State Energy Plan

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): Supplementary: given that the Treasurer has been unable to provide the detail that is required, can he at least confirm that in fact the Under Treasurer, who reports directly to the Treasurer in South Australia, has belled the cat and told the people of South Australia the cost is actually going to be $301 million?

The SPEAKER: That question is of course entirely out of order, and the leader would know that it's contrary to standing orders, but the Treasurer is pawing the ground wanting to answer it; he will have a lot of scope.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:40): When we announced our $550 million energy intervention—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, the leader asks questions and then just interjects with what he thinks is the answer. The facts are that these General Electric aeroderivative generators, the TM2500—a beautiful piece of kit which I inspected yesterday and kicked—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —many tyres—these are beautiful pieces of equipment. They are gas-fired generators that can operate on a number of fuels.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Screaming, shouting and interjecting is not a substitute for a failed policy.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yelling out abuse across the chamber is not a substitute for policy. We have always said we were going to procure a brand-new, state-owned generator and temporary generator. What we have done is skip the temporary part and go on to the final solution. Within the $550 million package, what we have done is that we have been able to procure not only our temporary generation but our final solution to our backup within our budget. And not only is it within budget—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —ultimately it's early because we planned for this generation to be available by 1 December: it is available from today. It is available from today. If we relied on the market that the members opposite created by privatising ETSA, we would be waiting on AGL, we would be waiting on Origin and we would be waiting on Simply to provide us with power for the summer. And how would that go? Instead, we got our generator up and running, ready to go, and the tragedy—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —is that history repeats itself.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: History repeats. The members opposite are going to make the same mistake they made when they sold ETSA: they are going to sell our only backup reserve.

The SPEAKER: Before the supplementary, I call to order the Premier, the member for Chaffey and the member for Mitchell, and I warn the leader, the member for Unley and the member for Morialta. Leader.