State Prosperity Project

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:30): My question is to the Premier. What impact will the government's shelving of its hydrogen power plant and closure of the Office of Hydrogen Power SA have on the State Prosperity Project?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:30): I thank the shadow Minister for his for his question. The state government's State Prosperity Project speaks to a number of objectives that we have economically for our state. We see there being a number of key pillars for economic advancement of the state.

The first obviously sits around all the opportunity that exists in the naval shipbuilding enterprise, the defence sector and the space sector more broadly. That is moving at a pretty good clip at the moment, and the Minister for Defence and Space Industries continues to look for more opportunities to grow and accelerate that every week.

With respect to one of the other key pillars, which we put under the banner of the State Prosperity Project, are all the opportunities that we see in and around the geographical area of the Upper Spencer Gulf, which I know both the member for Giles and the member for Stuart share a passion for in particular. In that area around the Upper Spencer Gulf, we see a number of things coming together at the same time.

We see one of the world's highest quality magnetite resources located in the area, one of the world's highest quality copper resources located in the area (69 per cent of the nation's copper)—and this is a particularly economic copper resource. Then, of course, we have a huge volume of land that is available with coincident solar and wind resources that allows for an expansion of the renewable energy sector. Then, of course, we have smelters in the area. In fact, there are three smelters in the area if you go up to OD, and then of course you've got Port Pirie and Whyalla, along with port infrastructure.

Our objective is to bring those things together and acknowledge that, in a world where there is a movement to decarbonise, because it is necessary, that represents an economic opportunity. Both in terms of green iron production and copper production, we know that there is demand that South Australia can meet at an economic price, potentially at a speed faster than we see anywhere else in the world, and our objective is to bring that together. Hydrogen can form part of that equation. If you speak to anybody who knows anything about how you produce green steel, it is almost certain that at some point into the future hydrogen will play a role, and we have aspirations for that.

What we have chosen to do is consistent with the best available economic advice that we have. The first thing you have to do is be able to prioritise the capacity in order to get to green iron. You want to be able to prioritise the capacity to produce it, and what is central to that in the South Australian context is the Whyalla Steelworks. So we have been very deliberate about making sure that, in order to generate all the prosperity that can be achieved out of those economic opportunities, we have a laser light focused on the preservation of the resources that we have in Whyalla, and then of course the enhancement from there.

That is why the government has made the decisions that we have. We have been very transparent about that. Our objectives are clear and we continue to pursue them. Value adding around copper production but also expanding copper production is why we continue to pursue the Northern Water project. Then, in terms of green iron, we obviously have now the stabilisation of the steelworks underway. In fact, already a lot has been achieved in that regard over the course of the last couple of months. The steelworks is performing far better right now than was the case even only a couple of months ago, which is a great testament to the workforce and also to KordaMentha's stewardship.

As KordaMentha have engaged with 333 Capital partners and continue to work closely with the state and the federal governments, we have the hope and ambition of finding new owners for the steelworks—the right new owners for the steelworks—to realise the transformation that will lead to green iron production. These things combined constitute the State Prosperity Project. We continue to pursue them because we have a long-term vision for the economy of our state.