Energy Generators

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:05): My question is to the Premier. Will the gas turbines continue to be located in Whyalla at the current site?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:05): Probably not. What we will do is—I am very concerned about the market concentration in the state of gentailers. What is a gentailer? A gentailer is someone who generates electricity and also retails it. Basically four gentailers have about, I think, 67 to 75 per cent market share in this state and there are a number of other retailers who are offering markets on the back of wholesale prices and renewable energy and they are hedging. What we need is another competitor.

The folly that the previous government made when they privatised the state backup generators is they were sold to tolling rather than to someone who was actually going to be offering market contracts. What we need is a retailer. Someone who is going to come out and say, 'Hey, AGL customer, join us. Hey, Origin customer, join us,' and they need to be able to have power to backup those contracts. What we will be doing is going out to the market, having a process that cabinet will decide on, to have these generators in the system very, very quickly. The beauty of our generators is that they are already being constructed. We are ahead of the queue.

There are a number of people who are looking at purchasing exactly the same generators that we have. The beauty of our generators is that they are now ready to operate on hydrogen immediately and gas. The beauty of that is that these generators can be put anywhere. We will look to the market to make sure that there is a criterion in place that we will set, and that criterion will be: you can't be an existing gentailer, you must be a participant in the South Australian market and the generators must be used here in this state.

That is a good outcome for the people of South Australia. There is one last very important criterion: we will get all of our money back, if not more, and that money is going to Whyalla to support the people of Whyalla. I have got to say: do you know what the overwhelming theme was in Whyalla? The overwhelming theme other than relief, was, 'Thank God you guys won the last election. Imagine if it was them.'