Renewable Energy

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:05): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change. Will the minister update the chamber on how South Australia is leading the nation on renewable energy and why this is important to tackle climate change?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for his important question. All honourable members might recall that I have spoken previously in this place about the important role the electricity sector has in helping to meet the Australian government's Paris climate change commitments; in fact, it was just this week, so I hope they do. Here in South Australia, we know that climate change is real and, of course, this government is taking it very seriously indeed.

When it comes to transitioning to a low-carbon economy, South Australia is leading the way. We have more renewable energy than any other mainland state, currently sitting around just under the 50 per cent target. You will remember, of course, that we have set ourselves the 50 per cent renewable target to come through by 2025 and we are just sitting under it at the moment. We are building Australia's first solar thermal power plant and helping to repower Port Augusta's economy along the way.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: You're building it? I didn't think you were building it.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, we are underpinning it with our state government's electricity purchase, the Hon. Mr Ridgway—something that has probably never occurred to you because all you do with power plants is sell them off. That's all you do—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: You blow them up.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —you sell them off. What we do, of course, is we use our SMART policy as a government to underpin new infrastructure in this state and we are using the government's electricity purchase to make this project become a reality.

We are also building the world's biggest battery. Last week, I understand the Tesla battery began testing ahead of its 1 December operational deadline, an achievement that made headlines around the world. What we are doing here in South Australia is in fact world-leading and the world is taking notice. Around the world, governments are recognising the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and they are watching what we are doing here in South Australia very closely.

Late last month, the Italian government began consultations on a new energy policy, as I understand it. At the heart of this policy was a commitment to phase out coal-fired power stations. We also had reports last week of two British energy companies asking the UK conservative government to increase the carbon tax to help increase cleaner forms of energy and phase out coal-fired power stations. That is a conservative government in the United Kingdom.

Then, of course, there is the Dutch government that have committed to shutting down all coal-fired power stations by 2030, and the newly elected New Zealand Labor government has started. It will strengthen their existing emissions trading scheme and adopt a zero-emissions target by 2050, Mr President. That might sound very familiar to you. It is a target that matches our state's target and a target that matches the states of New South Wales and Tasmania as well, as you undoubtedly know, led by Liberal governments.

Clearly, there is a trend emerging around the world: coal is out and renewable energy is in. It is not an ideologically-driven process around the world or, indeed, in most states of Australia, but it is for the state Liberal Party here in South Australia and it is for the commonwealth government, the federal Liberal National Party. Germany has a stated ambition for 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, Denmark is aiming for this by 2020, and Swedes think they can get to 63 per cent by the end of this decade. So, they all think we can do it. The only people who disagree are the Liberal Party in South Australia.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Will the Leader of the Opposition please desist and allow the minister to finish his answer.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They squeal as loud as they can, but the facts tell the story. People around the world are transitioning their electricity sectors to renewables, and the only people we know of who oppose it are the Liberal Party in South Australia and the Liberal Party at a national level. We remember from earlier this week that I said that the electricity sector accounts for almost one-third of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. We know that, by forging ahead and developing our own low-carbon economy, South Australia will create jobs, grow that economy and help kickstart new industries.

Last week, the Climate Council of Australia released a report called 'Renewable energy jobs: future growth in Australia' that demonstrated exactly this. The report showed that over 2,000 jobs in South Australia's renewable energy industry could be in jeopardy because of the Turnbull government's NEG thought bubble and they will be in jeopardy because of this state Liberal opposition's slavish connection to the federal government. It is like they have an umbilical cord and they can't even come up with their own energy policy. This state Liberal opposition's energy policy is simply to hand over all responsibility to the federal government. That is their only energy policy. That's all they have.

We should not forget that the Hon. Steven Marshall, the member for Dunstan, signed up to the NEG before he even saw any of the details. It was a thought bubble that the federal Liberals led. Josh Frydenberg was out there thinking about this off the top of his head, and Steven Marshall ran outside and said, 'Yep, we'll sign up to that. We're in for it.' He didn't even have any of the modelling. Why didn't he have any of the modelling? Because there was none presented to anybody. The modelling wasn't even presented when this was thought of and Frydenberg was out there in the media extolling the virtues of NEG. Steven Marshall, the member for Dunstan—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order.

The PRESIDENT: The minister will take a seat. Point of order.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: The minister should refer to a minister of the federal government by his proper title and he knows that.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, you should refer to people by their proper title but also the Leader of the Opposition should show respect in his own position by desisting in interjecting while the minister—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I was just trying to inform the minister about the app.

The PRESIDENT: That is of no interest to me at all. My interest is in making sure that as many questions are asked in this session—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: He would have been finished 10 minutes ago if you weren't interjecting. Minister, will you please hurry up and finish your answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. Those opposite are saying no to jobs in South Australia and yes to big power companies having a higher concentration of the power market in this state, which is all they care about, of course, because we all know that they only represent big business. That is all they know how to do—slavishly signing up to big business and big banks. That is the Liberal Party scheme for South Australia. What we look at is the expert advice. The expert advice from climate change scientists, energy policy experts and leading economists from around the world is that renewable energy is integral to fighting climate change, growing our economy at the same time and preparing for a carbon-constrained future.

Last week, right here in Adelaide, the South Australian government brought together climate change and energy leaders from around the country, including economist Professor Ross Garnaut AC, Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie, Smart Energy Council CEO, John Grimes, and Patrick Matweew of Redback Technologies, to push for our national energy policy, which rejects coal and delivers clean, affordable, reliable energy and creates jobs.

Once again, South Australia is leading the way in this energy policy debate by bringing together these leaders to discuss the importance of a national energy policy which recognises that renewable energy is our future. Around the room, there were many who were concerned about any proposed national energy policy that prioritises coal and punishes renewable energy, creating a duopoly in the energy sector. The Turnbull government's proposed NEG policy will reduce competition in the energy market, favouring big energy companies and pushing smaller renewable energy companies out.

The federal government continues to ignore expert advice and pursue a policy that will lose jobs—our jobs that are coming along with all the projects in the pipeline now—put upward pressure on power prices, of course, and increase carbon emissions compared with an increased renewable energy mix. Meanwhile, here in South Australia, we are standing up for our state. We are standing up for South Australians and we know that they agree with us that we must transition to a low-carbon economy.

In March this year, the state government released its energy plan, South Australian Power for South Australians, which supports renewable energy technologies and South Australian gas. Since then, South Australia's wholesale prices have fallen, with prices projected to continue to fall. Mr Elon Musk said on Sunday 29 October that:

People in Australia should be proud of the fact that Australia has the world's biggest battery.

This is pretty great. It is an inspiration and it will serve to say to the whole world that it is possible.

He is right, Mr President. Instead of being proud of it, of course, all we hear from the Liberals is criticism. That is all they have: negativity and criticism. But then what do we expect from a party that has opposed almost everything that we have tried to do in this state? They opposed the tramlines going in. They opposed the oval being redeveloped. There is not one positive thing that has happened in this state that the Liberals have not gone out with pleasure and glee to oppose, to criticise and to run down.

You can't have a serious energy policy until you turn your back on coal, until you embrace what Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, signed up to in Paris at COP 21, which is the emissions reduction schedule that we have to deliver if we are to keep global warming to below 2º. You can't do it by opening new coalmines. You can't do it by embracing coal as a future for our energy sector and not having a solution for all of the work that you push to the other sectors of the economy, as I discussed earlier this week.

That means that you are going to make agriculture pick up the slack and cost farmers. That means that you are going to make manufacturing pick up the slack, and you are going to put that cost on to workers. That means that you are going to make transport industries around the country pick up that slack, and that means jobs and higher costs.

I have to say that the Liberals are out there with a very brave plan, not one that they worked out themselves, just one they signed up to when Josh Frydenberg—I don't know how you say Minister for the Environment in Hungarian—comes out with a thought bubble without releasing the modelling behind it, and the member for Dunstan runs out to the media quickly and says, 'Yes, we're signing up for it.' Having not seen the modelling, having not done his due diligence about what the impact will be on our state—and it is pretty dire—he said, 'Yes, I'm up for it and, by the way, we are still handing over our RETs to the commonwealth. We are getting rid of our renewable energy targets that the South Australian Labor government has put in place, and we are giving all of that control to the federal government,' who don't even believe in one.

Don't take my word for it, let me read briefly onto the record a few pertinent comments about why South Australia must and will lead the world on renewables. This article states:

When Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk held a party in late September to celebrate a connection agreement for the already half complete Tesla big battery in South Australia, and declared the installation to be 'not just talk but reality', the timing would not have been lost on premier Jay Weatherill.

It was a year and a day after the state-wide blackout that put the whole idea of turning the state into a renewable energy laboratory into question. It was painted as a black day for wind and solar, but it turned out to be a reality check about Australia's ageing and dysfunctional [energy] grid.

On Friday, at the start of what could be a long, hot summer, Weatherill and energy minister Tom Koutsantonis will preside over the official opening of the world's biggest lithium-ion battery, and they are not backing off or slowing down.

Indeed, we are not, Mr President. The quote continues:

When they say they intend to make the state 'self sufficient' in energy, and even promise to 'go it alone', they are not kidding.

While the long-term renewable energy transformation is stalled at federal level by ideology, ignorance and plain bloody-mindedness, Weatherill and Koutsantonis are going hard into the future that may not have seemed so easy to grasp when the lights went out last year.

I don't use their titles, Mr President, because I am directly quoting from this article. It goes on:

What is clear now is that, having got to 50 per cent wind and solar, nearly a decade before they intended, it would be too late to turn back now. It would leave a project half baked, and allow the major generators to continue to extract their oligopoly rents, and consumers to suffer.

That is what the Liberals want to sign up to—huge concentrated power of the very few generators and retailers we have in this state—and South Australian consumers will suffer under the Liberal Party in this state. The article continues:

The Weatherill and Koutsantonis strategy is to embrace new technologies, cheap wind and solar and storage, smart software and smarter management, and put into practice the sort of scenarios envisaged by the CSIRO, Energy Networks Australia and more recently by the storage review commissioned by chief scientist Alan Finkel.

And the formal opening of the world's biggest lithium ion battery into the world's most elongated grid, in the state with the highest penetration of wind and solar, is the start of a whole series of ground-breaking and world-leading projects coming in the next few years.

The Tesla battery will be quickly followed by two more—at the Wattle Point wind farm…and Lincoln Gap wind farm…

And on Wednesday, as we report here, South Australia announced funding for four 'next wave' storage projects including lithium-ion and flow batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, thermal storage and a range of concepts and applications.

Then there is Australia's first large-scale solar tower and molten salt facility to be built near Port Augusta, the site of the last coal-fired power station, accompanied by what could be the country's biggest wind-solar hybrid project with battery storage added.

Even more dramatic is the decision by the new owners of the Whyalla steelworks to build up to 1GW of solar, battery storage, pumped hydro and demand management to slash their costs and turn the argument that you can't power heavy industry with renewables on its head.

Elsewhere, there are another two pumped hydro storage proposals, any number of new solar projects—both big and small—and other ambitious but less certain projects such as Lyon Group's solar and storage facilities.

ElectraNet, the state's major transmission line, estimates there are already 650MW of what they consider 'committed' wind and solar projects to add to the 1800MW of large-scale solar, and the rapidly growing rooftop solar PV capacity (already at 730MW and growing at 100MW a year).

It seems hardly fazed by the inferred jump in renewable share towards 70 per cent of local demand within the next five years. In fact, if you add in Whyalla, Aurora and DP Energy, then the amount of wind and solar is likely to be at least doubled in the next five years.

And nor is the Australian Energy Market Operator overly fazed. Cautious yes, and since the blackout it has had reason for a wholesale rethink about its own practices and the way it manages the grid. What was ignored in the blackouts (preventative action like dialling down the interconnector, putting plants on standby, reading weather reports) is now standard practice when a potential threat emerges.

And for all the hand wringing about the impact of wind and solar—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: A point of order.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, a point of order.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: The minister's current answer has been going for more than a quarter of a hour, and I ask you to instruct him to cease.

The PRESIDENT: It is getting a bit longwinded, this answer, minister. Can you please get to the end of it, so we can get one more question in.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. The bottom line is, and there is more that I need to say about South Australia's record in this space, it is something to be proud of.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: It's just terrible.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Something to be proud of. The Hon. John Dawkins thinks it's terrible, because the Liberals have absolutely no commitment to renewables in this place, no commitment to an energy plan of any sort.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: What remains to be seen is this: we, the Labor government in South Australia, have a plan to own our own energy generator. We have a plan to become self-sufficient in South Australia in energy, which we have not been since the Hon. Mr Lucas sold our electricity assets. We have been out of the market with no control whatsoever, and now we are back in the game. We have a state-owned energy plant. We will become self sufficient, and not have to rely on anybody else, and we are doing that because: (a) it is great for the environment; (b) it helps us get to our Paris goals; and, (c) it is cheaper—it will be cheaper for South Australians.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Michelle Lensink pretends she doesn't know—and of course she does—that these modern generators actually have a lower emissions profile than the ones we have out at Torrens Island. She pretends she doesn't know it. When they are hooked up to the gas system, they will have an even lower emissions profile. She is pretending again that she doesn't know it, but that is the truth.

The people on the opposite side have no energy plan, no plan other than privatisation. That's all they've got—one trick ponies. We on this side don't agree. We believe South Australians need South Australian energy, so we are self-sufficient, not relying on the Eastern States. In fact, our plan is to become energy exporters, and as we get further involved in the hydrogen fuel cycle, as we produce hydrogen, when energy is cheap and we can store it, it will become a major export market for us, and certainly it will give us back some solid power backup, should we ever need it.

I have to say that, on this side, energy sufficiency, cheaper prices for South Australians is what we are delivering, and a state public power generator. Once again, a state public power generator, which we hope the Liberals never, ever get a chance to privatise, because we know what their record is on this: flog off an electricity system to their mates at a price that will end up hurting all of us. I have to say that the record is long and we are very proud of it.

The PRESIDENT: I want the Hon. Mr John Darley to have a question. There's one minute to go. You've given a good explanation and a good answer to the question. I would like you to sit down so I can get one more question in.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: All I've got to say to the Liberals is: welcome to the 21^st century. We'll be running it for the state's benefit with our own state-owned electricity system, where we have self-sufficiency.