Carbon Emissions

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:39): How much will the government's plan to introduce and operate diesel generators in South Australia contribute to its plan to increase emissions in South Australia?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:39): Again, there are no plans to increase emissions, despite the standing orders not allowing loaded questions in question time. I also note that we have said all along that if we can have gas-fired generation rather than diesel, we will. If we can have hybrid generators rather than diesel, we will. But what we are saying is that the market cannot provide the sufficient generation that we need over summer, so the government is stepping in to make sure we have sufficient capacity.

Our generators will not be operating all the time. Our generators will only operate in lieu of load shedding. The member opposite I thought knew that. So we plan, hopefully, to not run these generators. They are there in case the market falls short so we don't load shed South Australians. We are not operating these generators as competitors in the market. We are not operating these generators on a commercial basis, and interjecting and screaming are no substitute for a question. If members opposite want questions about how the generators will work, they will work this way: if AEMO advise the government that there would be a load shed—

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, I don't recall the member for Stuart raising his voice.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I was talking about the member for Davenport, sir. You are paying attention, of course. I know that, sir.

The SPEAKER: I am.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: If AEMO have load shedding, if they forecast load shedding because for whatever reason the market can't provide the sufficient electrons we need to maintain stability, we will offer our generation in lieu of load shedding. Now, this could be for an hour; it could be for half an hour. We don't expect to run these generators as competitive offers in the market, so the idea that this will somehow increase emissions dramatically is ridiculous, let alone the massive offsets that we have in the South Australian electricity market through our massive amounts of renewable energy—over 1,700 megawatts of wind and over 700 megawatts of solar energy.

Members opposite have called on us to abandon our renewable energy target and said we have gone too fast, too quickly, and now today they are complaining that we’ve got too much or it's not enough. I have to say that it is a confused position by members opposite.