Power Infrastructure

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:53): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment some questions about a power plan for South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Notwithstanding the repeat answer of the Minister for Environment and Climate Change just then, jobs are hugely important to South Australia, and wherever I have been in the last few months people are telling me that a significant negative to job creation is going to be exorbitant power prices that we are about to see over the summer period and into the foreseeable future, particularly with the imminent closure of Hazelwood in Victoria.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: My questions therefore to the minister are:

1. Does the minister agree that he has failed all South Australian businesses by ensuring they have the highest power prices in Australia?

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You did.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I am asking the minister. You have been in for a long time and you are responsible. You are guilty.

2. What is the power plan that the South Australian government has to restore confidence to the South Australian business sector?

3. When did the minister first become aware of the urgent need for a new interconnector, and what is the government doing about a new interconnector, given that many people knew that interconnector had to be started—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Brokenshire has the floor.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: —given that this government knew in 2002 they had to start planning for another interconnector?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his question and the opportunity to talk about who has failed South Australia in relation to power.

The PRESIDENT: Point of order.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Everyone knows who failed power delivery when it collapsed a few weeks ago. What I am asking is: who is going to fix the problem?

The PRESIDENT: Take your seat. The minister has the floor.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The minister has the floor. Minister, you can answer the question.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I thank the Hon. Robert Brokenshire for the opportunity to talk about who has failed South Australia in relation to power. As everyone knows, and as opinion polls have showed, it was the Hon. Robert Brokenshire and his mates at the time in the previous party he used to belong to—the South Australian Liberal Party—led by the Hon. Rob Lucas in terms of the privatisation of power. 'We blame the ETSA sale' screams The Advertiser headline.

I would challenge the Hon. Rob Lucas and the Hon. Robert Brokenshire—a cabinet member at the time, I believe, of the ETSA privatisation—to come and tell us if they ever did anything directly or indirectly to stop the interconnection with New South Wales to increase the sale they would get for ETSA, because the people of South Australia deserve to know. I would challenge them to put it on the record here, when they can have the opportunity to be found misleading parliament, and I would be very careful of the documents that are floating around at the time. We know at the time—

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: I have got them.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Yes, so has everyone else because, at the time, every minister was passing around cabinet documents. Every single minister was passing around cabinet documents to anyone they could find. I thank the Hon. Robert Brokenshire for talking about the failure of power in the state. It was the Hon. Robert Brokenshire and his mates at the time—the Hon. Rob Lucas—who comprehensively failed the people of South Australia, and the people of South Australia know it. In relation to some of his other questions, is there a plan? Of course there is a plan.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: We don't want any debates across the floor. The honourable Leader of the Opposition, don't use the President's dinner in any debate on this.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! No debating across the floor. Minister, get up and answer the question.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I think the honourable member referred to a power station closure. It is the Hazelwood power station that has been announced for closure next March. What this shows is we need to urgently fix the national energy market. We need a policy that is heading towards a clean energy production future; that is what South Australia has been calling for. I thank the Hon. Robert Brokenshire for, I gather, implicitly agreeing that we need a plan to move towards a national energy market that recognises renewables as an intrinsic part of that.