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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-03 Daily Xml
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Electricity Prices

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (16:34): My question is to the Premier. What is the average South Australian family currently paying per year for electricity? What were they paying when Labor lost office in 2018, and what we will they be paying in 2026, Premier?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (16:35): It gives me great pleasure to rise to answer my first question as the Minister for Energy. It just saddens me that the former minister is not here to hear my answer—perhaps he is watching on television, although it is probably impolite and unparliamentary to talk of those who have departed this parliament.

It is true that energy prices in the March quarter increased dramatically under the last three months of the Marshall government through wholesale power prices increasing dramatically. It is also true that the Marshall government promised to lower power prices by, I think, $303 or $302 over the life of their government. Unfortunately, they were not able to achieve those reductions.

I think it really does get to the point where members opposite haven't learnt the lesson of the last election that these types of questions don't go to what the people of South Australia are looking for. What they want is a coherent policy. What they want is an energy policy that is actually going to serve them not only to lower power prices but also to decarbonise our economy to actually make the planet livable.

Instead, members opposite continued to the bitter end to support a commonwealth government that are addicted to coal. Indeed, their one policy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, please be seated, there is a point of order. The member for Colton on a point of order.

Mr COWDREY: Debate, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton will be heard.

Mr COWDREY: Debate, sir: I don't believe that the views of the federal parliamentary party are relevant at all to discussion here in this house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! A point of order has been raised. With due consideration—I am listening carefully—a degree of compare and contrast, as one former Speaker liked to emphasise, is important.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: As I was saying, the people of South Australia are looking for a coherent climate energy policy that will allow the transition to occur in a stable and sensible way to make sure that we can go to a green future. They are not interested in being addicted to coal. They are not interested in being addicted to fossil fuel. What they want to see is new innovations and new technologies like green hydrogen.

South Australia is a unique jurisdiction in the world for the amount of solar energy we produce each and every day. We produce so much solar energy that we produce more than we require. For some, that's an opportunity to use that overabundance of solar energy to do things with. Members opposite had a different vision: their vision was to shut those solar panels down. So, rather than—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order.

Mr COWDREY: Point of order, sir: debate. The question was directly to the cost to South Australian families in 2018, now and in 2026.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Colton. As earlier mentioned, a degree of compare and contrast might be relevant. Minister, I do draw you back to the substance of the question—the substance of the question, minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: For the majority of the time under the former Marshall government power prices were higher than they were for the last four years of the Weatherill government, and that is a badge of dishonour that all members opposite will have to wear, and all they have to do is to check the ESCOSA annual reports.

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sorry, I can't hear you? Sorry?

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will not respond to interjections. The member for Morphett is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member for Morphett, the only member we fear on this side of the chamber—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —is right in saying that from January to March—

The Hon. B.I. Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —South Australia experienced dramatically increased prices.

The Hon. B.I. Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: To be fair to the members opposite, not all of it was of their own doing. A lot of that had to do, of course, with the conflict in Europe and the dramatic escalation of energy costs. But wholesale power prices are surging across the nation and the Prime Minister’s and the Liberal Party's response across the nation was to dive deeper into coal. That's not going to lower power prices.

The Liberal Party's policy of energy, quite frankly, for the last four years was, by and large by their own initiatives, a failure.

The SPEAKER: Order, minister! There is a point of order.

Mr COWDREY: Point of order: debate, again. The minister drew it to our attention on multiple occasions that the opposition's policy at the time was not relevant.

The SPEAKER: I have listened carefully. It's a point well made. I do observe that there are seconds remaining.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Can I just say to members opposite that I really enjoyed this exchange and I look forward to more questions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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