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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-01 Daily Xml
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Renewable Energy

Mr SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Is the minister aware of her government's plans to axe programs that encourage the uptake of renewable energy in South Australia in tomorrow's budget? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr SPEIRS: Just one day after this house declared a climate emergency in South Australia, the Minister for Energy and Mining told InDaily that the Home Battery Scheme and the Switch for Solar programs, which encourage renewable energy uptake and, importantly, ease cost of living for some of the most vulnerable South Australians, will be axed, and I quote him, 'I'm glad we're killing it.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:19): Quite frankly, the most appalling policy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —of the former government was to take pensioners and take their concessions off them in exchange for solar panels and batteries. We have pensioners who rely on their concessions. They need these concessions because it goes towards their cost-of-living issues. In order to try to appease Treasury, members opposite came up with a policy to try to convince pensioners to give up their concessions that they get each and every year and month—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —to take them off them, off low-income earners, off vulnerable people, off people who are on these concessions, in exchange for solar panels and batteries.

Mr Patterson: They would be $500 better off.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morphett! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Well, isn't that interesting?

The Hon. N.F. Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Human Services is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The former government offered this: they offered roughly 8,000 home owners in selected suburbs this scheme. Do you know what the uptake was of that 8,000-person package? Four per cent. Do you know why? Because the punters saw them coming. They saw them coming and they knew what they were up to. They knew the Liberals and they knew what the Liberals were up to: they were after their concessions to try to save money for the budget. If I were the Leader of the Opposition, this is the one policy I would be ashamed of the most. The most vulnerable people in our community—trying to take money out of their pockets.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Four per cent. They saw them coming. Let's talk about the Home Battery Scheme, another very ambitious program by the previous government. They had this ingenious scheme where they wanted to have 40,000 batteries roll out over four years, but they had a cunning plan. What they were going to do was continually decrease the subsidy and somehow, inversely, it would increase the uptake of home batteries.

It's a genius scheme, and I'm sure in some alternative universe somewhere this would have worked. I'm sure there is somewhere in the world where, by decreasing the subsidy continually, you increase the uptake of batteries. Think of it: they start out offering a $6,000 subsidy on the battery, then it gets down to $2,000. Battery prices are increasing, and members opposite would have us believe that the uptake would increase. This scheme was dead.

The question then becomes: do we keep on putting good money after bad, or do we actually do what will lower wholesale energy prices and therefore lower retail prices and make sure that we incentivise and work towards having more large grid-scale renewables built? Over the term of the last government, only two wind farms were built—two. There was a freeze: 'Do not come to South Australia and build a wind farm.' We are the home of wind farms—two over the last four years.

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morphett!

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Of course, now we are heading towards a green hydrogen revolution, and members are still complaining about that. Members opposite were trying to disadvantage people who could afford to be disadvantaged the least, and now they are complaining about us stopping the rort.

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