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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) (14:23): Supplementary to the Minister for Human Services: in the lead-up to the March 2022 state election, did the Minister for Human Services ever indicate her support for the Switch for Solar program and, in fact, advocate for the broadening of it beyond the trial suburbs initially indicated by the then government?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Colton is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:23): I will just remind members opposite—

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You stole my thunder.

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You stole my line. Whatever the Leader of the Opposition has said, he knows that the cabinet speaks with one voice.

An honourable member: Solidarity.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Solidarity.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Members opposite are well aware of the principle of solidarity. I know the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morphett!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —is a student of the solidarity—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order. Minister, please be seated. I will hear the point of order under the standing order 134.

Mr GARDNER: Sir, I draw your attention to standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: There is some force, although I do observe that a degree of compare and contrast or context, as I remarked in yesterday's question time, is appropriate. It is early in the answer, I see that four minutes remain and I draw the minister's attention to the substance of the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is important that cabinet solidarity always be maintained. For example, I remember recently there was a discussion on 891 radio where a very well-respected journalist asked the Leader Of The Opposition, 'Did you think that the former Deputy Premier had a conflict of interest?'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: And his response was yes. There is a point of order, okay.

The SPEAKER: I imagine, member for Morialta that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morphett! Your colleague the member for Morialta is raising a point of order. Member for Hartley will resist the urge, he well knows the standing orders. Member for West Torrens! Minister for Human Services! Member for Newland! Member for Morialta!

Mr GARDNER: Sir, he defies your instruction and I submit that it comes close to obstruction of the house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: That is a substantive submission that I'm not sure can be made out on the facts but, in any case, I hold the minister's attention to the substance of the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am a servant of this house. I am one of the principal reasons that we uphold the points of orders and the standing orders and the management of government business.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The thing about cabinet solidarity is—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —when there is a decision made, all cabinet ministers stick to it, so I thought it very interesting that Mr Bevan asked the Leader of the Opposition about his views on Ms Chapman's conflict of interest and, when he replied yes, I just wonder whether it was because, whether on background, he had said previously—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —that she is conflicted. She is conflicted!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated. Order, Minister for Human Services! Member for Hartley! Member for Morphett! Member for West Torrens! The member for Morialta has the call.

Mr GARDNER: The question was in relation to the Minister for Human Services' views on advocacies on the scheme in question, the Switch for Solar scheme. The minister's response is nowhere near it, standing order 98 and your prior rulings require that he comes back to the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: There is some force in the submission that is made. I have earlier asked the minister to chart a line closer to the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will make it stop. I'll make it stop.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We speak with one voice on this side of the parliament. There is no secret backgrounding going on behind the scenes. There are no winks and nudges about anything like that. We speak with one voice, and with one voice we say we will not be taking concessions off pensioners and the vulnerable. We will not be taking those concessions off people, quite frankly, because the truth is that the punters saw this scheme for what it was—and they didn't like it.

I am glad that as a cabinet and as a party we are killing this scheme because this scheme that the Leader of the Opposition defends would have taken concessions off the most vulnerable people and that is just wrong. That is just wrong. If the former government wanted to hand out solar panels and batteries to people who are on concessions, then do so freely but don't do it in exchange for their concessions. That's immoral.

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