Hydrogen Power Plant

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:33): My question is to the Premier. Will the government spend $600 million on a hydrogen power plant in Whyalla or will it spend it on other projects in Whyalla and, if so, what projects? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: On ABC radio yesterday, when asked what the $600 million would be used for, the Premier said:

I'll tell you what it will be used for—it'll be used for the expenditure [of] the economic opportunity in Whyalla.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:33): That's right. The idea is to ask questions to which you don't know the answer. You asked a question and then actually answered it in my opening remarks. I think it's pretty clear what we are committed to. I understand the opposition sees an opportunity in whatever form to pursue a political course of action. That is your prerogative and you will be judged on it accordingly.

I guess, from my perspective—and I don't say this flippantly and I hope this doesn't appear to be trite, but last week when I was up there with Eddie we were meeting people. These are really good people. They work exceptionally hard, whether they are in the steelworks or a contractor. I think all of us are concerned—and I know you are too—about these people and the circumstances they find themselves in.

I met with one gentleman, who obviously I can't name, who does contracting work for the steelworks and he is owed in excess of $700,000. He employs people and he has had to recently lay them off. When you spend time with people like that—and I have never run a family business; I have been witness to one but I have never run one myself—these people who work for him are obviously part of his family and he has had to let them go.

He was explaining to me the pain that that has imposed upon those families and even on himself as a result of having to make those decisions as a result of not being paid for work that he has done. He is someone who is paying his bills and paying his taxes and doing everything right, and now he is having to make these types of decisions.

Every deliberation that we make as a government, as we bear witness to what is unfolding in Whyalla, I think we have to be thinking about those people first more than anything else. The money that we have got in the budget—the $600-odd million we've got in the budget—we want to make sure that it's expended in a way that puts those people first, that realises the challenge that they are in but, more importantly, that the way that those people are going to be able to sustain their businesses in the future is that there is a serious plan in place in the context that matters most to realise the opportunity in Whyalla.

We know that hasn't changed; that is, the decarbonisation of ironmaking and steelmaking is the path forward for Whyalla's future, and we want to invest in that. Now, that plan is to invest into the Hydrogen Jobs Plan, one component of which is already essentially in train with the generators, but there is a live question about making sure that that money is expended in concert and in sequence to realising the opportunity.

If we are producing hydrogen and there isn't a customer at the steelworks for that hydrogen it begs the question, 'Is there a better way to sequence the program?' We want to make sure we get this right. You guys are going to do what you have to do, wailing about things and promises and so forth.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: And that's fine, you've got to do that. What I've got to do is make sure that the $600 million that the Treasurer has allocated in the budget to the good people of Whyalla, and the economic opportunities there, is spent in a way that gets the outcome that we all desire, which is the long-term sustainable future of Whyalla and the economy in the Upper Spencer Gulf, and that is exactly what we are going to do.