaurants and cafes that are within walking distance of my office, you are working very hard to make ends meet nowadays. If you go down Jetty Road with me—and people are welcome to come with me down Jetty Road—and talk to the shopkeepers and business owners, they will tell you that the money is still there but that you have to work three times as hard to get it.

When the power goes out, when there are interruptions and when there are business costs that you have not budgeted for, margins are tight and that can sometimes push you over the edge. It is just not fair. All the people of South Australia want is a fair go. They can understand that, when the wind blows in storm-force gales like we had and trees come down, there will inevitably be some interruptions. We all know and accept that but, when we have a system that is reliant on an intermittent source of power with a reduced base load, then we start to worry.

How are you going to invest in your business? How are you going to want to build a nice new home and have the comforts of home without having a reliable power source? Even this morning, I was talking to a business owner who is having to spend $70,000 more every year on electricity to run their business. It is a huge impost on what they are doing. What does the Labor Party say? They say that it is because we privatised power. That is absolute rubbish.

The real facts of life are that, when you look over the border to the ACT and Victoria, they privatised their electricity markets a long time ago, and it is the generation mix, not privatisation, that has caused the current crisis. Victoria has some of the lowest average prices in Australia. The ACT prices are right down. When you look at the base future contract prices for South Australia compared with prices in Victoria and the ACT, ours are far above those in Victoria and the ACT where they have privatised their electricity assets. It is not the privatisation of power.

What does this government say about the Liberals? They say that we hate renewable energy. That is absolute rubbish. We have been very supportive of renewable energy for many, many years. What has caused the issues in South Australia is Labor's reliance on renewable energy. They have forced energy prices up and up, and businesses are having to pay for that now. We understand that a generation mix is necessary, but let's make sure we have that base load mix. Let's make sure we have reliable power in South Australia. It is not because of privatisation and it is not because the Liberals have this mythical hatred of renewables, which is an absolute untruth. The answer is out there, but this government just does not have it. The Labor government also say that the Liberals have no answer.

I can tell you the answer is there, the answer is coming and we have a very good plan for the short, medium and long-term future for South Australia's energy supplies. Accelerating large-scale storage of renewables, improving competition in the energy market, sufficient interconnector capacity into the rest of the National Electricity Market and enabling better demand management for consumers are just the start.

We need this government to wake up, stop the blame game and think about the people of Morphett and all the other constituents throughout this state—the businesses that are working so hard to try to make ends meet. Give them a fair go, think about them, not just yourselves, and do what is right for the people of South Australia. If you cannot do that, then get out.