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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-09 Daily Xml
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Renewable Energy

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is delivering more jobs in renewable energy?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:49): Thank you to the member for King, and, yes, I can explain how the Marshall Liberal government is delivering more jobs in renewable energy. We are backing green jobs and business in SA by building the SA-New South Wales interconnector, among other things. While the Labor leader is guessing at what his policy is, while the member for Lee is calling it a terrible idea, while the member for West Torrens is ignoring expert advice again, and gone from supporting to opposing to just last week saying that he was sceptical, and while the member—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98, sir: the minister is not answering the substance of the question; he is debating it immediately.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. The question—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The question was quite clear in its terms. It referred to the government's action in delivering renewable energy outcomes. The minister will direct his answer to the question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: We are delivering jobs through renewable energy but, of course, it is not without headwinds from those opposite. While we have had all these flip-flops on their position on this project from those opposite, we are delivering it and we are delivering jobs. But it's more than just the $456 million on the SA side of the border and hundreds of construction jobs thanks to ElectraNet, the South Australian transmission company, and their responsibility to the project, it is also the billions of dollars of new generation projects lined up with the interconnector: a freeway for clean power.

We want to be an exporting economy. You can't export without a route to market; with power, that route to market is a transmission line. The entire green energy sector has backed this interconnector project: the Clean Energy Council, the Climate Council and renewables developers, and many more all support it. Whether it is Neoen's $3 billion Goyder South wind solar and battery project or whether it is Amp Energy's $2 billion of solar and battery projects, industry and all of the clean energy organisations are right behind it.

It means that we can become a net exporter of renewable energy from South Australia, and it will help to reduce an estimated 1 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year and every year. It means that we can reach net 100 per cent renewables by 2030 and our climate change strategy's aspiration of 500 per cent of current grid demand in renewables by 2050. This project will lead to a jobs boom in our regions. But the member for Lee says that it is a terrible idea and the opposition leader continues to guess—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98: the minister is not answering the substance of the question. He is now beginning to debate the question again by trying to insert quotes and put them out of context in his argument to make debate during question time, rather than answering the substance of the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Playford will not interject and the Deputy Premier will not interject. I don't uphold the point of order for the time being. I am listening carefully to the answer of the Minister for Energy and Mining to the question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Another example of the headwinds which we deal with in this chamber, but we will not be deterred. We are determined to get on and deliver our energy policy, and this interconnector is an absolutely outstanding example of how we, with our policies, will create more and more jobs in clean energy in South Australia.

Of course, there is another proposal which we are not going to pursue, and that is a proposal that has been out there as a hydrogen thought bubble, which was based on a few paragraphs of dodgy modelling. Let me just share with you—

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98: the substance of the question is about what the government is doing, not about alternative policies that might be debated.

The SPEAKER: I draw a distinction in relation to responding to a question about what the government is doing between recapitulating what might have happened in the past on the one hand and alternatives on the other. For the time being I do not uphold the point of order. The minister has the call. I am listening carefully to the answer.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I think it is quite fair to share the context of the jobs that we are creating in the context of the other proposals that float around, and perhaps the member for West Torrens exposes himself when he seems so concerned about this.

But let me tell you, Mr Speaker, that while there is one group of people in this state who thinks that the interconnector is a terrible idea, that group is on its own. And that group, which also proposed the hydrogen thought bubble, forgot to share publicly when it released its few pages of documents and couldn't answer questions about their own policy that only 3 per cent of the jobs that that group of people thought was going to come from their hydrogen proposal was actually going to come from their proposal alone. The rest, the other 97 per cent of the jobs attached to that white elephant proposal were actually the ones that were modelled—

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —and lined up with the SA-New South Wales interconnector.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens rises on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, sir, to ask a question. I thought his time had expired.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order. I gave the member for West Torrens the call in relation to what I perceived to be a point of order. His time was on the verge of expiring. I will give the minister an opportunity to conclude his answer very briefly.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I will spare them from any further embarrassment and finish my answer there.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: You have no discretion in the standing orders to award additional time for an answer to a response during question time. The only discretion you have is for a grievance debate, Mr Speaker, and if you could start conducting question time according to the rules we would be very grateful.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right! I don't uphold the point of order. Is the member for West Torrens seeking the call?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

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