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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-15 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Morialta Electorate

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:17): The weekend saw significant weather events that dramatically impacted on the lives of many South Australians. More than 160,000 SA Power Networks customers experienced blackouts as a result of Saturday's storms. Constituents in Morialta and across the eastern suburbs—and I know in the member for Hartley's electorate, and indeed right across metropolitan Adelaide and certain regions in South Australia—felt dramatic impacts. Some people suffered trees and branches falling on their houses and cars and other property. Some people experienced severe and significant flooding events. I know that some of my constituents had that very profound experience and it was a great challenge to many.

The loss of power had a dramatic impact for residents and businesses—businesses in Newton, for example, such as Fine Food Cucina. I visited them first thing Sunday morning after talking to the owners. As I understand it, tens and tens of thousands of dollars worth of stock had to be destroyed as a result of the power outages. Businesses right across Morialta and metropolitan South Australia have had dramatic impacts. Some of them have been insured for stock but that does not take into account anything like the significant costs to those businesses, not to mention the fact that it is such an extraordinary and heartbreaking waste of so much good product, so much good South Australian product. There were more than 420,000 lightning strikes and winds of up to 106 km/h, with the Adelaide Hills and southern suburbs also hit very hard.

As of this morning, there were still more than 12,000 SA Power Networks' customers without power. In my electorate, that includes residents in Athelstone and Rostrevor. I was very fortunate, and my family had power restored only in the early hours of Monday morning. We were expecting it to be out until tonight as, indeed, were many others. In the member for Hartley's area—residents in Felixstow and Paradise—and across the South Australian metropolitan area, thousands and thousands are still affected.

Nearly 50 schools were closed on Monday, with another 24 still closed today. This is the largest outage event experienced in South Australia since the statewide blackout in 2016. Emergency services workers have been working around the clock since Saturday. Crews from interstate have been brought in. I visited the Athelstone CFS on Sunday morning, bringing them some food that was still good from Fine Food Cucina as it happens. They had been out until three in the morning and they were back in the CFS at 8 o'clock, prepared to do another full day's work. They were again going through the night, as were so many other volunteers and personnel, including CFS brigades, SES units and other volunteer groups around the state.

South Australians should be commended for their resilience over the last few days. Looking forward, we know that the storms have damaged our interconnector with Victoria, which has left us islanded from the national grid. The interconnector is critical because it allows us to import power at a time of need but, equally important, it allows us to export when we produce excess renewable energy. The former member for Stuart, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, would regularly inform the house about the risks of what it would do to damage the system if we had a situation of negative net demand on a regular basis.

That is why the interconnector to New South Wales was such a critical priority for the former Marshall Liberal government. That is why the former Marshall Liberal government invested in an interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales: Project EnergyConnect, a $2.4 billion infrastructure project that will drive billions upon billions of dollars of investment into renewable energy projects and serve to create thousands of new jobs. It will work to drive down the price of electricity for families and businesses around our state. Importantly, in light of recent events, Project EnergyConnect will strengthen our power grid. If Project EnergyConnect were in place, then the next few days would be less nervous.

The Labor Party promised to have that South Australia and New South Wales interconnector 20 years ago, in 2002. It was on Mike Rann's pledge card. There are people who put Contact over those pledge cards and they still survive to this day. The Museum of Australian Democracy no doubt has a copy. People can look it up. It was one of the key pledges that Rann would deliver, and then Labor spent 16 years not interested—

Mr Brown interjecting:

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

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —until it was invested in, supported—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —by the Marshall Liberal government against the constant argument, the constant refrain from the now Minister for Energy and Mining when he was in opposition—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: His criticisms were constant. He talked down the project vigorously ever since it was announced, until yesterday when he went on radio and finally supported it. We welcome that support, we look forward to the government overseeing the final delivery of this crucial project and I thank once again all our emergency services volunteers and personnel who have served our state and our residents so well over the last four days.

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