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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-03 Daily Xml
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Question Time

ELECTRICITY, LOAD SHEDDING

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): Has the Minister for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure been told to change his position on providing the public with advance information about power load shedding? Yesterday, the Minister for Energy defended the secrecy of these lists when he publicly said:

You don't want to go out and tell people that you think we're going to be load shedding this way soon because it's extremely unlikely.

Then, he repeated his opposition to the concept when he said:

...that's why it's not particularly good information for anyone. Anyone who gets that list is going to be misinformed.

Today, however, the Premier contradicted his energy minister of seven years when he told radio listeners (in answer to a question about whether the load shedding list should be made public), 'I think it should be publicised.'

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (14:45): As usual, the Leader of the Opposition has difficulty assembling the facts correctly. He should go to the press conference that he quotes me from. In fact, quite helpfully, The Advertiser had it on their website. You will find that I also said, during that press conference, that I had no problems with the list being released. I cannot remember the exact words but it will be on that website. I was repeating what the electricity planning council had told me. There has been an awful lot of misinformation from the Liberal Party in the past week—an awful lot.

I was very interested to find that the opposition spokesperson on electricity has discovered an interconnector with New South Wales as stated in his Port Pirie interview yesterday. For the benefit of the house, of course, the Liberal Party, when in government, moved heaven and earth to prevent the construction of an interconnector with New South Wales and, instead, supported the Murray Link connector which has done nothing for South Australia. All it has done is export energy to Victoria. I was somewhat surprised to find that the opposition spokesperson yesterday had, in fact, discovered this interconnector with New South Wales.

I was also surprised to find the opposition spokesperson on transport telling us that Bombardier have sold trams to Iran and Egypt, apparently on the basis that he had asked Bombardier and they told him. However, maybe he got a different Bombardier, and not the one that I spoke to, because they say that they did not. I have a photograph here, for the benefit of the opposition spokesperson, of some Egyptian trams and they do appear to me to be about 30 years old, although I am not an expert. I just do not understand why they keep making it up. Why do they have to make it up? This is the opposition that we deal with in South Australia. They simply make it up.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Apparently, I should not be running it. That is what I have been told before; that I should have been recalled from—what was it?—a fishing holiday. He made that up. He sat around and said, 'What would sound embarrassing? I know, we will call it a fishing holiday.' He made it up. They make it up. They simply make it up as they go along. It is no wonder they cannot hang on to their own seats, let alone take ours, because they make it up as they go along.

Mr Pederick: So you don't like fishing then?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I do like fishing. I wish I could get to do it every now and then. I can assure you I went fishing once with my four year old. I bought a handline. If anyone has ever gone fishing with a four year old, it is about seven seconds before they ask, 'Have we got one yet? Can you pull it in?' Believe me, it is not what I would call a fishing holiday. I just do not understand why you have to make things up. Why isn't the truth good enough for you?

There is absolutely no difference. Again, I spoke to Mr Swift about the list. For the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition I will explain what happens. Residential suburbs that do not have hospitals and that can be remotely shed take it in turns. There is no mystery, no surprise. I did say to Mr Swift that I thought it would be best if he released that information because I think it is perfectly innocuous. However, I certainly would not direct him because I do not think it is proper. I said that again today. My understanding is that Mr Swift's latest position is that he would not do that without consulting the electricity industry. I point out that this board, established by the previous Liberal government—and may I say it is one of the things they got right because it is considered to be a very good model around Australia—still has the same chairman. I reappointed him and he is still there. It has an industry board and it is my understanding that they have concerns because the information does include location of feeders. So, they are reluctant to do that without talking to the industry.

My position is exactly the same as that of the Premier. I think the information in regard to suburbs is innocuous. It is well known that about the only thing you might discover—and it is not even particularly helpful, as I understand, in that regard—is which suburbs are not able to be remotely controlled, and which feeders. The feeders do not necessarily cover a whole suburb, anyway. That is why the view of the planning council is that it might misinform as much as it informs.

But I come back to the point that there is absolutely no mystery about it. The truth is that if you load-shed you cycle through residential suburbs. You do not close down hospitals (quite wisely), you do not close down institutions, and you try to avoid closing down industries where that would do serious economic damage.

But, above all, I say this. I have never seen the list. The Premier has never seen the list. I do not want to see the list and am not interested, because, whatever else, the politicians should not be calling the shots. They should be called independently. The way the opposition has set it up is the way we will continue to do it. That is the way it should be, and there is absolutely no contradiction between any of us.

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