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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-25 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Renewable Energy

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:23): It is not often I feel sympathy or pity for my political opponents, but today is an occasion when I do. It is not nice to be humiliated publicly on radio.

The minister went on radio on 15 April and, when asked about this program, was adamant that there was no compulsory element to his program of making you buy brand-new air conditioners, pool pumps, electric charging stations for your vehicles, that there would not be any mandatory element about a requirement in those appliances—full stop, unequivocal.

He then went on to try to attack me as if I were trying to create some sort of huge storm. If only he had picked up The Advertiser on the same day, 15 April, when his own agency had given the very story exclusively to The Advertiser and told them that this would be a mandatory requirement in all new appliances, that he was bringing it forward. But of course he did not know. He did not read the paper and then still stuck to his guns that it was not true, that it was a trial. The Advertiser was wrong, his department was wrong, everyone was wrong; but he was right.

Of course, then comes in the Public Sector Management Act, where public servants cannot lie to parliament. They just cannot. So they turned up, they were asked direct questions and they gave direct answers: 'Was this a trial?' 'No.' Was it mandatory?' 'Yes.' 'Were they bringing it forward faster than every other state?' 'Yes.' The minister even said on radio that he had absolutely no keenness whatsoever for this program, yet we are the only state bringing it forward ahead of every other state, as agreed by a COAG timetable.

The next point is: was he being deliberate, or is he just incompetent? I am happy for him to choose which one he likes. It is up to him. It is not for me to speculate whether he deliberately misled the people of South Australia or whether he is just incompetent, because I have to say that the idea of a minister having his department correct him in the house after he had been on radio adamant that he was right and that they were all wrong is pretty humiliating, let alone that the information given to two of our most respected and trusted news outlets, The Advertiser and the ABC, was incorrect.

Talking about incorrect information, I will go on to another little vignette the government released just last week, where they announced they were privatising Port Bonython. Of course, this was called something else. This was called an expression of interest for land, and we were told it was all about a hydrogen hub. It was all going to be about hydrogen. We were going to export hydrogen to the world. They are not copying Labor's policy document at all, but what they want to do is create green hydrogen from renewable resources and export it to the world. But it is nothing like Labor's policy document; it is completely different and new.

There is only one problem: when you go through the tender documents and you go to the mandatory requirements for the tender, there is no mention of hydrogen. In fact, throughout the entire tender document hydrogen is only mentioned twice—two times—in a document that is meant to be all about hydrogen. So we asked the head of the Department for Energy and Mining whether there was a requirement for any successful tenderer in the expression of interest for the land at Port Bonython, the last state-owned port, I think—the ones that Rob Lucas did not privatise when he was last in office—and the answer was, 'There is no requirement for a hydrogen hub.'

The strategy here is hope. They are hoping someone puts forward a plan for hydrogen. They are hoping the successful tender is about a hydrogen export facility. But do not look at what governments say, look at what they do. They are not serious about hydrogen. Just last week, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) released $100 million in funding for renewable hydrogen projects across Australia. Do you know how many were successful in South Australia, given the government's keen commitment to promote hydrogen and green hydrogen in South Australia? None—Victoria and Western Australia.

What does that tell you about the government's commitment to renewable energy? ENGIE has a program to underwrite new generation investment in renewable energy, and there are three pumped hydro programs that are short-listed in South Australia, but nothing has happened. So much for the special relationship. This government talks about renewable energy but does nothing about it. Do not listen to what they say: look at what they do.

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