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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-20 Daily Xml
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Hydrogen Production

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:13): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Is the minister committed to the hydrogen power plant being built and operational in 2025? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: Labor's election commitment states that Labor will ensure all projects will be subject to a full competitive procurement process and be operational by the end of 2025. Just on Wednesday last week, the Premier told both FIVEaa and ABC radio that the power plant will be built and operational by 2026.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:13): I will just say that once it's completed in 2025 it will also be operational in 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, you see where I am going here?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Time is a constant unless you are at the event horizon, which slightly changes. Yes, we are committed to delivering our election commitments. I can assure the house this is not GlobeLink and this is not the right-hand turn of the tram.

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas: This will be done.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: This will be done, and we are committed to doing it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: We don't boast about this, but the truth is that this is a difficult undertaking, as was the Hornsdale battery. The Hornsdale battery was a very difficult undertaking. We were mocked nationally by members opposite and their colleagues in Canberra. It was called the 'big banana', a 'tourist attraction'. It is now the template for every jurisdiction in terms of grid-scale storage.

The current opposition, now picking up the mantle of those fallen comrades of theirs in Canberra, are now trying to attempt to undermine our work in green hydrogen. The truth is this: we are attempting to push the envelope on a new technology that could revolutionise the way we produce power and decarbonise our planet, and South Australia needs to be at the forefront of that.

What we are doing is groundbreaking. In fact, for the last four years under the Marshall government we sat and watched other states overtake us.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta on a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The question was fairly straightforward and not terribly provocative. It was asking when Labor will build their plant by 2025 or another date, and the minister is now clearly debating.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully. We are early in the response.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The importance for us of having these plants operational is very important for a couple of reasons. Our large trading partners to our north in the Asia Pacific are decarbonising at the rate of knots. They have a thirst for green ammonia. They have a thirst for hydrogen because they are energy poor. They run large manufacturing plants that are energy intensive, and they are looking for partners.

We are blessed in this state with coincident wind and solar resources, and we plan to take full advantage of those resources for the benefit of the people of South Australia. Renewables took a holiday under the previous government, but we are pushing ahead at speed. We are pushing ahead at speed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We won't see the demonisation of renewable energy under this government. We support it. We back it. We believe in it. The thing about green hydrogen is that it pushes that envelope again, and we will continue to push the envelope because South Australia is a nation leader. Despite what members opposite say—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —we believe that renewables and storage—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —are the answer to decarbonisation. Even now, in 2022 the old culture war and the old climate wars are being brought out again by members opposite talking about the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order under 134 the member for Morialta wishes to raise with me.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Sir, standing order 98: the minister is characterising the opposition's questions as entirely contested statements in a way that we do not think is reasonable, and it is utterly outside standing orders.

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett! There is some merit and some force in the member's submission to me. I ask the minister to chart a line closer to the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. We are keen because we want to make sure that our plant is operational by 2025 for a number of reasons: first and foremost is to be a world leader in signing up those international markets for arrangements to have the use of green hydrogen; and, more importantly, the work we did in the previous Weatherill government to ensure the long-term viability of the steelworks in Whyalla.

The opportunity for us to decarbonise steelmaking is an international opportunity for South Australia, not only in terms of steel production in this country but in our ability to export a decarbonised steel or iron product to the rest of the world. So, yes, it is a race, and finally South Australia is in it.

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