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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-10-19 Daily Xml
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Renewable Energy Summit

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change. Will the minister update the chamber about the recent Renewable Energy Summit hosted by this government?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:53): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. The response by South Australians to the extreme weather events that began at the end of September has been nothing short of inspiring. As storms like nothing we have seen in recent times battered our state, the SES, along with volunteers from right across the community, banded together, and I am sure the entire parliament gives its thanks especially to these organisations, these early responders, particularly the SES, for keeping us safe and protecting our property.

However, while most of the state was pulling together, there were a few incredibly disappointing exceptions. No sooner had the power gone out, than we had the unedifying sight of the former colleague of ours, Senator Nick Xenophon, on national TV giving a fact-free rant about renewables. He was shortly joined by the member for Dunstan in the other place, Steven Marshall, the Liberal leader, who jumped on the anti-renewables bandwagon with extreme claims about obsessions with renewable energy.

The member for Dunstan, Steven Marshall, the Liberal Leader of the Opposition's stance was shared by One Nation's Malcolm Roberts, but then again Senator Bernardi has said that the Liberals need to be more like One Nation, I understand, so perhaps that is the ultimate ambition we saw in practice there by the member for Dunstan in the other place. Coming up behind, at great speed of course, was the Prime Minister. Once upon a time a strong supporter of renewable energy and action on climate change, here he was complaining about renewables.

In one corner we had the Premier, the state government, the scientific community, economists and energy experts talking sense and giving the facts about the systems that were under stress and what actually happened, and in the other corner we had Nick Xenophon, Pauline Hanson and One Nation, the member for Dunstan, Steven Marshall, the Liberal opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. These attacks on renewable energy and on South Australian jobs are offensive enough but to have them occur when the state is still in crisis and when the SES is out fighting to save lives and property is just disgraceful.

It was a time for leadership, not a time for political game playing but that is all we saw from the Liberal Party. In a week following the extreme weather, the Premier and I convened a summit of leading scientists, energy experts and economists to discuss the vital role that renewable energy will play in Australia's future. The summit featured Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel AO, economist and former Liberal leader, Dr John Hewson, economist and ZEN Energy Chairman, Professor Ross Garnaut, Tesla Energy's Regional Manager Business Development, Ms Lara Olsen, and many other nationally and internationally recognised experts—too many to name right now, although I could be enticed into it.

New York's most senior energy official, Mr Richard Kauffman, spoke via teleconference on his experience of transforming the New York energy sector in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which led to blackouts in that major global city of up to 10 days, I am advised. Attendees confirmed that renewables must play a key role in transitioning to a low-carbon future and that more effort is required to ensure a resilient, secure and truly national energy market. Rather than try to summarise what they said, I would like to directly quote some of those participants. Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, said:

This is an important opportunity to learn from the responses and the results but on the surface of it you could speculate that if those were six thermal generators, they would have disconnected also and you would still have been in the black energy situation requiring a black start. If you had a national gas generator there and the voltage was collapsing and the frequency was collapsing that natural gas generator would have taken itself off the grid just as rapidly as the wind farms take themselves off. That is the intention of safety circuits; safety circuits at the end of the day protect the device.

Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Climate Council, said:

Climate change is exacerbating extreme weather like the storm experienced in South Australia. There is an international transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy underway. Australia's generation capacity is ageing and inefficient. Renewable energy is critical for Australia's future. We need a national energy and climate plan.

Mr Kane Thornton, CEO of the Clean Energy Council, said:

With crisis comes opportunity for leadership, to provide a coherent and long-term strategy and plan to transition Australia's energy system to a zero emission, resilient and smart system.

Mr Miles George, General Manager of Infigen Energy, said:

All participants in the electricity market are seeking cooperation between states and the federal government to deliver harmonised policies to transition to a sustainable 21st century electricity system.

In the face of so many scientifically illiterate comments—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —from some of those opposite right now, including the Hon. David Ridgway and including their lame duck leader, the member for Dunstan in the other place, Steven Marshall, Liberal opposition leader, it was great to have national energy experts here in Adelaide to reiterate the importance of renewable energy to our future.

Do you know one thing that not a single expert analyst or economist mentioned at the summit, Mr President? Reopening the privately owned Port Augusta coal power plant at taxpayers' expense. Not one of them. No, that was left to the member for Stuart and the state Liberal Party to recommend. What a joke this bunch is—what a joke! Reopening the coal-fired power station that they sold off when they were last in government. The Hon. Rob Lucas walks into the chamber—the champion of the sale of ETSA. That is what he has to hang around his head as his laurel from his period in government. They sold the electricity system in South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —to the private sector.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, please take your seat. Leader of the Opposition, your behaviour is totally unacceptable and, Leader of the Government, yours is not much better. Please, set the examples.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I was much better behaved when he wasn't here last week.

The PRESIDENT: We don't need your commentary. Set the examples. Allow the minister to finish his answer in silence.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President, for your protection—I certainly need it. At a time when the entire developed world is transitioning away from coal—the entire developed world, including the finance and insurance industries—we have the South Australian Liberal Party wanting to spend taxpayers' money to reopen privately-owned, dirty emitting power plants they sold to private enterprise.

Just last week, the Canberra Times reported that Australia is facing questions at the United Nations of a post-2020 climate change stance. They reported that Australia is facing renewed international pressure to explain what it is doing to tackle climate change. There is a United Nations review finding its emissions continue to soar, and several countries calling for clarity about what Australia will do after 2020.

Imagine what they would say if the government started randomly subsidising coal power stations again that, may I add, have already started to be dismantled. Countries including China and the US have put more than 30 questions, I understand, to the Turnbull government on this topic. They are asking for detail about how Australia will meet its 2030 emissions targets and raising concerns about a lack of transparency over how the government calculates and reports emissions. What an incredibly embarrassing situation for the Australian government to be in!

Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific analysis of international climate change policies, points out that, nationally, Australia stands out as having the largest relative gap between current policy projections for carbon emissions by 2030 and the Paris target for emissions reduction. Australia's emissions are set to increase substantially to more than 27 per cent above 2005 levels by 2030, which is equivalent to an increase of around 61 per cent above 1990 levels. What a shameful record—what a shameful record for this national Liberal government! Mr President, you might also have seen the results of the Carbon Market Institute's annual industry survey on climate change released early in October. Of 208 senior executives surveyed:

83 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that baselines under the safeguard mechanism should be set to tighten over time in line with Australia's 2030 emissions reduction target. What's the government's response? None at all;

92 per cent believe that the conditions and criteria for how emissions baselines under the safeguard mechanism will be adjusted in the post-2020 period is an essential component of the upcoming 2017 policy review, but will the federal government consider it? No, not on your Nellie;

85 per cent of respondents indicated Australia should be part of an international carbon market development under the Paris agreement. No, the federal government is ruling that out completely;

83 per cent indicated it is important there are other sources of private sector demand for domestic abatement under the Emissions Reduction Fund. What will the federal government do? 'No, we have enough money to get us to 2020. We are not going to worry about where we get to the pathway to 2030 at all. We are not promising anything about the future'; and

77 per cent of respondents said Australia should have a stronger emissions reduction target in line with the Climate Change Authority's recommended 40 to 60 per cent reduction below 2000 levels by 2030.

Again, the federal government just sticks its head in the sand, puts its finger in its ear—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order, sir.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —and doesn't listen to anything the world has to say.

The PRESIDENT: Point of order, the Hon. Mr Dawkins.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: The minister has just exceeded 10 minutes on this answer, and I ask you to bring him to a close—10 minutes.

The PRESIDENT: A number of things: first of all, it is an important topic but—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! It is an important topic but, minister, try to keep your answers a little bit shorter and come to a conclusion.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: With all the greatest respect, Mr President, I would have been finished by now without the interjections, I have to say. We in South Australia set clear and unambiguous targets—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —that enable business to invest in South Australia, creating new jobs and new opportunities for our state. This government will continue to fight for South Australian jobs in the face of deafening silence from the Liberal Party in South Australia. I respond to the pathetic interjections from the Hon. David Ridgway, who hates renewable energy, hates wind energy—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! There is no way people can complain if they are going to continually interject while the minister is on his feet.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: He misrepresents what I'm saying.

The PRESIDENT: No, he is answering the question in the way he wants to answer it, whether you like it or not. I think it is important that you allow the minister to finish his answer. Minister, can you try to speed up the answer?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I could start again, Mr President—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —but I won't. Another important thing we should note, in conclusion, is that in a very few short weeks it will be the Hon. Mr Lucas's 34th anniversary in this place. Congratulations, happy anniversary, Hon. Mr Lucas. The highlight of his career in this place, his 34 years in this place, is that he sold ETSA—he sold the Electricity Trust of South Australia—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: So did you, so did you! You were part of the government that sold it; you were part of the government that sold ETSA. Don't you pipe up!

The PRESIDENT: Order! Sit down, minister. This is disgraceful behaviour. We have a crowd up there, who are obviously enjoying it. In particular I do not want to see screaming from behind the minister's back. I want the minister to quickly finish his answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: This is an honourable gentleman, sir, who strides into this place with his black and white document titled '2036', the only Liberal Party policy they have got, a title like that: it should be called '1836'. Policies of the Hon. Robert Lucas and the Liberal Party take us back to coal-fired generation. They will take us back to the dark ages of 1836 if they ever get into government.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Brokenshire.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: On a point of order, sir: you ask us to operate respectfully and show due respect to members, and you are referring to somebody as being a senator: we don't have senators in this chamber.

The PRESIDENT: Thank you for bringing that to my attention. The Hon. Mr Hood.

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