National Electricity Market

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:09): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Is the minister prepared to identify the generators that he alleged in his ministerial statement yesterday are deliberately withdrawing from the market?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:09): Well, unfortunately, we don't have the requisite line of sight. I am acting on advice from AEMO. I had a meeting with the AEMO board and the CEO, Daniel Westerman, who informed me and the South Australian government that what was occurring is as a result of the price cap. Generators were deliberately withdrawing from the grid, not bidding in and waiting to be directed. That was the advice from AEMO. The problem we have, of course, is that these generators that are privatised—they are owned by the private sector—

The Hon. N.D. Champion interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Taylor!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —operate in the interests of their shareholders, not in the interests of the people of South Australia or their customers. They act to get a return for their investors.

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Tom Playford realised that this system, in an essential utility like electricity, is unsustainable. That is why he held a royal commission, and after that royal commission he nationalised the electricity assets in South Australia and put them under the control and care of the Electricity Trust of South Australia, where they sat for a long period of time and where it was the objective of the South Australian government to create an oversupply of electricity—cheap, affordable power—that allowed manufacturing and industry to flourish: Holden, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, the steelworks, Nyrstar. We had foundries, we had business, we had enterprise.

Of course, the moment they entered power in 1997, after promising not to privatise our energy assets, they privatised our assets. They privatised ETSA after lying in an election campaign saying that they wouldn't. The architect of that privatisation was Rob Lucas—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —and he sold those generators, and when he sold them to ensure he would maximise the sale price—

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order, which I will hear under 134, but before I do I will call the member for Taylor to order and the member for Wright. The member for Florey I saw interjecting. He has the misfortune of being well within my line of sight.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The question was actually reasonably narrow on this occasion, perhaps unlike the first two, and the minister is debating.

The SPEAKER: I will ask the minister to take a line closer to the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Unfortunately, through that privatisation, all the powers that energy ministers had to direct generation on, to view contracts, to understand, to have a line of sight, were removed by Mr Lucas. Why? To increase the sale price of electricity assets. In fact, my advice is that we were the only jurisdiction to do so that privatised their assets. Some of those powers were only returned by the previous Labor government in 2016 after the statewide blackout.

So we don't have the requisite tools to know exactly which generators they are, but I am acting on the advice of Daniel Westerman, who told me that generators are deliberately withdrawing their supply in order to be directed on. It's in the papers, it's in the Financial Review, it's in The Australian and it's on TV—just turn them on or buy one.