Grievance Debate

Power Prices

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:06): More cost-of-living pain is on the way for South Australian households and businesses, with the Australian Energy Regulator revealing South Australia's wholesale prices are again the highest in the nation—in fact, 40 per cent higher than in any other state. The quarterly average wholesale power for the months July to September jumped by 35 per cent. Despite what the minister said in question time today, wholesale prices are up by 35 per cent compared with quarter 2 this year.

Of course, wholesale power prices play a big role in terms of household power bills. The AER's wholesale quarterly report has shown that the average price for electricity per megawatt hour in the third quarter of this year in South Australia was $201, the highest in the nation. In fact, that figure is 76 per cent up on this time last year when the same report came out that showed, again, South Australia had the highest wholesale prices in the nation.

South Australian families are going backwards. They have already had to deal with the highest power prices recorded by ESCOSA, which showed that average household retail power bills are up 44 per cent while this government has been in power. They are up to $2,621 per year. These record prices were for the period from July 2023 to June 2024, so news that the wholesale power price has increased in South Australia by another 35 per cent between July and September will send shockwaves through South Australians.

The Malinauskas Labor government has no plan to ensure electricity is affordable and reliable here in South Australia, and families and businesses are being overwhelmed. Instead of focusing on plans to bring down power bills, we know that the Malinauskas Labor government is on track to spend $700 million on their hydrogen plans, which they have admitted will not reduce power bills for South Australian households.

We have recently learned that the Premier's signature hydrogen project is in disarray after it was revealed by the opposition that the government has put out a tender to truck in massive amounts of gas for up to two years. How much gas? The tender asks for four hours of gas per day, 7.2 terajoules, with an annual supply of 1,100 terajoules of gas to the Labor government's expensive hydrogen plant.

What is worse is that rather than supply our gas through reliable pipelines, it is going to have to be trucked in by a fleet of diesel-powered B-double trucks from another location. The government is refusing to reveal how many B-double trucks will be required. Depending on their capacity, it could be 30 trucks, it could be 50 trucks—who knows—it could be 100 B-double trucks a day coming along. It is absolutely shocking.

South Australians were never promised this, and this government is now having to rewrite history. It started out saying it is going to run on 100 per cent hydrogen 'but we might need a little bit of gas just to start it'—but now they need four hours of gas a day. The back-pedalling and the cover-up for this hydrogen hoax has just begun. Now they have said, 'We will also need it for commissioning and we will need it as backup.' It is clear that the government would not contract this amount of gas—1,100 terajoules a year—if they were confident in both the timing of the electrolyser coming online and also the amount of hydrogen that can be produced.

The fact that the Labor government is seeking up to two years' worth of gas supply surely means there is a delay in the procurement of these electrolysers. It also begs the question: how long are these delays going to take? How much will costs blow out? It really speaks to their lack of confidence in being able to produce the required amount of hydrogen to power these turbines within the first two years.

We know worldwide that the cost of electrolysers has increased significantly since Labor's hydrogen policy was announced in 2021. Just last month, we saw Origin Energy abandon its hydrogen venture in the Hunter Valley shortly after Fortescue had done theirs. That is because the economics of clean hydrogen projects increasingly fail to stack up.

South Australian families and small businesses are paying the highest power bills on record, and now the AER has revealed our wholesale power prices have surged by 35 per cent, despite what the minister said in question time today. The Premier has promised a green hydrogen plant, but instead South Australians are going to be getting gas-powered turbines propped up by a fleet of diesel-fuelled B-double trucks. It is no wonder that South Australians are paying the highest power prices in the nation.