National Energy Guarantee

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:09): My question is for the Minister for Energy. Does the minister endorse the reliability guarantee recommended by the Energy Security Board, which was established by the COAG Energy Council with South Australian government support?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for the Arts) (15:09): This is one of the great fit-ups. The Prime Minister of this country, who has been sitting there with basically the hands of Tony Abbott up his back and Pauline Hanson breathing down his neck, has dictated national energy policy in this country. In good faith, I have, together with the energy minister, been working away with a process through the Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, who was commissioned to conduct a report into the future of our energy system—the broken National Electricity Market.

We have supported his work to provide a mechanism that will provide the certainty and security for the future. Look at what we have seen. Look at the progression of policy that we have seen at a national level. First, we had the emissions trading scheme. Well, they couldn't agree to that; that looked a little bit too green. Then we had the emissions intensity scheme; that looked too much like it might be supporting renewable energy. Then we had the clean energy target. You cannot use the word 'clean' in conjunction with 'energy' unless of course it is juxtaposed with the word 'coal'.

Now we have the NEG. I don't even know what it stands for but, anyway, it is another acronym which is about making sure that you get as far away as possible from the renewable energy situation. There are three things that South Australians and Australians believe: one is we should have a renewable energy future; the second is that it represents the technologies and jobs of the future; and, third, it will also give us reliable, affordable and cleaner power. That's what Australians believe. That's what South Australians believe, and we are not going to participate in some fit-up where institutions—

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order: clearly, the Premier has completely strayed from the topic. The topic was nothing to do with what he has referred to; it was on the reliability guarantee.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: That's exactly what he's talking about.

Ms CHAPMAN: No, he's not.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to see whether the Premier addresses the reliability guarantee.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The NEG—the reliability guarantee; this is what I am talking about.

Ms Chapman: No, you're not.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: This is the very thing I'm talking about. The deputy leader doesn't even understand the work that is being done on a national level by her Prime Minister. When they lined up all of the people that are meant to be reporting to us, in the same way that Dr Alan Finkel did, at a press conference designed to put a fait accompli in place, designed to actually grind everybody into submission so that we all have to now design a system that is acceptable to Tony Abbott and Pauline Hanson, we're not cooperating with that. We are not cooperating with a system which has been designed to placate the political problems inside the federal Liberal Party.

We want a national energy system that integrates climate policy in a way which meets our international obligations and gives long-term certainty to investors in this market. We are not accepting some cobbled up compromise just because the federal Liberal Party have a political problem. We're not going to make it easy for them. We are going to assert the best position, not some mealy-mouthed compromise that gets Malcolm Turnbull off the hook with Pauline Hanson and Tony Abbott.

That is what we are dealing with here. And all those companies that are saying, 'Can we all stop fighting? Can we reach agreement? Can we have bipartisanship?', we are not going to have this notion of fatigue, which has been put into the political system because Tony Abbott won't give up. He will not give up until you tear up Paris. He won't give up until Malcolm Turnbull stands in the middle of Martin Place and says, 'I don't believe in climate change.' He is insatiable, and if we cannot see it—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: If you cannot see it, if the people of this country cannot see that we are having—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: This is the continuation of Tony Abbott's attempts to destroy this nation's capacity to have a rational climate change policy. That's what is going on here, and we are not cooperating with it.

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey, would he cease his elegiac interjections, which are as tiresome as a Barry Manilow LP playing on a loop. The member for Stuart.