Hydrogen Power Infrastructure

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:50): My question is again to the Premier. Has the Premier broken his promise to South Australians to purchase and operate hydrogen-powered turbines? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: The state government is currently privatising the turbines they purchased for the Hydrogen Jobs Plan at a further cost of $3.8 million.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:50): There's a slight contradiction in the question there. The first part of the question is, 'Have we broken our promise in not purchasing generators?', but then going on to explain that we own the generators and they are being sold. Whatever tactics are going on opposite when you are writing these questions, perhaps read the first part and the second part.

Did we break our election commitment to buy the turbines? Read the second part of your question. Of course we purchased the turbines, but what members opposite have done again is the last couple of weeks they have criticised us for impairments that the Auditor-General has brought up about there being this potential cost to the taxpayer, but of course the matter that the Auditor-General raised in Budget and Finance and in his report and what no-one has accounted for is the sale of the turbines. So now what he wants is his cake and he wants to eat it too. What he is now saying is, if we sell the turbines, they can't run around during the election campaign and say we have wasted money.

Obviously, what we are doing is that the disposal process of the turbines would see the turbines operate here in South Australia, and by operating here in South Australia it gives us the opportunity to recover that money because we want to invest in Whyalla. There is over $2 billion that is on offer for potential bidders to recapitalise Whyalla. That recapitalisation could include an electric arc furnace, it could include a direct iron reduction facility, it would need more gas, something that members opposite are opposed to. Whenever they get a chance to vote against it, they do, and they vote against gas, but then they complain about there not being enough gas in the state and gas being too expensive.

So we have all these contradictions about the questions that they ask us. On one hand, 'Have you bought the generators?' Yes, we have. On the second hand they say, 'Well, why is there this impairment by the Auditor-General?' Of course, what we are doing is investing in Whyalla. We have suspended a project, taken the money from that project and put it into Whyalla. The reason we are doing that is because we want to save the jobs we have there now. I urge members opposite to go to Whyalla and ask the locals. Go to Whyalla and ask the locals whether or not we should have ticked the box on the commitment for the Hydrogen Jobs Plan and let all those jobs go in Whyalla.

I don't think you would find a person in Whyalla, other than the Liberal shadow minister visiting up there, who would have said we should have proceeded with the Hydrogen Jobs Plan and not invested in Whyalla. Of course we should have. But, if we had taken the advice of members opposite, we would be handing more public money over to Sanjeev Gupta, which would have been a disaster, an absolute disaster.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, the member for Chaffey is misleading the parliament.

Mr Whetstone: Come on! Just look at the facts on the table.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The facts on the table. It wasn't us who appointed Sanjeev Gupta, it was the four Australian banks you are so passionate about. It wasn't us. It wasn't the South Australian government that appointed Sanjeev Gupta owner of these things, it was the administrators on behalf of the banks that sold it to him. If you want to be the government of South Australia, the basic understanding of what occurred in Whyalla is important, so you are better off getting back on Instagram, going through the reels, getting your thrills and leave the governing to the grown-ups.