Energy Prices

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:41): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Why has the minister repeatedly spoken about anticompetitive behaviour by electricity retailers and done nothing about it when, as part of the deregulation of the electricity market, he said in December 2012 that the government would be able to 'immediately reintroduce regulation at the first sign of collusion or any other anticompetitive behaviour'?

The SPEAKER: I suppose the assertion that the minister has done nothing about it is somewhat rhetorical and is probably out of order, but if the Treasurer wishes to answer it he may.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:41): Yes, sir, I do wish to maintain Mr Marshall in the public debate as long as possible.

The SPEAKER: No, the—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Leader, sorry.

The SPEAKER: —Treasurer is warned—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I apologise, sir.

The SPEAKER: —for using other than the title of the Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir. Importantly, re-regulation certainly is something that the COAG Energy Council has considered. Re-regulation, of course, is a double-edged sword. Re-regulation can deter new competitive forces from entering the market, but of course deregulation can often—sometimes, depending on the style of the market—have a differential impact. It is important to note that in a deregulated market it is your best option of having competitive prices offered to South Australians.

I do note that when the government deregulated retail pricing we received the support of the then energy Liberal spokesperson and then the Liberal opposition. I think the call was then, 'Why haven't we done it sooner? Why did we take so long to deregulate pricing?', so I find this line of questioning interesting. But, of course—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I would have to say, if the Liberal Party wants to talk about promises made about lowering prices, I would refer you to the Hansard when ETSA was privatised when we were promised lifelong lower prices because of the sale of our electricity assets to private owners. How did that turn out?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, members opposite are returning to the idea that they are the ones who were the architects of higher prices. But the ACCC report is very instructive. You have seen the ACCC talk about privatisation previously where governments have privatised assets, for example, by not allowing certain competitive forces to enter the market to try to restrict competition to maximise the sale price, and he has been quite critical of that, of jurisdictions.

A case in point that he has used is privatisation of power assets, like members opposite when they privatised our assets. They did all they could to fatten the lamb before sale, and when they fattened the lamb, of course, they made sure that the people who bought our assets could get the maximum return for their shareholders wherever they were. Of course, they are now reaping that benefit.

What we are attempting to do through new competition by bringing in the new solar thermal plant, by deregulating electricity prices and by making sure that we have more competitive tension is to lower prices. The energy plan is working because what you are seeing for the first time is lower prices than Victoria. Interestingly, this is the first time South Australia has been a net exporter of energy and our power prices have been lower than those in Victoria.

The ultimate humiliation for any political party is to put out a plan to say that the do-nothing option gives you a bigger return than acting. The do-nothing option in the Liberal plan gives larger savings to households than their intervention, and no amount of shouting, no amount of interjecting, will save the Leader of the Opposition from what he has done to the opposition this week, because what he did to the opposition this week was fundamentally weaken them.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He has ruined his own plan within days of announcing it, and interjecting will not change the fact that on television you could actually see the moment when we saw the whole plan disintegrate before him, when he turned to his shadow energy minister and he said, 'Is it $300 or $70?' 'It's $70.'

The SPEAKER: This conduct is as bad as the federal parliament.