Energy Prices

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:48): Can I take this opportunity, Mr Speaker, on behalf of the opposition to publicly congratulate you on your election. I am sure we will work very well together.

South Australian households and South Australian businesses are grappling with the highest energy prices in Australia and amongst the highest energy prices in the world. In the face of such significant challenges that put such pressure on households and businesses, we need to be looking, as a state, at every single option to stabilise our grid, to provide baseload, to reduce energy prices and, of course, to pave a pathway towards a zero emissions future, which is so important to many in our community.

Under the previous Liberal government, we took a significant amount of action to stabilise our grid, to put in place long-term infrastructure solutions, including the interconnector to transfer power to and from New South Wales and South Australia. That was in the face of a very significant and problematic energy environment that we inherited from the 16-year-old Labor government, which ran from 2002 to 2018. During that time, of course, we had the statewide blackout. Again, we had amongst the highest energy prices in the world and we had serious challenges at household and business levels simply to keep the doors open and to keep the lights on.

Today, I am continually confronted with stories from small businesses and households that people are scared to open their energy bills. When the email or the letter comes in, they are scared to open that bill because of the price of their energy that confronts them. They are scared to do that. That should not be the case in a nation that should be energy rich in many ways. We have the resources, we have the geography, and we have the climate that can give us a very significant stable energy future, yet how have we ended up in this situation?

It is the view of the opposition that when it comes to a clean, green, stable, cost-effective energy future, everything should be on the table—absolutely everything. There is a place for renewables. South Australia is so well blessed in many ways in terms of our geography and our climate. We have lots of wind, lots of sun, and quite a lot of open space to use, and there is a significant place for renewables in terms of our energy mix.

Equally, we believe that we should be open to the option of exploring, of discussing, of engaging, with our community about having nuclear energy generation as part of the mix as well. I believe that we are at a crossroads in this state and, quite frankly, in this nation when it comes to energy generation policy.

It has been interesting to see the Premier's rhetoric in recent weeks in relation to nuclear energy. He says that he is agnostic when it comes to what should be part of the mix. In speaking to some audiences, including Sky News, he is happy to say that in some ways he is pro-nuclear, but when speaking to the House of Assembly in question time he says his views in terms of nuclear are global views, not local views. He is not interested in exploring that in South Australia, not interested in exploring that to stabilise South Australia's energy grid, to create a decarbonised energy system in this state. I think he is not interested in that because he is scared of what some of his colleagues in the left of the Labor Party might think. He is scared of what Anthony Albanese might think.

I think there is a real need to have this discussion with South Australians to investigate the opportunities for nuclear energy generation in this state, in this nation, because there are countries all over the world looking at this and many have already pursued it. South Australia and Australia cannot get left behind. One of the things that the Premier says is that this is not cost-effective. It is unproven, small modular reactors in particular are unproven technology, yet he is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a hydrogen power station in Upper Spencer Gulf. That is truly unproven technology.

It is time that we had a mature conversation, and a non-ideological one, one that is agnostic as to how we get our energy in the future and one that provides South Australia and Australia with stable, cost-effective energy that does not have our citizens and businesses scared to open their energy bills.