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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-11 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Power Prices

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:14): My question is to the Premier. What does the Premier say to the General Manager of Vili's about the cost of power in South Australia? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: It has been reported that beloved South Australian institution Vili's bakery will be forced to increase the price of its pies and pasties after being hit with an overnight 18 per cent increase to its power bills.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:14): It is always disappointing when we see a lack of competition, especially amongst our large energy consumers like Vili's. We saw this earlier with Nippy's as well. What is happening is a lot of these contracts are coming off very long-term contracts and they are now going back into the market and, given the increased gas prices that are in the market, a lot of the retail offerings to our large industrial customers have increased, and it is very, very disappointing.

The commonwealth government has put a cap of a gas price, along with a code of conduct. Unfortunately, I think that cap is acting like a floor rather than a ceiling and we are seeing offers of gas prices well above that $12, which is informing what prices are for energy retailers. It is important to note that the best way to overcome this is for there to be a lot more renewable energy into the system. Gas is setting the price and gas is pushing the price up. As gas increases the price because of its scarcity because of the conflicts in Ukraine and what is going in Europe, you are seeing gas prices elevated and you are seeing some domestic policies on gas. You are seeing some domestic policies having an impact on gas as well.

You are seeing, of course, relief on the retail end of this here in South Australia. We are seeing some of the prices coming down for residential households, but they are not coming down anywhere near fast enough. This isn't a problem isolated to South Australia. This is a national problem. This problem is occurring in Queensland, it is occurring in New South Wales, it is occurring in Victoria, it is occurring across the country, and we need a national response to this. We want the commonwealth government to obviously have a national approach to this to see us then put downward pressure on gas firming prices.

Those gas firming prices are having a terrible impact on our businesses across the country, and we are seeing that of course in the national growth figures, which are showing that the national growth across the economy is not as healthy as it is here in South Australia. But, yes, indeed it is tough for Vili's. It is very tough for our large—

Mr Teague: Are you going to go back to island South Australia? Are you going to cut us off from the grid now?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Words of wisdom. Cutting South Australia off from the rest of the grid would be a stupid thing to do, and members opposite who are advocating for it, like the member for Heysen, just shows the ignorance when it comes to the electricity market.

Mr Teague: Advocating for directly the opposite.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Why would we want to cut ourselves off from the National Electricity Market?

Mr Teague: It's what you've been talking about.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's a silly and stupid suggestion to make. I have to say that they—

Mr Teague: You have been talking about this parochialism in South Australia. How dare you misrepresent the views of those opposite.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Then move a point of order.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I think he is upset. He applied to be a senior counsel and he was rejected, and I think because the application was rejected he is a bit sensitive. It's not my fault, I didn't reject him. It was his peers. It was his peers, not me. It was his peers. I didn't reject him.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Now, Mr Speaker, I am concerned about the impact of energy prices on companies like Vili's, because I really do enjoy Vili's. They are a great South Australian product and I hope that that family business can continue to succeed.

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