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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-14 Daily Xml
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Zero Emission Public Transport

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Can the minister update the house on the Malinauskas government's progress towards zero emission public transport?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:38): Yes, I can. I thank the member for his question, and I know his commitment to zero carbon technology. Recently, I was able to announce two new hydrogen fuel cell buses—

Mr Patterson: Two? What, two?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, two is more than none, which is how many we had under the previous government. In fact, some might say it has been a dramatic increase on the previous government's efforts.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey, member for Newland, member for Elder! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: My young friend's commitment—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —is admirable but misplaced.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: You are the Greta Thunberg of South Australia.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: People have said that. My colleague says that to me all the time: 'You're so green!'

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am pleased to inform the house that these buses have now entered into service and are being trialled across our network. I am advised that the hydrogen buses have already made appearances across the member for Adelaide's electorate, and they are being spotted by enthusiasts and patrons alike and they are very excited.

My young friend may have spotted one of these buses and you can tell the excitement on his face. It's almost as good as a show bag—almost as good as a show bag—or a limo. It's the same sort of thing. You get the same sort of photograph in the back if you want.

For those in the house who aren't aware, hydrogen fuel cell buses do not actually burn hydrogen. Hydrogen is passed through a fuel cell and the by-product of these fuel cells is water. Think of the amenity improvements we will see in the CBD. The reverberation between buildings of diesel buses accelerating, not only releasing particulate pollution but also noise throughout the city, makes the city quite frankly very, very noisy.

A lot of the noise that contributes to the city amenity comes from our public transport system. Currie Street and Grenfell Street are the funnel points of most of our public transport coming into the CBD. They do create a great deal of noise and do have an adverse impact on amenity. The amenity improvements on not only the member for Adelaide's constituency but the benefits for the entire state of an electrolysed fleet are, quite frankly, dramatic.

The ability for us to improve population standards and population numbers in the city of Adelaide could be dramatic. So what we are delivering through this trial is trialling a hydrogen fuel cell bus in Australian conditions. It's one thing to trial these things in Europe or in London, it's another thing to trial them in Australia where we get extreme temperatures on either side—and, quite frankly, it's important that we get this right.

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sorry?

Mr Cowdrey: We don't get that cold.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We don't get that cold? Okay.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I will take the expert advice from the shadow treasurer.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The current shadow treasurer, yes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have to say I think the current Treasurer is really hoping he stays. But anyway, these hydrogen buses are a part of our entire decarbonisation story. What we are attempting to do is, on coming to office we stopped the ordering of any future diesel buses—something that the previous government had relied on as part of the fleet. We want to decarbonise our fleet, so the only buses we will order from now on will be either hybrid, fully electric or hydrogen fuel cell. The electric buses offer us an opportunity to test our solar sponge technology, but there will be more on this to say as questions go on throughout the term.

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