Question Time

State Energy Plan

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Energy. What is the expected cost of purchasing, relocating and augmenting the nine diesel generators the government is currently leasing from APR?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:35): We will detail the cost, but of course the energy plan as announced has always been part of the plan. What we announced—

Mr Marshall: Why won't you tell us what's going on?

The SPEAKER: I call the leader to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: What we announced was that we would bring in—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order for quoting AC/DC lyrics where they are not strictly relevant.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When we announced Our Energy Plan, part of the plan was to procure temporary generation for this summer and then to find a permanent solution in terms of a backup reserve for the state to have to call on. What we budgeted for within Our Energy Plan was to use backup generation for the summer and then to procure a larger generator at a permanent site.

What we have been able to do is to actually procure nine brand-new aeroderivative gas-fired turbines that can run on dual fuels—that can run on a number of fuels, actually—that can run on more than diesel, that can run on LPG and that can run on gas. Of course, what we have done is circumvent the necessity for having temporary generators and we have gone to the final solution, which is our permanent generation. What we have now is our final solution at two temporary sites and then we will be locating these at one central site, which will be announced very soon.

It's important to note that every single part of Our Energy Plan—every single part—whether it's our procurement of the world's largest lithium ion battery, whether it's our renewable technology fund, whether it's our procurement, every single part has been on time and on budget. There are no additional costs to those previously announced. There are no additional costs to the cost of procuring these new generators.

Mr MARSHALL: Point of order: relevance. I ask that you bring the Treasurer back to the substance of the question, which is about the cost of this new relocated service.

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is not new. It has been announced—we announced it in March. We announced in March the cost of our intervention into the market. We announced in March that we would be purchasing a state-owned generator.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We announced in March new powers. We announced in March our PACE gas grants. We announced in March our procurement. We made all these announcements. There is nothing new about this. The only thing that is new about this is a Liberal Party policy to sell the generators. They want to privatise the generators. You can see the panic in their eyes. You can see the panic. The costings are what they are worried about because they have a secret plan to privatise generators before we have even bought them.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: I take points of order from people who come to those points with clean hands. The member for Stuart has been continually interjecting and now rises to interrupt his interjections just for a moment to say that the content of the Treasurer's answer is offending him.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Mr Speaker, the purpose of my interjections was to bring the Treasurer back to the substance of the question. Now I ask you to do that.

The SPEAKER: I will bring the Treasurer back to the substance of the question. Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have answered it, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before the supplementary, the member for Unley is called to order because the Speaker is able to pull a free kick out of any melee, and the member for Wright is warned.