Power Prices

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:21): My question is to the Premier. Have household power prices in South Australia increased by 43 per cent in the last four years? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: South Australians have paid the highest power bills on record under the Malinauskas Labor government, according to the independent Essential Services Commission of South Australia's annual energy retail offer market comparison report.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:22): I welcome the shadow minister's question. I was actually asking for some data regarding yesterday's CPI numbers. We saw CPI numbers come out federally that raised concerns regarding inflation, for reasons that are worthy of note to anyone who would like to see further rate cuts for the benefit of home owners or mortgage holders throughout the state, so this is naturally something to pay a bit of attention to.

What the government looks at, at a state level, is how we are performing when it comes to these numbers in regard to the rest of the country. On that score, we actually did see that CPI in South Australia, or in Adelaide, was below the national rate and certainly below cities like Brisbane, Perth and Hobart: where they are above the national average, we are below it.

But, importantly, you can actually get the data broken down for the percentage change year on year to the October period, and I was particularly interested in how we are going on the costs that everyday South Australians have to account for when they do their household budgets, as an indicator of living standards. I am pleased that, when it comes to utilities in South Australia versus the national rate, there was a differential of 6.8 percentage points lower in South Australia, which is good news. It is also true for water and sewerage: notwithstanding our big investments in water infrastructure, we are below the national average there to the tune of 2.3 per cent.

In terms of electricity, which goes specifically to the shadow minister's question, the differential is a bit over 17 per cent, so the increases in South Australia are approximately 17 per cent lower in comparison to the national average. Similarly, transport costs are two percentage points lower than what is the case nationally. Education costs in South Australia are also below the national average, to the tune of at least one percentage point, and it's similar with insurance and financial services. When you add all that up, it actually means that our CPI growth in Adelaide is less than what is the case in the rest of the country. We monitor these numbers, we look at them and we look at them closely. But the shadow minister quite reasonably asked about what's happening to electricity costs in South Australia, particularly relative to the rest of the country, and I can report that our electricity costs—

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —you asked about electricity costs—are increasing at a far lower rate than what is the case around the rest of the country. There's a range of contributing factors to those numbers. I am not saying those numbers are positive, because we would prefer it wasn't going up, but I am pleased to say it's positive relative to the rest of the country, which is a good thing. As we see the changing nature of our energy market here in South Australia, as we get closer and closer to being at 100 per cent net renewable energy, provided we have an appropriate firming service coming from natural gas—if we have natural gas firming, where natural gas prices are hopefully coming down—combined with growth renewables, that's what sets the conditions for the market to start to function more adequately.

What we don't want to see happening to the generation market around the country is undersupply, and undersupply happens when there's a lack of investment certainty. There's a lack of investment certainty if people keep changing the rules, which is what your mob is so determined to do in Canberra. Having said that, I do note and welcome that the shadow minister for energy is an outspoken supporter of net zero being the shadow minister for net zero, so presumably he will take on his federal colleagues accordingly.