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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-30 Daily Xml
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Electricity Prices

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Will the minister please update the house on how the government's energy solution will help drive new opportunities for mining in South Australia?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:25): Thank you very much to the member for Davenport, and I acknowledge his deep interest on behalf of his community with regard to electricity prices. Mr Speaker, you would know from your own electorate how important every single household finds electricity prices—

The SPEAKER: Indeed.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —and how they have suffered over the last several years. But it is not only the small households; it is actually the medium-sized businesses, the small businesses and the very large businesses. The member for Devonport asked me specifically about the mining industry.

In South Australia, our largest employers are also our largest electricity consumers, and many of them are also in the energy and resources business and so incredibly important. Nobody in this place would be able to forget the former Labor government's statewide electricity blackout on 28 September a couple of years ago. One of the impacts of that was that, at Nyrstar in Port Pirie, at Arrium (as it was then) in Whyalla and at BHP's production facilities up at Olympic Dam near Roxby Downs, all three of those were under extraordinary stress.

It is not only about electricity prices—and we will make electricity more affordable and more reliable and more environmentally responsible for all households and businesses—but it is also about that reliability so that the large businesses, particularly in our energy sector, have some security of supply. These are businesses that cannot just shut the doors and come back tomorrow; as big an impost as that would be on a small business, at least they might be able to do that.

In the resources sector, they don't get to do that. It can be tens of millions of dollars or more in cost to those businesses if they don't have a reliable energy source, if they have an unexpected blackout, such as the one that the former Labor government delivered to them. It is also very important with regard to new and potential businesses. I know that those opposite have often talked about their desire for new resources projects in South Australia. Well, we are going to help deliver them. The new government is going to help deliver those projects, and we need more affordable electricity—

Mr Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is now on two warnings.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —for those businesses to thrive. We have all heard of Mr Sanjeev Gupta and his organisation taking over the Whyalla steelworks and his very regular and very sensible comments about needing cheaper electricity for his businesses to thrive, cheaper electricity so that the people of Whyalla and the broader district can have secure employment. He is also talking about green industry and green steel, and that is the sort of conversation, the sort of direction and the sort of aspiration that we share with Mr Sanjeev Gupta and other industry leaders: more affordable, more reliable and more environmentally responsible.

If we don't have reliable and affordable electricity, new companies won't start up new operations in South Australia. They just won't do it, and they won't be able to do it. We want that to happen. Very unfortunately, the previous government had a lot of strategies, laid out all sorts of things that they wanted to do, but they didn't actually deliver the nuts and bolts platforms that the companies actually need so that the companies can deliver on those strategies.

Mr Speaker, it didn't escape you, and it didn't escape us, and I'm sure it didn't escape nearly everybody on the other side, that when the previous government laid out all these strategies there wasn't much more behind them. They need a delivery mechanism along with that cheaper electricity, and we are going to do those things so that industry can deliver. We are going to help industry deliver. We are not going to take credit for what industry delivers the way the previous government loved to do.

The Hon. S.K. Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before I call the next question, the Minister for Transport is called to order. The member for Elizabeth.

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