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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-29 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Power Prices

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. How much have power prices in South Australia risen during the term of this state government?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:07): The Leader of the Opposition knows that the gas crisis that was initially caused by the invasion by Russia into Ukraine had a dramatic impact on power prices. There were vast interventions by the commonwealth and state governments. The former Treasurer and the commonwealth Treasurer underwrote vast amounts of money to help offset these dramatic increases.

Anyone who stands up in this place, or in any other parliament of Australia, and says that they simply can have an impact on gas prices, which set the price of electricity in this state, is lying to the public. When politicians lie to the public and tell them, 'The reason your power prices have gone up is because of X, Y and Z,' but not the actual cause, should be held with contempt.

The people of South Australia are sick and tired of politicians getting up and telling people, 'We can lower your power prices,' while simultaneously banning gas development, while simultaneously stopping gas extraction out of our second largest basin and then saying, 'The shortage of gas is not our problem.'

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: And the interjections from members opposite are symbols of their guilt. If anyone wants to know who the guilty party is, look no further than to members opposite—the guilty party. When we had 200 megawatts of generation, who sold it? Members opposite. When we had transmission and distribution lines, who sold them? Members opposite. When we had generation in this state, who sold it? Members opposite. And when they put us at the mercy of market forces, who do they want to blame? Everyone else but themselves—everyone else but themselves.

Members opposite who yell out interjections—just yell out numbers and dates and years in an incoherent rant—show you exactly how disconnected they are from reality. Let's have a look at the confusion of members opposite—and this will be instructive.

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order: standing order 98(a). The question was very straightforward.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I was going to say, what took you?

Mr TEAGUE: Well—

The SPEAKER: Yes, I know. I think it's a fair point of order. Maybe if the Minister for Energy might address the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you very much, sir. ESCOSA do retail price comparisons, and they do one annually. They compare financial year to financial year. What the previous government used to do was commission reports, changing the dates to try to maximise what they thought could be a better outcome for them, rather than doing financial year to financial year. Members opposite are looking blank because they don't know what this all means. I will explain it to them.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Loud noises, yes.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Are you on the phone again? I would have thought that the one person who would have kept quiet this week, the one person who would maybe have hidden his light under a bushel, would have been you. But not you, hey? You are out there on the phone again. Yes, that's right; you're on the phone again.

They do price comparison reports, and ultimately retail pricing in South Australia has had an impact because of the impact that gas pricing has. The last bit of megawatt to firm the system sets the price. So when you are negotiating with AGL or Origin for your power bills, and you are looking at comparisons and reports, what you do get is obviously a forward plan, and that forward plan is influenced heavily by gas pricing. I have run out of time, but I will get back to it in the next question.