Alinta Energy

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:19): Given the minister's answer, why did the minister advance Mr Dimery's information to the house given that he must not believe it's true because his own department's website has contradictory information?

The SPEAKER: I don't even know where to start with how out of order that question is but, given the Treasurer's preternatural ability to provoke the opposition, it seems he is eager to answer it.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:19): There is a difference between resource qualities and reserves. I have to say that the issue with coalmines is that when you mine coal for use in a coal-fired power station you build the furnaces and the boilers around the quality of the coal you have at the mine. You don't generally source brown coal from a whole series of different mines; you generally use it from one mine.

In South Australia, when the Playford station and the Northern power station were built they were predominantly mining from Leigh Creek. They built that generation and those furnaces to deal with the calorific value of that coal. If the assertion of members opposite is true, that this coal can be used anywhere, and in fact that there are vast reserves of this coal, I point out to members that the coal they say there is so much of is still there. Why isn't the private sector mining it? Better still, why isn't Alinta mining that very valuable coal they have there for export?

The reason they don't mine it, the reason they don't use it, is that it is poor quality. Don't believe me, believe Jeff Dimery, because Jeff Dimery ran the mine.

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Jeff Dimery ran the mine, Alinta operated the mine. They were the people mixing the coal reserves they had to bring it up to a calorific value that they could use. It wasn't something they could export, and they were running out of it. To pin the entire state's future on a coalmine that is running out of coal it can use is folly.