Power Infrastructure

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:00): A supplementary: given that the minister said he has indicative costs, can he advise the house how much he expects to spend on the diesel generators?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:01): No, I will not be making that public as we are in a procurement process now, and I do not want the market participants who are bidding to provide us with this generation to know exactly where they should be. This is a complex issue. We are not out procuring Singapore noodles for a Wokinabox; we are actually out there buying serious pieces of equipment. That way we can get the best price for taxpayers. If I flag in advance what the price will be, I suspect that would be the flaw, so we have not revealed the price of the temporary generators because you want to get the best competitive market possible.