Renewable Energy

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer in relation to the ministerial statement he made just earlier.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: The minister just a short while ago read out and distributed in this chamber a ministerial statement on massive cost increases under the Labor government electricity deal. In that statement he describes how, in his opinion, the previous government mismanaged the contract for providing electricity for the South Australian government. He says in the statement:

As a result of this agreement, from 2020 the state government will source its electricity via a Generation Project Agreement with Solar Reserve and its Aurora solar thermal generation project near Port Augusta.

My question is: does the Treasurer support that exciting renewable energy project, and is he pleased that South Australia will be obtaining its energy from that renewable source?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:20): I'm always excited about renewable energy, Mr President, but I'm less excited about massive increases in costs to government departments and agencies. The subject of the ministerial statement today addressed the bridging period between 1 January 2018 and the potential new contract in late 2020.

The only comment I would make about the excitement of renewable energy—and I have spoken about this in this house before—is that, whilst I think the overwhelming majority of Australians probably acknowledge the fact that eventually we will move to a preponderance of renewable energy in terms of our generation, the issue which is debated at the moment and has been debated for a period of time is how you manage the transition. There are differing views and strongly conflicting views as to how you manage the transition.

It is my view and the government's view that you try to manage the transition from where we were to where we might be in a way which minimises the increases in costs to struggling South Australian families and also maximises the security. That is, you don't have the situation where the lights go out in South Australia because we happen to be at the end of the grid. With all of those caveats, as long as we manage the transition sensibly, then I'm sure that all Australians would acknowledge that we are going to move to a much greater percentage of renewable energy.

In relation to the particular contracts, etc., I don't have enough detail about that particular contract to offer a detailed response other than ultimately, as I said, we will all acknowledge the fact that we will have a much greater percentage of renewable energy in our energy generation mix in the future.