Grievance Debate

Hydrogen Power Plant

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:03): It is the beginning of the sitting year but for South Australians it is the beginning of the end of Labor's hydrogen taxpayer rip-off. The Labor government seems to live in a fantasy world where the economics of the real world simply does not apply. The Premier sold South Australia a lemon and now his merry men, the Minister for Energy and Mining and the Treasurer, are running interference, desperately trying to manage this crisis that they have created. Do not be fooled by their attempts to blame shift. They are excellent at the PR, but they are meant to be governing this state.

This week in parliament, under opposition questioning, yet another Labor project lies in ruins—another key election promise absolutely shattered. Let's remind the Premier and his team of what they actually promised in their Hydrogen Jobs Plan. They said a Malinauskas Labor government will build 250 megawatts of hydrogen electrolysers, one of the world's largest hydrogen electrolyser facilities. They said that they would build one of the world's largest hydrogen power stations and they said South Australia's hydrogen plant will reduce the wholesale cost of electricity to industry by 8 per cent.

We know that Labor is great at announcements, but in government even better at spending taxpayers' money—$100 million and more in government advertising—but the problem is that they just cannot deliver on their promises. They love the headlines, they love the lights, they love the celebrity appearances and the international trips, but when things get tough they fall a bit short.

What I can say to you is when the Premier next week is at LIV Golf, I will be in the Spencer Gulf. When the Premier is at the party hole, I will be at the front bar in Whyalla, talking to workers. Next week, when the Premier is rubbing elbows at LIV Golf I will be visiting the hardworking men and women at the Spencer Gulf where the hydrogen plant, unfortunately, remains a distant dream—a distant dream—because we know that it will not be operational as was promised by 2025, and we know electricity costs have not dropped as promised. It is a complete panacea, a complete mirage; exactly right.

Once again, it is the people of South Australia who will bear the cost of Labor's incompetence. The Premier and his ministers are now in crisis mode because they failed to deliver, and the truth is they are hiding from accountability. Today was one of the most pathetic sets of question time answers that I have heard, and they are better than that.

Under questioning this week, the Premier admitted that the owner of the steelworks is now tens of millions of dollars in arrears to the state. How many times have we asked that question? Multiple times, in this place and outside of this place, and it has taken this amount of questioning to finally get that answer. The opposition's relentless questioning is the only reason that these revelations are now coming to light.

The cracks in Labor's hydrogen scheme are there for all to see. The Queensland government has walked away from it. Fortescue has walked away from it. Origin Energy has walked away from it. What does this Premier know about hydrogen that these other organisations and people do not? We know South Australians are paying some of the highest electricity prices globally, while families and small businesses bear the brunt of Labor's incompetence.

Rather than finding a solution, the Premier is now simply, as he always does, shifting the goalposts. They have shifted the goalposts when it comes to ramping, because they could not deliver on their promise, and now they are doing it with respect to hydrogen. Do they think people are stupid? Do they really think that people are stupid? We know that they promised to fix ramping. They said, 'Vote Labor like your life depends on it.' What have we seen? Thirty-one months of the worst ramping in state history. They set the test, and they are failing the test. Here again, they have set a test and they are failing this test.

This week, we learnt also that the new Women's and Children's Hospital has been without a project manager for several months—yet another project teetering on blowouts and failure. Where is the leadership? Where is the accountability? Now we have a Premier who has the audacity to effectively pause the hydrogen project, offering no guarantees that it will ever be delivered.

South Australians deserve more than a billion-dollar vanity project on the brink perhaps of collapse. They deserve a government that can deliver. It was the Premier, formerly the leader of the opposition, who said—his own words—'South Australians expect a leader that they can believe and trust will do everything he said they're going to do.'

What it looks like is just another line from just another politician. Meanwhile, the Treasurer, also the part-time police minister, continues to show how incapable this government is of addressing South Australia's real issues.

Mr Brown: He's still doing a better job than when you were police minister.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: I would have made you a minister, mate. Just relax. I would have made you a minister. Just relax. Make no mistake—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey can leave the chamber for an hour.

The honourable member for Florey having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: I would have made him a minister, sir. I do not know why he is so upset. Make no mistake, the opposition will continue to hold this government to account every day for every South Australian, until we get a government that can actually deliver.