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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-30 Daily Xml
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River Murray Flood

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Has the minister met with SA Power Networks and the technical regulator to clarify how power disconnections are likely to impact homes and irrigators in the Riverland?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:46): Yes, I have.

Mr WHETSTONE: Excuse me, minister—and with your leave and that of the house, I will explain, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is an explanation that is to be offered.

Mr WHETSTONE: Minister, last night, myself—

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey, you have sought leave. Is leave granted?

Honourable members: Yes, sir.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: Minister, last night, myself, households, primary producers and irrigators in my electorate were advised via text message that their power may be immediately disconnected for several weeks, possibly months.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I share the member's concerns for this, and we have discussed it together personally. The member has my mobile phone number. He can call me any time he likes about these matters, in particular about individual disconnections, and I will follow each and every one up with SA Power Networks.

What we are doing—the Office of the Technical Regulator and SA Power Networks—is asking the OTR to double-check and triple-check every single time SAPN wishes to disconnect a cohort of energy users from the grid to make sure that their reasons are justified in the interests of safety. I have no doubt that the level of inconvenience the member is talking about is real and that the people he is advocating on behalf of have legitimate fears about being without power for months.

For example, there are a number of people who won't be directly impacted by the floodwaters who are being advised that because infrastructure that they are reliant on for power is on the flood plain and that they may be disconnected.

SA Power Networks have been told by the South Australian government, as have ElectraNet, that we want to do everything we can and we will do everything we can to try to not so much bend the rules but give exemptions where necessary where we can put in safety parameters that will allow power to be allowed to be kept on.

For example, there are currently about 50 lines across the river and the reason that SA Power Networks may choose to disconnect some people is that, as river levels rise, boating on the river could reach a mandatory height ceiling close to powerlines, and that means that there could be a danger of electrocution, so there are very real reasons. What we can do as the OTR and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport is put a cordon around that area to make sure that all boating facilities, all boating use, around that area are prohibited to try to allow those powerlines to be in use for longer. Ultimately, we reach a point where it might become impractical, so we are trying to find practical solutions to this.

I share the member's frustration. He is right to be annoyed at this. He is right to be angry at this because in the 21st century anyone going without power for prolonged periods of time is unacceptable. I agree. We agree. The member knows how his constituents feel. He is closest to them. We are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that we only turn power off where it is absolutely necessary.

But I do caveat that statement with this: there are going to be times when we are going to upset people because of the rules we have all uniformly put in place. When I say uniformly, I mean uniformly—all of us, unopposed, in this parliament. There are regulations and rules about electrical safety around live lines, transmission and distribution lines and they will be enforced.

Where we can find commonsense solutions to try to keep power on, we will. The Treasurer has put in a pool of money that SAPN can access to put in generation and of course we can also augment and move pumps, so we are doing what we can.

My very strong advice to the member for Chaffey is to contact SAPN or contact me directly as these scenarios come up. I give him this undertaking: I will work with you in a non-partisan way to make sure we can keep as many of your constituents on the grid, on power, for as long as possible. But there will be occasions when the member and I will have to give some disappointing messages to his constituents about power, and those members in this house who live in the Adelaide Hills know exactly what I'm talking about.

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