Hydrogen Power Plant

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My question again is to the Premier. How many jobs will be lost or foregone after the government abandoned its flagship hydrogen power plant? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The Labor Party's election commitment document says that a hydrogen power plant would deliver thousands of jobs for South Australians.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:35): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, particularly in regard to the fact that it speaks to jobs in the Upper Spencer Gulf, jobs in Whyalla. I think we know all too well just how committed this side of the house is to jobs in Whyalla, because there is no bigger employer in the Upper Spencer Gulf than steel production. Steel production is the backbone of employment throughout the Upper Spencer Gulf, particularly in Whyalla and, of course, it goes around to Port Augusta, as the member for Frome or member for Stuart knows all too well, and right around to Port Pirie.

The steelworks in and of itself employs well over 1,000 people directly, and then many, many thousands beyond that, and this government made unapologetically the difficult decision to zero in on the protection of the steelworks so that indeed at one point in the future there may well be demand for hydrogen and for industrial consumption and a decarbonisation.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader.

Mr TEAGUE: I am conscious he is only a minute in, but he seems to have misheard the question or is deliberately avoiding it. The question was about jobs lost as a result of the abandonment of the flagship hydrogen power plant. The Premier has been hopping into the Whyalla Steelworks. The question is about the hydrogen power plant.

The SPEAKER: The Premier has four minutes on the clock with three to go.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The only jobs that will be lost as a result of the government's decision, to go directly to the heart of the Leader of the Opposition's question, will be the jobs that we are curtailing from the Office of Hydrogen Power as we seek to realign that piece of work and put much of it back. I want to say that as far as that effort is concerned, the calibre of the people who work within the Office of Hydrogen Power lends itself to almost all of those people being redeployed in other roles within the government.

So the answer to the Leader of the Opposition is that what we are working towards achieving, and we believe have already got in train, isn't just the stabilisation of economic policy in the Upper Spencer Gulf but actually growing the employment base up there into the long term, and the best way to do that is to lock in production not just at the steelworks but also at the associated mines where we know there is so much potential.

This government, as distinct from others who have a policy to maybe have a policy one day, is actually doing the serious work, the serious work that actually underpins the decisions that were made by the government a couple of weeks ago to put the steelworks into administration. We know that to the extent—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that the Leader of the Opposition has had a policy in this area, at any point over the last month—

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order, sir: standing order 98. The question has two parts. The Premier has sort of answered the first bit about lost; foregone is the other one. The explanation with leave went to the thousands of jobs that were supposed to flow from this now forgotten flagship hydrogen power plant. He is not answering the question.

The SPEAKER: I don't uphold the point of order and I don't like you getting up making speeches. We want to listen to the Premier and his answer.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Thank you, Mr Speaker, because I have answered the question that the Leader of the Opposition asked, but more than that we need to talk about what is happening to jobs and the future of Whyalla. To the extent that the opposition has had any policy at all in this area over the course of last month was when the Leader of the Opposition after one meeting with Mr Gupta came out and said we should give him $50 million.

That is the policy that the Leader of the Opposition was advocating for, which of course could not be in starker contrast to the considered policy on this side of the house where we have put the business into administration, stabilised the business, refunded creditors for the debts they are owed, which we will talk about later on in question time, and then of course made sure that we are not just putting the business into administration but we actually have a plan to get it out of administration.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders! The deputy leader will come to order.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: There is a $1.9 billion package, predominantly funded by the commonwealth to the tune of $1.5 billion, to make sure there is an attractive offering to a future owner of the steelworks to make sure it can stand on its own two feet into the future.