Motions

Power Outages

Adjourned debate on motion of the Hon. D.W. Ridgway:

1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into the statewide electricity blackout of Wednesday 28 September 2016 and subsequent power outages with particular reference to—

(a) causes of the blackout;

(b) delays in recovering electricity supply to all parts of the state;

(c) credible warnings of the potential for such an event;

(d) costs to households, businesses and the South Australian economy as a whole due to the blackout;

(e) lessons learnt from the blackout; and

(f) any other relevant matters.

2. That standing order 389 be so far suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only.

3. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.

4. That standing order 396 be suspended to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating.

(Continued from 19 October 2016.)

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (17:00): I will be brief as I have a pair from the whips to attend a very important function. I want to speak on behalf of Family First and advise the house that straight after looking at this and talking to constituents across many parts of the state and the metropolitan area, there is no doubt in my mind that we need to support this particular select committee, albeit that select committees have been very busy in the Legislative Council. I understand a number of them are coming to completion so there should be some time to free up to look at this very important issue.

I would not want to be too presumptuous, but I suggest that I would expect that there would be support for this select committee by the government as well, because it is important that we restore faith and confidence to the South Australian community. I say that after listening to a man for whom I have a lot of respect, former police commissioner Gary Burns. The role that the government has him doing is a different role to that which the Hon. David Ridgway, for most intents and purposes anyway, has proposed with this particular select committee.

There are lots of different figures floating around that as much as $100 million has been lost, and there are figures bigger than that. It is important that we get to the bottom of that. We have had warnings before that there was a lack of focus by this state government on base load power and interconnectors that they were advised to start work on soon after coming into government some 14 years ago. We also know that electricity costs in this state are the highest of any state in Australia and arguably one of the highest in the world. This is having an enormous impact on doing business in South Australia.

I declare my own interest and my family's interest as irrigators in the cost of electricity and how food producers, farmers and households are going to afford that. I invite the Hon. David Ridgway to confirm this when he summarises at the end, but I would assume that 'Any other relevant matters' would give us the flexibility to have a look at the reliability of electricity, the sustainability of electricity and also the exorbitant cost of electricity as it is all integrated with this specific point of the causes of the blackout, the delays in recovering electricity supply, warnings for the potential of such an event and the cost to households and businesses. I trust that there is flexibility in there for any other relevant matters. With those remarks, I believe that it can only be healthy to come out with an investigation into the problems that we have around electricity.

An honourable member: Healthy!

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: When I say 'healthy' I mean healthy from the point of view of the state's future, the interests of the state, learning from this mistake and seeing where we need to go as we move forward to get sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity so that we do not have this happen again. With those few words I support the Hon. David Ridgway's proposal.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (17:04): After listening to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire, I was very tempted to change the government's position, but I won't be. The government supports the establishment of the Legislative Council's select committee—you won us over, Brokey—into the system blackout event of the 28 September 2016. The government is resolutely committed to transparency in investigating the event and acknowledges that the select committee has the potential to address areas and possibly uncover findings that might not be made by the other inquiries into the event.

In addition to the select committee, the government also has confidence in the suite of independent inquiries that are now underway at a state and national level. I advise the council that there are seven separate inquiries operating independently of government into the system black event. As the operator of the National Electricity Market, the Australian Energy Market Operator is required to publish an incident report pursuant to clauses 4.8.15 and 3.14 of the National Electricity Rules. Their report will cover what happened, how it happened and what we should do about. it.

Members would likely already be aware that AEMO published a preliminary report into the system black event on 5 October 2016 and an update on 19 October 2016, which addresses the causes the event, restoration of the electricity supply and pre-event conditions and actions. AEMO advises that a detailed incident report could be expected to take up to six months, considering the complexities of the matters involved. However, AEMO indicates it will publish preliminary recommendations in December of this year. AEMO has significant experience and knowledge with respect to the electricity system and the government is of the view that a Legislative Council select committee will not find itself better placed than the market operator to determine a cause of the event.

The government has also ordered an independent inquiry, led by former South Australian police commissioner Mr Gary Burns, to review and investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident and consider the adequacy of the state's prevention, preparedness, response and recovery plans. The government is confident that this will capture the lessons learnt from the event. The independent electricity regulator, the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, will investigate all generators and network businesses they licensed to determine whether there were any compliance issues on 28 September 2016.

In accordance with state legislation, the technical regulator is also required to investigate into the interruptions. At a national level, the Australian Energy Regulator will be inquiring into whether regulated entities have complied with the rules during the system black event. An extraordinary meeting of the COAG Energy Council, held on 7 October 2016, discussed the event and energy ministers agreed to a wider independent review to take stock of the current state of the security and reliability of the NEM and provide advice to governments on a coordinated national reform blueprint.

The review will be led by Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel AO. The COAG Energy Council also agreed to direct the Australian Energy Market Commission to review the 28 September event in South Australia, building on the technical work currently being conducted by AEMO and the Australian Energy Regulator.

The government considers that these reviews will provide members with significant information on the cause of the event, lessons learned and any necessary actions. With the extensive body of investigative work already underway, the government views the select committee as potentially having an important complementary role that will further enhance public confidence into the processes inquiring into the event. The government supports the motion.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (17:08): The Greens, too, will be supporting this motion and we do so in a spirit of cooperation to try to make sure that important questions that flowed from the blackout on 28 September are answered, but also that the broader question of what the future of South Australia's energy mix should be is also addressed. Whilst I have some nervousness that the terms of reference might appear a little narrow, they do contain two terms of reference that give me some comfort.

One of them is that the committee is to look at lessons to be learned from the blackout and, finally, any other relevant matters. I think the inclusion of those two provisions does give this committee scope to look at broader issues than the simple finger-pointing that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the statewide blackout. On that basis, on the understanding that the terms of reference can be read to include some of the broader questions rather than the narrow ones, the Greens will be supporting it.

We had intended to seek the creation of an alternative select committee with slightly different terms of reference but, if this committee can do that work, that might not be necessary. We will always reserve the right to come back and look at whether another committee with different terms of reference might be better, but for now I am prepared to trust in the intelligence of those members who will be appointed to this committee to make sure that it is not too narrowly construed. However, I cannot let the moment pass without referring to some of the political reactions that took place immediately after the blackout. The two people that I would like to single out for special achievement awards are Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Hon. Barnaby Joyce.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: An unnamed honourable member interjects: 'I knew it.' I guess that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is a legend in certain circles. He is known for speaking his mind but, in this case, I have to say he was dead wrong. I will start with what the Prime Minister said on the day after the blackout. He said on Triple M radio (there were some quotes that were broadcast on other radio outlets as well):

I regret to say that a number of…state Labor governments have over the years set priorities and renewable targets that are extremely aggressive, extremely unrealistic and have paid little or no attention to energy security.

I will say that that is just rubbish. The idea of an extremely aggressive renewable energy target—as if it is something to be ashamed of, that people who have recognised the plight that the world's climate is in and have called for as rapid a shift as possible towards renewable energy—being somehow aggressive and therefore unreasonable is, I think, looking at this the wrong way. It also belies the fact that all of the evidence indicates that the primary cause of the blackout was meteorological events, including tornadoes.

The Deputy Prime Minister, just to give him his moment in the sun, criticised the state government as well. He criticised the state government for blaming the storm for the prolonged nature of the blackout. I will come to what the Bureau of Meteorology said in a minute, but Mr Joyce was reported as follows:

'It wasn't a hurricane. It was a severe thunderstorm. They've had severe thunderstorms before,' he said.

'But this idea that a storm caused the blackout. No rubbish, Sherlock, we got that part. But why couldn't you get the system up and running again?'

I think it was shameful that in the aftermath of the difficulties that all South Australians faced with their power going out, the first reaction of our Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister was to blame renewable energy. That was unfair, it was unreasonable, it was opportunistic. Let's have a look at what the Bureau of Meteorology said. They are the people who I trust when it comes to matters of weather. The Bureau of Meteorology said that it was 260 km/h winds that knocked down the network that led to the South Australian blackout. Referring to an article online, written by Giles Parkinson on 14 November, he says:

The Bureau of Meteorology says wind gusts up to 260km/h from a "supercell" thunderstorm and multiple tornadoes were recorded on September 28, destroying transmission towers and causing the state-wide blackout in South Australia.

The report from the BoM—which mapped the passage of storm and 7 tornadoes over critical network infrastructure—makes it clear that a freak weather event was responsible for the grid blackout, but it also raises questions about the actions of the Australian Energy Market Operator.

That is AEMO. It continues:

AEMO has attempted to shift the blame to wind energy for the blackout, but has conceded that it took no action to protect energy security as the storms rolled across the state.

In its report, BoM says it issued clear warnings of 'destructive winds' as well as heavy rainfall and large hailstones three times before the blackout, the first at 12.26pm in South Australia, the second at 2.10pm, and the third at 3.26pm. The blackout occurred at 3.38 pm.

Indeed, it had forecast a severe weather event two days earlier, given the extraordinary conditions that were developing. [The words used by the bureau were] 'Escalating confidence in the historical significance of the approaching weather system on Monday 26 September provided the SES a firm platform for pre-emptive activation strategies.'

But according to Mr Parkinson's article, AEMO did nothing and continued to run the interconnector at near full capacity and called for no contingency backup. There are other reports that refer to the weather conditions as being similar to Cyclone Tracy that destroyed Darwin, and they were nearly as high as Cyclone Yasi. They were the winds of 260 km/h.

I will not go any further into what the Bureau of Meteorology said because this committee has some work to do and, as I said, the Greens will support its establishment. I have offered to the mover to serve on the committee and I look forward to it being a genuine inquiry into how we can make sure that South Australia's electricity network is as robust as possible and as relevant as possible to a carbon-constrained future where, as a rich country, we need to play our part to reduce our carbon emissions.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (17:16): I rise to sum up this motion to establish a select committee. I thank the members for their contributions: the Hon. Robert Brokenshire, the Hon. John Gazzola and the Hon. Mark Parnell. The committee will deliberate on a whole range of issues around this blackout, but it is interesting to hear the Hon. Mark Parnell raise some comments about the Bureau of Meteorology. We talk about apportioning blame. I see the Treasurer, the Hon. Tom Koutsantonis, was very quick to put out a press release saying that of course it was the storm. The Bureau of Meteorology has found that super cell wind gusts of 260 km/h were the cause of the blackout.

Yet, I think there were previous reports to say that the wind farms shut down prior to those towers being blown down. Of course, we then know that the interconnector overloaded, it tripped and the rest is history. The Treasurer was very quick to try to jump in and say that the Bureau of Meteorology had established beyond doubt that it was the storm that blew the towers down, and that caused the blackout. Clearly, that is not the case, so there is still politicking from all sides about what was to blame.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The minister has started to interject. He thinks that these people on this side of the chamber are climate change sceptics and that we are not interested in renewable energy.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The only way my mother could put food on the table when she was first married was to use renewable energy. The only way we could generate electricity to the house was through our little 32-volt wind turbine; we had a windmill to pump water so that she could cook. So, when you think you have just arrived at the table on renewable energy, you are decades late to the table when it comes to renewable energy.

We can have those debates about what was to blame. I was interested to know that the Hon. Mark Parnell talked about the wind gusts being as high as Cyclone Yasi, or maybe not quite as high, but when Cyclone Yasi went through Queensland, Brisbane did not lose its electricity. I think they are some of the issues I want to explore. How have we let our network get to the point where we have a very strong storm event, a super cell—whatever you like to call it, a mini tornado or cyclone—and yet our network has failed because of it.

I think that is the key. We have 41 per cent of our energy needs now from renewable energy. I do not think there is anybody who does not think that renewable energy is a good thing to aspire to, but has that led to a network that is vulnerable when we have storm events and therefore leaves the rest of the country or the rest of the state exposed?

The Port Augusta power station has closed; it no longer operates. Had that still been operating, I would be very keen to look at whether the system would have still worked. We have four transmission lines to Port Augusta: three blew down and one was still standing. If we had a base load generator in the north of the state, would that have kept the lights on?

The Hon. Robert Brokenshire talks about losses. As a state, I think we generate around $400 million worth of products and services a day. Statewide, we probably did not lose a whole day, but certain parts of the state were off for significant periods of time, such as Whyalla, Nyrstar at Port Pirie, Olympic Dam and Eyre Peninsula. There are a whole range of things that happened and I think the role of this committee is to get a bit of an understanding and to make sure that these sorts of things do not happen again.

Clearly, the Chief Scientist, Dr Finkel, is doing a study into the future and what the network should look like. We will all be interested in that because we cannot afford to just say, 'Oh well, this was a freak bit of nature and it won't happen again.' We have no base load generation in South Australia and we have a large proportion of renewable energy. There is discussion around the interconnectors, and two or three have been floated worth billions of dollars, which is a possible solution. I think that is where the Chief Scientist's report will come in. However, as members of parliament, we have a responsibility not to—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: To put out cheap press releases.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I haven't put out any—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: All of your press releases are cheap.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The minister wants to interject; it's been a bit cheap, some of his interjections. At the end of the day, the government of the day, the citizens of South Australia and businesses need to have confidence that we have a network that is affordable, reliable and, of course, everybody wants it to be as green and free of pollution as possible. However, at the end of the day, if you want investment in this state, we need to have a network that is reliable, above all else, and that is also as affordable as possible.

This probably is not part of the select committee's remit, although I know both the Hon. Robert Brokenshire and the Hon. Mark Parnell want to delve off into the 'any other relevant matters', but if we are in a national space, we do have to be competitive with the other states. If we are in a national electricity market—okay, WA is not in the market, but the rest are—at some point this nation has to grapple with how it is that we can have players in the market where one is significantly more expensive than the others.

This select committee maybe presents an opportunity to address that so that we can have a better look at what we need to do going forward about planning. As much as the Hon. Mark Parnell loves wind power, he thought it was a poor approach when we had the ministerial DPA for wind farms. There was no evidence that we needed to take away appeal rights, but the government of the day decided they did need to. There has been a whole range of activities that have gone on. I am hopeful that the select committee will look at all those issues. With those few words, I thank all members for supporting the select committee.

Motion carried.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I move:

That the select committee consist of the Hon. G.E. Gago, the Hon. M.C. Parnell, the Hon. T.J. Stephens, the Hon. R.L. Brokenshire and the mover.

Motion carried.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I move:

That the select committee have the power to send for persons, papers and records, to adjourn from place to place and to report on 30 November 2016.

Motion carried.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!