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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-10-18 Daily Xml
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Power Outages

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. What is the estimated cost to the South Australian economy of the September blackout?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:35): Well, that's difficult to quantify. I have to say—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Given the Leader of the Opposition is interested in the cost, once the inquiries are completed and we can assign blame, because I know the Leader of the Opposition wants to assign blame before the inquiries are finished, it will be very interesting to know who is to blame for the blackout. The Leader of the Opposition has jumped to judgement about who is to blame.

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am getting to the cost, and once we know who is responsible for the cost—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: I will pre-empt the point of order. The Treasurer assures us he is going to get to the cost.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, I am, sir. The important aspect of cost goes to the operation of the National Electricity Market. When these regulations and operations were put in place, the people who purchased distribution—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Really? It is important to note that blame is assigned and compensation is assigned in terms of cost to who is responsible.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Look in the mirror, the member says. Well, it is very important to note that people who operate and maintain our assets are operating those under (1) a contract that they signed with members opposite when they were last in government, and (2) the National Electricity Rules that have been voted upon in this house.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker: you indicated that the Treasurer was going to get to his answer on cost.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I was assured by the Treasurer that that was the case.

Ms CHAPMAN: We are still on the national market and the regulatory regime and who might pay for it, rather than how much it costs.

The SPEAKER: Could the Premier join up his remarks to the question?

Ms Chapman: The Treasurer.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer, still the Treasurer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I am sorry for this disorder, Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The cost is hard to be measured. We know that Arrium, who are under administration, were able under their own steam to manage a certain level of electricity generation to manage their critical infrastructure. We know that Olympic Dam was out for a period of time, but they also have planned outages throughout the year where they stop work to do maintenance work, and I understand that Olympic Dam may have taken some opportunity to do some of that. We know that there was a cost to Nyrstar, but generally the cost of the blackout in metropolitan Adelaide over a four-hour period will be hard to quantify. We will find out once that is understood.

Once we find out who was to blame, whether it was the way the grid was managed on the day, whether it was an individual generator, whether it was a whole series of events that led to this cascading failure or whether it was simply an act of God, we will have to wait and see. But, of course. South Australia is a very resilient economy and, despite what members opposite say, our economy is growing, our businesses are hiring people. We have seen unemployment reduce over the last 12 months, so we know that—

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker: again, the Treasurer is straying. He has indicated that he doesn't know and he is going to be looking into it, so I would ask you to rule that this is all irrelevant now.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to the Treasurer's remarks.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Unfortunately, the operations of say, for example, SA Power Networks and their guaranteed service commitment—the Essential Services Commission, once we know exactly what occurred once the reports are all finalised—

Mr Marshall: You said it all worked exactly as it was meant to. That's what you said. That's what the Premier said.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: A little bit of knowledge is dangerous and, given the little knowledge he has or interest he has in this issue, until he tried to politicise it—as the system was hit by a storm, the reason we were able to get power up so quickly, as compared with other jurisdictions, was that the system did work as it was intended. The system did disconnect when it was meant to.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, yelling is not a substitute for an alternative.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yelling is not a substitute for an alternative—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —and attempting to scream at me as I am attempting to provide information to the chamber is a greater reflection on the Leader of the Opposition and the vacuous policies he has than the government, because they are not debating ideas. He is just screaming. He is just yelling. He is not offering an alternative. All he is doing—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have to say he jumps from one issue to another. It's incoherent.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: Well, time is up, sir.

The SPEAKER: Thank you for bringing that to my attention. The leader.

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