Port Augusta Power Stations

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Energy. Can the minister guarantee that the solar thermal plant at Port Augusta in AGL's Barker Inlet will proceed as planned, and at the same capacity as announced, following the government's plan to privatise or lease the state-owned emergency generators, and subsidise and support a $1.5 billion interconnector into New South Wales?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:00): The last part of that question we dealt with yesterday. Support the interconnector to New South Wales? Yes, of course, very, very strongly, but we are not the only ones. All other serious commentators, which does not include the member for West Torrens, unfortunately, support the interconnector.

The SPEAKER: Get on with it, minister. Please do not provoke the opposition.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: His choice of words about 'subsidise', though, I dealt with yesterday. That's completely inappropriate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: His question, whether I can guarantee that these two generators that he has talked about, which are proposed to be built—one of them has started; in fact, both of them have been given approval under the previous government—will go ahead and not cease to go ahead as a result of our intention to lease the generators that we have in place, is a very hypothetical question. It's drawing a very long bow, but for the benefit of the member for West Torrens and for this house let me fill him in with some information which, to be quite blunt—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —I know he knows. There's nothing in this question. I know he knows, but, so that he has no way to try to wriggle away and pretend he doesn't know—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left, please.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —let's just get to the bottom of this. Barker Inlet: AGL have said that they are going to build Barker Inlet stage 1. They said, nearly a decade ago, that they were going to start to wind down some of their generating capacity at the Torrens Island generator. They have said that, when they have completed Barker Inlet stage 1, they will probably very quickly then mothball and wind down some of the existing Torrens Island capacity and simultaneously consider whether they will progress with stage 2 of Barker Inlet.

He knows that. I know that, it's a fact based on all the very best information, which both of us have received from AGL. So to suggest in any way that the wind-down at Torrens Island might be linked to our leasing of the generators is completely a furphy.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: my question wasn't about the mothballing of Torrens Island. It was about the construction of the Barker Inlet power station.

The SPEAKER: Point of order for debate. Minister, can we come back to the guarantee?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The guarantee that I have is exactly the same as the guarantee that the member for West Torrens has from AGL, which is that they are going to proceed with stage 1 of Barker Inlet. They are going to do it. I have their word on it, and the member for West Torrens has their word on it. If anything happens that means that they don't follow through with that, it will have nothing to do with the government's intention to lease the diesel generators, which the former government spent $610 million of taxpayers' money on to do absolutely nothing—those generators which have sat absolutely idle and which we will put into the marketplace.

Coming to SolarReserve and the solar thermal proposal at Port Augusta, the previous government entered into an agreement with SolarReserve to develop that proposal up there. I have been a very strong proponent of that project for a long time. In fact, I established a select committee in this house to look into exactly that. I want it to go ahead. The Marshall Liberal government stands ready to honour and deliver on exactly the same agreement that the previous Labor government entered into with SolarReserve.