Electricity Prices

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:38): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Will the minister update the house on how the government's plans for energy storage will help reduce energy costs for households?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:38): Thank you to the member for Heysen, who also gave an outstanding maiden speech today. I welcome his interest in electricity and making electricity cheaper for households. It follows on from a question from the member for Morphett last week. I note that the opposition has not yet asked the government one question about energy, about electricity. It is the third week of parliament. We have probably had 50 or 60, maybe more, questions in parliament—not one question yet. The shadow is trying to dream one up now as—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: They are consulting at the moment to see whether they dare go near this topic.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Mr Speaker, let me tell you, we on this side of the house are focused on what is best for South Australians—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is on the edge.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —focused on reducing cost-of-living pressures—

Mr Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is called to order and warned.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —focused on delivering cost-of-living pressure reductions and focused on cheap electricity. We are not asking about doughnuts. We are not asking about what members do in their private time. We are not asking about staffing arrangements. We are talking about electricity.

Let me just tell you, we are going to deliver more affordable, more reliable electricity for the people of South Australia, and we are going to do it, in part, by focusing on storage: household storage and grid-scale storage. This has been a very consistent position. The Premier and I, and the former opposition, consistently said to the previous government, 'You must attach storage to intermittent renewable energy.' We said that for three or four years. We are now in government. We are going to deliver it. The previous government waffled around with political targets to try to suit certain interest groups.

We are going to deliver cheaper electricity. We have allocated $100 million of taxpayers' money to household storage programs. We have allocated $50 million of taxpayers' money to grid-scale storage programs. These are things that experts throughout the industry have called for, the previous opposition called for and Chief Scientist, Professor Alan Finkel, called for, as did the market operator, the Energy Security Board—all these organisations.

The only people who don't understand are the opposition. We will deliver through these programs. We will deliver 40,000-household battery storage. They will allow households to store their electricity from peak generation time, early afternoon, to peak demand time, early evening, thus taking the top of the peak off for the entire state. Not only will the people have the batteries and the solar benefit, all consumers across South Australia will benefit through lower prices.

When it comes to grid-scale storage, instead of spending $50 million of taxpayers' money on the battery at Jamestown, as the previous opposition urged the previous government to do—and in the dying days of their government, they finally agreed to do it—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —we will put money towards a wide range of grid-scale storage. It might be battery, it might be pumped hydro, it might be hydrogen, it might be solar thermal. It might be any one of those things to deliver cheaper electricity prices for the people of South Australia, who know that they deserved it 10 years ago.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I warn the member for West Torrens for the second and final time, as well as the member for Lee. Leader.