Overseas Business Mission

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:56): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on his recent overseas mission?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:57): It is an important question. Last week, I returned from the United Kingdom and the United States where I followed up on what has been a massive 12 months of achievements and unprecedented investments in our state.

The mission began in the United Kingdom, where I toured half a dozen businesses recently acquired by the new owners of the Whyalla steelworks, the SIMEC and Gupta Family Group. From Leamington Spa in the Midlands to the Uskmouth Power Station in South Wales, we witnessed the rapid expansion of GFG and SIMEC's manufacturing and steelmaking operations that the Whyalla steelworks will be integrated with.

The GFG-SIMEC alliance has acquired numerous distressed manufacturing assets throughout the United Kingdom and the effects they are having in turning those businesses around to become profit-making enterprises are remarkable. They have an impressive range of high-end manufacturing component suppliers. From Formula 1 to A380 components, to sheet-rolling and biomass plant modifications, GFG and SIMEC have come a long way in the past 24 months.

It was clear from our tour that this is a company that is really about value-adding to steel manufacturing and investing in renewable energy and infrastructure to manufacture what they call green steel. Touring their operation in the United Kingdom gave me great confidence that the GFG and SIMEC network was the one that Whyalla could be fully integrated into.

Also in London, we attended a very entertaining networking event hosted by the industry minister at Australia House before enjoying a very lovely dinner with Sir Lynton Crosby AO where we discussed local, national and international politics, and he has a wide range of views about politics, especially local South Australian politics.

I also took the opportunity to meet with Lloyds Bank and insurance firm Aon's headquarters in London from where we travelled to New York where we met with energy secretary Richard Kauffman, who heads up New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's energy division. The challenges that are being faced by Australia are similar to those being faced in the United States and Mr Kauffman was very open with what his team was doing to deal with the rapid transformation in the energy sector in New York.

I also presented South Australia's Hydrogen Roadmap to international industry leaders at the Hydrogen Council dinner and discussed the future of the renewable energy industry on a panel with international CEO and President of Ceres, Mindy Lubber, at Climate Week.

At these events, it was clear that our state has a reputation as being at the forefront of energy transformation and climate policy. From there, we travelled to California, where I visited SolarReserve's head office in Santa Monica and received a detailed update from chief executive, Kevin Smith, and senior vice president, Tom Georgis, on how the Port Augusta solar thermal project was tracking.

We also met with Tesla executives in San Francisco and visited the company's Fremont plant, where the Model X, Model S and Model 3 vehicles are being manufactured. I have to say the Fremont factory is definitely a unique experience; Tesla builds nearly every single component of the car in that plant. From there, we headed to Nevada, where we toured the Gigafactory and saw firsthand how our world-leading lithium ion battery was being assembled.

There are many doubters about Tesla and their capabilities, especially from some members opposite. However, the scale, scope and ambition of the company is truly inspiring. The management and staff have a real sense of excitement and pride about what they are doing here in South Australia with our battery installation. There were photographs peppered across the Gigafactory of South Australia and Jamestown.

This government has the renewable resources and the policy settings, and they have technology and the know-how to deliver world-leading energy solutions and storage capabilities. These partnerships are helping build our economy, lower power prices and give some stability to the grid.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The member for Ashford.