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

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:59): My question is again to the Minister for Small and Family Business. What does the Minister for Small and Family Business say to South Australian business Golden North Ice Cream about the cost of power in this state? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: It has been reported that Golden North Ice Cream has had its power bill jump by 48 per cent. Managing director, Peter Adamo, said in relation to skyrocketing power prices, 'We won't be able to absorb it.'

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:00): I again go back to my original premise on the question, that the scenarios that are being faced across the country are not unique to South Australia, they are happening across the country. You are seeing this pressure in Queensland, you are seeing this pressure in New South Wales, you are seeing this pressure all across this great country. Why? Because there are international price shocks to commodities, and those commodities are gas and coal.

What you are seeing is that those gas prices are setting the price of energy because they are being used to firm renewables, because renewables have not been built at the pace they should have been built because of the climate wars. So our previous answers stand. It is all very well to get up and start listing people who complain about higher power prices—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: We will, don't worry.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I'm sure you will. Do you know what the hard part is? Coming up with a policy to deal with it rather than complaining about it.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The shadow treasurer—I can't say that without laughing—says, 'What are you going to do about it?' Well, I will tell you what we are going to do about it. First and foremost, we have set a renewable energy target, bringing it two years forward to 2027. Why? Because renewable energy is cheaper, and no level of shouting into the wind will change those facts. When you overbuild renewables you actually see power prices drop. This government is not anti gas.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: This government is not trying to stifle the exploration of gas.

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders can leave the chamber until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Flinders having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: What a loss for the team. In the absence of a policy, it is a bit rich for members opposite to continually criticise the government for scenarios that are out of our control. The idea that we can set the price of gas in this state for our gas fleet of generators is absurd. It is absolutely absurd. What do we do in response to that? We have a policy in place that allows companies like Beach and Santos, companies like Vintage that are growing in the Cooper Basin, and other companies that are exploring for gas, that are looking for conventional gas in the South-East, to encourage those companies to go out and make sure that they can actually get gas into the system to lower those prices.

We are also incentivising and making sure that renewable energy is built. We have legislated the Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act. We are going out to the market this week with vast areas for consultation of gigawatt scale renewable energy to try to get those prices down. Members opposite didn't like us doing that on pastoral leases and pastoral land so we had to get that through the parliament.

We are doing what we can to try to lower power prices. Members opposite don't have a policy on energy. They don't have one. They don't have any policy. All they have is complaints, and complaints are easy. What is hard is policy. They are trying to ride on the coat-tails of Peter Dutton and some pie in the sky nuclear policy, which is not going to work because what we need is firming fast-start generation to come on and off to firm renewables. We don't need large base load generation because it is expensive and those costs will be passed on.

If they think prices are expensive now, imagine replicating what has happened in Georgia in the United States with the Vogtle nuclear power plant that was expanded—$37 billion—$37 billion for a nuclear generator. Imagine those costs being amortised across 860,000 households across South Australia. What would that do to power prices? You don't have to be a senior counsel to work that out, do you?

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