Electricity Interconnector

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister update the house on how the South Australian government's plan for interconnection is critical for the future of the national grid?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:50): I thank the member for Colton. As has been the case many, many times—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader! And the member for Light will not interject.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —first term MPs on the government side of the house are taking very serious interest in what's important to their constituents, and one of the things that's most important to their constituents is getting the price of electricity down. Mr Speaker, you know—hopefully everybody in South Australia knows—that we took a very clear plan to the state election. Now we are delivering on our plan, and a component of that plan is an interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales. Don't let anybody be fooled to think that this component of the plan in itself is going to deliver all of the benefits which we will deliver, because we have several components to our plan. But this is one of the key ones, one of the most important ones.

It is very interesting to note how many other significant South Australian and national organisations think that this is a very good idea, too. We've just had the release of a report by AEMO, what they call their ISP, their 'integrated system plan', which looks at the entire NEM and the way to deliver electricity best to all consumers across the NEM. In the section of that report headed 'Actions to commence work immediately', point No. 1—dot point No. 1—is: start the work to get an interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales built.

So that is terrific, but that is not the only news good news that I can share with the house and the member for Colton about this. We also had the ACCC release a report about a week and a half ago. That report was essentially into increased competition between generators and wholesalers and retailers, but it also said that interconnection between South Australia and New South Wales would be a good idea. Perhaps a month ago, ElectraNet—the company which owns and operates the transmission network in South Australia—released their draft regulatory investment test for transmission report, which they have put to the AER, and guess what? It also says that this is a very, very good idea.

It doesn't stop there. The opposition used to think it was a good idea also. In fact, almost two years ago to the week, the then minister for energy said there is a massive disadvantage here and that is why we need to upgrade interconnection to New South Wales and upgrade interconnection to Victoria. And that was good.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: No, no problem. No problem at all. That was good. That was very good. The only problem was that we came to the same conclusion, AEMO came to the same conclusion, the ACCC came to the same conclusion, ElectraNet came to the same conclusion, TransGrid has come to the same conclusion, the New South Wales government has come to the same conclusion, but they have changed their mind. They have changed their mind. They thought it was a fantastic idea until we, the then opposition, made it part of our policy, and they, the then government, decided that it was a bad idea.

But they are alone on this issue. There is nowhere for them to hide. They are the only people in the entire South-East of Australia NEM region who now think that interconnection between South Australia and New South Wales is a bad idea. But, don't worry, if they change their mind we will acknowledge that and say, 'Well done. You've got back on the path to lower electricity prices, which is the path you should have been on for the last 10 years.'

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The member for Kaurna.