State Prosperity Project

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:20): It is just over a year since the Malinauskas Labor government launched the State Prosperity Project, a name that would sit comfortably with any other Stalinist era propaganda slogans. The State Prosperity Project promised to 'unlock a new kind of power' and the plan was to implement a process which was very inefficient, very energy intensive, where it converted electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity. This was based on the Premier's flagship election promise, his $600 million Hydrogen Jobs Plan—another propaganda-laced slogan.

The launch was accompanied by an advertising blitz. Millions of dollars were spent advertising this State Prosperity Project, with advertising in the form of tram wraps, full-page spreads, online advertising, and even beer coasters and bar runners for those at the pubs. As well, the Office of Hydrogen Power set up a shop in Whyalla at the shopping centre. The windows were wrapped in the State Prosperity Project's livery of green and gold, and they espoused—this one window especially espoused how hydrogen Power SA is going to 'power new opportunities for Whyalla'.

So a year on, let us just ask: how is the State Prosperity Project going? The State Prosperity Project is in disarray, with key projects in the Upper Spencer Gulf either shelved or under a cloud. Of course, we have the Hydrogen Jobs Plan. That has been shelved and revealed as a hydrogen hoax. All five of the Premier's main promises associated with that were broken well before the crisis at Whyalla unfolded and it was used as a scapegoat by this Premier.

We know the hydrogen project's costs were soaring past $1 billion. It was not going to bring down prices for households. And now today we find out that the Office of Hydrogen Power SA has been closed down. This was the only energy and economic policy the Malinauskas Labor government took to the election.

At the same time the green steel transition has been shelved. The Premier has been forced to publicly concede green steel is more than a decade away and, in fact, any transition needs to first use gas. We have the Northern Water project and that is plagued with issues. We had the resignation of the chief executive and a massive staff turnover. There is the indecision around the location of the desalination plant, whether it is at Cape Hardy, or is it at Mullaquana? We have potential price escalations now above the $5 billion price estimate, and then today we find out that the Office of Northern Water Delivery has been shut down.

We have the Whyalla Steelworks forced into administration and having to be bailed out with $2.4 billion of taxpayer money. We have got the second out of three major smelters in South Australia, Nyrstar's Port Pirie lead smelter, also in serious difficulty, facing an uncertain future and potentially needing a massive capital injection in the order of at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

And at a statewide level, under the Malinauskas Labor government, power bills for South Australian households and businesses have skyrocketed by 45 per cent and are the highest on record. This is no plan for prosperity. The only plan for prosperity, the only hydrogen job really, is the Office of Hydrogen Power's CEO on a nice $600,000 salary.

Of course, this State Prosperity Project was supposed to be a blueprint for our future. Instead, it really has become a symbol of broken promises and misplaced priorities, and for the past three years the government has been distracted by an energy and industrial policy heavily focused on green hydrogen, wasting over $100 million of taxpayer money in that time, chasing the Premier's green hydrogen dreams, that has resulted in no jobs.

This has left the state without a clear and effective plan to address its pressing energy and industrial challenges. Rather than a state economy flourishing from hard work and enterprise with private industry and small business leading the charge, instead the number of business insolvencies has doubled under the Malinauskas Labor government. The state's economy is now more dependent on taxpayer money and government projects. This is just unsustainable and is definitely not a viable path to prosperity.

A year on, that window pane in Whyalla no longer boasts about Hydrogen Power SA 'powering new opportunities in Whyalla'. It has been quietly replaced, covered over, airbrushed from history. With millions of dollars of taxpayer funds spent advertising the so-called State Prosperity Project, it has turned out to be Labor's state propaganda project.