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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Energy Prices

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (14:10): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister update the house on energy market competition in South Australia and the opportunity it offers for consumers to get better deals?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:10): Yes, I can, and I thank the member for Finniss for his question—another Liberal member focused on what is most important for their electorates. Instead of chasing round and round in circles as the opposition does, the member for Finniss is focused on things that happen outside this chamber, and he wants—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —more affordable, more reliable and as clean as possible electricity for his constituents, as do all of us on this side of the chamber.

Mr Speaker, you would know that in almost all markets greater competition leads to greater benefits for consumers, and we on this side of the chamber are very much on the side of consumers. We understand that service providers in the electricity market, whether they be gas pipeline owner/operators, whether they be generators, whether they be retailers, or transmission or distribution line owner and operators, need to make a dollar—we do understand, because if they don't make a dollar for their shareholders then they won't be there to provide the service.

However, we don't want them to make super profits. We don't want them to make unreasonably high profits, and that is why competition is very important. We went to the last election saying that we need more competition in this market. Primarily we are talking about the wholesale electricity market and the retail electricity market. We said that well before the election; in fact, we made some commitments with regard to pursuing more transparency on consumers' bills from retailers.

Everybody in this chamber knows that it is quite difficult to interrogate your entire electricity bill, quite similar to the way it is difficult to interrogate your mobile phone bill and to really compare bill against bill from various different providers. We also said that we want to remove the opportunity for any retailer to charge exit fees on standing offers. The reality is that that rarely happens, but we want to make sure that it cannot happen in the best interests of consumers being able to shop around.

The ACCC very recently also brought down a report which was focused on competition largely—not only but largely—in the wholesale and retailing side of businesses. They did look at the distribution as well, and in fact they found out, to SAPN's credit—while none of us want to pay any more than we have to—that distribution in South Australia is actually more efficient than in most other states.

However, they did say that greater competition in the wholesale market and the retail market would be beneficial for consumers in the NEM in general and certainly for South Australian electricity consumers as well. In fact, some of the recommendations which came from that report include abolishing the current retail standing offers and replacing them with a new default offer consistent across all retailers set at a price determined by the AER, requiring retailers to reference any discounts to the new default offer pricing determined by the AER making it easy for consumers to genuinely compare offers, a mandatory code—

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: the minister is quoting from a document he is reading off his iPhone. Could he please table it to the house.

The SPEAKER: Minister, is that document publicly available as a report?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: I am just trying to clarify—a point of clarification?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Mr Speaker, I understand that in ministerial statements it is inappropriate to read information that is publicly available. I think in answering a question in the house and sharing some of the key recommendations from a report, which is publicly available, it is quite acceptable.

The SPEAKER: I'm just trying to confirm whether that report is publicly available. Yes?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Well, I just googled it, so—

The SPEAKER: Okay. If it is publicly available—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The issue is that if it is publicly available, it has been asked that it be tabled. So I will respectfully ask the minister to please table the document since it is in the public forum.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Sure. I'm happy to. And for clarification—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Thank you, members. I will give the minister 15 seconds to wrap up since he was interrupted. Please, minister.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I am happy to table it. The ACCC came up with a range of recommendations, which we are working through very thoroughly to focus on what's best for South Australians. We also believe, and it has been supported by other reports, that an interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales would offer greater opportunities for competition for South Australian electricity consumers.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Kaurna, the member for West Torrens is warned. The Minister for Primary Industries is called to order, as is the member for Kaurna and the member for Lee. The member for Kaurna.

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