Energy Security

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. How is the government addressing risk to the security of our power system and are there any other views?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:57): Thank you to the member for Davenport—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —who, as I have said so many times, like so many hardworking, focused Liberal members of parliament, is focused on what's right for his electorate. Electricity, not only the price but also the security of supply of electricity, is a very important issue in the electorate of Davenport. I commend him for focusing on that.

Who can forget the statewide blackout that we had in South Australia nearly two years ago—an unprecedented statewide blackout that we all understand was precipitated at the start because of a storm. But that storm had far more impact than it needed to have because of the state of our electricity industry and market here in South Australia. It has been documented and reported many times that our system strength throughout our state was not as good—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated. The Minister for Transport is called to order, as is the member for Light, the Deputy Premier and, unfortunately, the member for Cheltenham. Minister.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: It has been documented that our system strength was not as good as it could have been and that contributed to the outcome of that storm being so, so much worse. We are focused on improving not only the price but also the reliability and the environmental impact of electricity generation and distribution consumption in South Australia. We are very focused on storage, for example. Mr Speaker, you will remember that the then opposition leader, now Premier, was the very first person years ago to come out and say we need to slow down this stream of permissions that the then government was giving for wind farms and we need to be able to harness this energy better. He was the first person to say that, out of anybody in this chamber, to the very best of my knowledge.

We did thank the then government when they took his advice and they did the deal that they did with Tesla for the battery at Hornsdale in my electorate. You have never once heard anybody from this side of the chamber, even in opposition, run that decision down, because it is exactly what we asked them to do. But we are looking to do more. We have a $50 million grid-scale storage fund, which will contribute to the stability and strength of our electricity system.

We are not stopping with that one. We have money on the table to contribute to grid-scale storage, whether that be more battery storage comparable to the one at Hornsdale, or whether it be pumped hydro, whether it be more solar thermal, or whether it be hydrogen. We are technology agnostic. We just want the very, very best results for the people of South Australia. We have $100 million for small-scale batteries, and of course we have a program, in partnership with industry—TransGrid, ElectraNet, the New South Wales government and other key partners—to deliver interconnection into South Australia. These are very, very important things.

One of the things the member for Davenport asked was, 'Are there any alternative views?' Well, there were certainly some alternative views when those opposite were in government. They were actually advised that declining system strength was going to be a problem for our state. They were told that that was going to cause us more difficulties than we would otherwise have, and unfortunately they ignored that advice. Mr Speaker, we will not ignore that advice and we will fix up their mess.