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

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (16:40): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister inform the house about the work of the government to implement its election commitment to develop the state's hydrogen sector?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (16:40): As a matter of fact I can. I thank the member for Giles for his question and congratulate him on his amazing election victory. I do point out to the house that both the member for Stuart and the member for Giles now both cohabit in the great city of Port Augusta, which they can both boast won numerous booths in that city, which was a remarkable result, not only for the Australian Labor Party but for an Independent. Congratulations to both of them.

During the election campaign, the then opposition, the now government, decided that we will be investing $593 million within the great City of Whyalla to build our Hydrogen Jobs Plan. It is an ambitious undertaking. Former national Chief Scientist, Professor Alan Finkel, said that 'clean hydrogen as a fuel is now poised to become a reality'. Five years ago, Professor Finkel predicted hydrogen will make an essential contribution to Australia's future as a high-density zero emissions fuel.

We have an abundance of wind and solar energy in this state. While members opposite had a policy of exporting that renewable energy to the east coast through an interconnector and to Victoria through another interconnector, we would not be producing enough energy, which would limit the number of renewables we would be building because those markets are saturated, at the same time as the New South Wales energy minister is subsidising, to the tune of billions of dollars, renewable resources to be built in New South Wales. We are competing against a state that is pouring massive amounts of taxpayers' dollars into renewable energy.

We need to find new markets for our renewable energy. That means export, and the way to export our sun and our wind is through green hydrogen. I say again that the policy of those opposite to turn solar panels off rather than to use that oversupply of solar energy for good still baffles us to this day. Why you wouldn't build your demand at a time when you've got an oversupply of solar energy boggles. Members opposite thought the solution was to turn those solar panels off.

Just think of this: nearly one-third of all South Australians have solar panels on their roof. The messages that our candidates had throughout suburbia about the policy of the former Premier to turn solar panels off at a time of oversupply and how that went down and what they thought about that policy go a long way to understanding why the Marshall government was a one-term government.

We promised that we would do everything we can to fulfil our vision as quickly as possible. We promised that we would be building an electrolyser, a generator and a storage facility. To facilitate that, we said that we would form an expert panel. I can inform the house that expert panel has already been formed and we are moving at pace to identify a site. We are working with experts and councils—

Mr Tarzia: Who's on it?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Resign?

Mr Tarzia: Who's on it?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Who's on it? I thought it was a bit early to be calling on me to resign. There's a certain politeness: you wait two or three weeks—you build up to this.

We've got on there the Indigenous groups, the council, experts from the EPA and the relevant departments to make sure that we can find an appropriate site that can either (a) co-locate—and I give credit to the former government on this matter on their expression of interest that they had. Time expired, sir?

The SPEAKER: Yes.

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