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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
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Electric Vehicles

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:58): My question is again to the Minister for Energy. Who will be responsible for holding this distance data within government?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:58): The member opposite knows that there is not an answer to that question because I have just explained a few ways that it could be done. I have also explained that there are many other ways that it could be done. It would not be possible to answer that question until the methodology has been determined, so who in government will hold this information depends in very large part on how the information is collected and how the information is used.

We will be looking for a sensible, easy, effective, low-cost way of doing this, and we know that this is going to work. This is one facet of our electric vehicle strategy and it is already working. We already have electric vehicles in the Fleet SA fleet. More and more of them will become clearly evident. Members opposite will very soon be able to ask for an electric vehicle if they would like to. If they would like to stay with petrol and diesel, I am sure they will be welcome to do that as well. I am not running Fleet SA, other than to say our government will make sure the opportunity exists for members opposite to do this if they want to in the near future.

It will be a fast charging network from Ceduna to Mount Gambier, from Marla to the bottom of Yorke Peninsula. I don't know if there is actually going to—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, standing order 98: the minister is now debating the question. The question was quite specific about who in government would be responsible for holding the data that is required to be furnished to it in order for the tax to be charged. He has already said that he doesn't have an answer and now he is just continuing on, debating other points.

The SPEAKER: There will be no argument on the point of order. The question was quite specific. I have the point of order. The minister will direct his answer to the question. The minister has the call.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Yes, sir, I am certainly happy to do that, but of course, in a very helpful manner, I want to provide as much information to the opposition as possible. They have asked a lot of questions on this topic today, so I want to make sure they are as informed as possible on this topic. As the Premier has courteously helped me, 'from Marla to Maitland' would be a good way to describe the north-south breadth of this new charging network we are rolling out.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: he was just discussing something which had nothing to do with the substance of the question about a statewide charging network. You upheld the point of order, redirected him to the substance of the question and he went straight back to the irrelevant—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: What number?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: It's 98, and if the former Speaker isn't aware of that that's his problem.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no occasion for exchanges across the chamber. The minister will direct his answer to the question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Yes, I will, Mr Speaker. Of course, the member's question about where the information will be held needs to be considered in the prism of things like the previous government privatising Land Services information. Where will the government hold information? Where will that information be held? If the previous government had that information, they would have flogged it. That's what they would have done.

We will make sure that it is done in a very sensible, responsible way. We will be looking after all the motorists in South Australia. We will do everything that we possibly can to make sure that we continue to deliver lower cost of living to all South Australians, as we are doing. You see us every day, working hard on exactly that. It was in the budget speech just the other day that it's a reduction of over $800 per year, on average, per household, in cost of living under our government.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: this is now the fourth attempt to try to get the minister to answer the question, albeit, of course, he has already said in his opening remarks that he has no answer to that question.

Mr Whetstone: What number?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: It's 98.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Do you want me to carve it into you, Tim?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey will not interject. The member for Lee will not introduce argument in the point of order. I have the point of order. I have directed the minister now more precisely to respond to the question. The minister has the call. The minister will respond to the question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Notwithstanding the fact that 'Do you want me to carve it into you?' is not an appropriate thing to say to any member of parliament, what I said in my answer is that the member opposite knows from my previous answers that there actually isn't an answer that exists to the question that he has asked. I can only assume, given that he knows that, it was actually some other information that he was after. So I am trying to provide him as much other information as I possibly can on this topic.

We are incredibly focused on our policy. We know that we are going to make our electric vehicle policy work. We know that rolling out the smart charging network across the state, the fast charging network across the state helping electric vehicles reduce the cost of electricity for all other electricity consumers across the state, is going to work. We are going to do it in a way that is fair, not only to electric vehicle drivers and owners but also to combustion and compression engine vehicle owners and drivers.

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