APY LANDS, ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE

The Hon. M. PARNELL (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation a question regarding power supply on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: As everyone now knows, on ABC radio yesterday the minister was discussing—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M. PARNELL: I will start again, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Are you happy with that answer—the Opposition is keen to make a joke of it.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: As everyone now knows, on ABC radio yesterday, the minister discussed the failure of market gardens to produce food on the APY lands, but during the interview a caller rang in, claiming that close to $1 million had been spent on a solar power facility at Watarru, and that in 2006 the:

...inverter which runs the solar power system exploded and I know that the money was brought in from FaHCSIA, which was basically after ATSIC...the money came in from FaHCSIA, went to the South Australian government in order to be able to fund the replacement of that inverter...nothing ever happened...it's still running on diesel to this day.

When questioned by Matthew Abraham about the lack of repair of the inverter, despite federal funds being made available, the minister replied:

I'm not aware of the federal government involvement...but I do know it's being run on diesel currently.

In fact, all the electricity supplied in the APY lands currently comes from diesel, and an extraordinary 3.75 million litres of diesel fuel is used each year to generate electricity for the APY, Maralinga and Yalata communities, and that is to service just 3,000 people. That figure was up from 3.5 million litres of diesel burnt in 2010-11. This is despite the licence granted by ESCOSA in June 2010 to then minister for Aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, Grace Portolesi, to generate and retail electricity for the APY, Maralinga and Yalata communities.

That licence described three solar facilities: a solar farm at Umuwa and solar voltaic fields in two smaller communities, being Watarru and Oak Valley. For reasons unknown, the minister's annual return to ESCOSA only listed diesel-generated electricity. On 14 February last year the licence was formally transferred to then minister for energy, the Hon. Michael O'Brien, and at the time the licence was also varied and the three solar facilities were removed from the licences list of generating plants.

While the government admitted in the middle of 2011 that the large sun farm at Umuwa was no longer operating, the government has not provided any explanation as to why the Watarru and Oak Valley generating plants have been taken out of the system. I would be sure that the minister would accept that, with the enormous technological improvements in solar generation and the rapidly decreasing costs of that technology, it is bizarre in the extreme that expensive fossil fuel generators continue to be used to supply all the power in one of the most sun-drenched places on the planet. My questions of the minister are:

1. Has the state government received federal funds to replace the inverter for the solar power system at Watarru and if so, why have the repairs not taken place?

2. Why were the Watarru and Oak Valley generating plants removed from the licence to generate and retail electricity for the APY, Maralinga and Yalata communities?

3. What is the annual cost for supplying these 3.75 million litres of diesel fuel to generate electricity on the APY, Maralinga and Yalata communities?

4. Will the minister commit to working with the Minister for Energy to urgently review electricity supply for remote Aboriginal communities to ensure a rapid transition away from costly fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable technologies?

The PRESIDENT: The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. I ask you to ignore the opinion in the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:00): Well, there is nothing left then. I thank the honourable member for his important question, but you have to be careful with these guys, because again—it is not quite verballing and I am sure a former lawyer would not do that to someone—he has coloured his interpretation of a report that was in the media yesterday with a particular position which I just reject. I will undertake to take his question to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy in another place and I will seek a response on his behalf.