Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a few things I think we tend to take for granted in Australian life. We tend to take for granted our clean, safe drinking water, we tend to take for granted our fresh, unpolluted air, and usually, I would say, we tend to take for granted our secure, reliable and affordable power supply—but not anymore in South Australia. I am appalled that my home state no longer has secure, reliable and affordable power. We have suffered an internationally unprecedented blackout and we are now facing, nationally, unprecedented high power prices. South Australian residents and businesses can no longer rely on a secure, affordable electricity supply. Families cannot afford to pay their skyrocketing power prices; pensioners and the elderly cannot afford heating or cooling; businesses must now lurch from contract to contract, pushing up the already climbing cost of living. This is the sad reality of energy security in South Australia, and my residents in Boothby and across the state are dealing with this reality every single day.

The unprecedented statewide power blackout earlier this year stands as a prime example of the South Australian power network in turmoil, thanks to 14 long years of a failed state Labor government. With no power anywhere, our entire state was thrown into chaos. Businesses and places of work had to shut down, forcing huge amounts of traffic onto the roads. We did not have enough police to make up for the downed traffic lights, because traffic lights were out at every single intersection, and an already dangerous situation was made far more dangerous.

I want to pay tribute to the amazing job our police did in terribly dangerous conditions. They all put their lives at risk and we should all be very thankful for the job that they did keeping everyone safe. I also want to pay tribute to residents in my electorate of Boothby, who had experienced a very significant flooding event just before this power blackout, and at the time they thought they were going to be flooded again. So they had no power and they thought that they were going to be flooded. It was a terrible situation.

While this was all going on we had another crisis unfolding at the Flinders Medical Centre. Only an hour into the power blackout the generator failed at Adelaide's second biggest hospital, and it is a miracle, I think, that no lives were lost. Unfortunately, clients of the fertility clinic at the hospital were not so fortunate and, tragically, many healthy embryos that were about to be used in IVF treatment were lost. Industrial areas were shut down in Adelaide and in our regions, costing tens of millions of dollars at a time when our state finances can least afford it. The struggling steel operation at Arrium, the main employer in Whyalla, which is already doing it tough, as we know, lost about $10 million due to the blackout.

These unacceptable crises are some of the worst that South Australia has faced, and the lack of energy security will throw more at our community. They really do—and should—expect better, and they deserve better. However, it is when we compare the ongoing effects of the failed state Labor government that one really appreciates what this unreliable electricity market means to householders and businesses. South Australia has the highest electricity prices in the nation and some of the highest in the developed world. For retail consumers, this means they are struggling to pay the bills. Pensioners and seniors must constantly ask themselves whether they can afford the cost of simply heating and cooling their homes, and with another hot Adelaide summer coming up I really worry what this means for the health of our elderly South Australians. Mums and dads are struggling to balance the household budget, and the quarterly electricity bill is one that they dread. This is not just because they never know how high it will be but because it means they cannot spend that money on other things like their children's education. In short, energy poverty is a real issue in South Australia.

This situation is already scary enough but, with the closure of Victoria's Hazelwood station, upon which South Australia relies quite heavily, it is only going to get worse. The unstable energy market is also impacting our economy, which has stagnated thanks to Labor's antibusiness and antijobs policies. Employers who are dealing with the highest state taxes in the country and the nation's most expensive WorkCover scheme must now try to scrape together the money merely to keep the lights on. There are small businesses in my electorate facing electricity price hikes of over 200 per cent. Even those businesses who wish to invest in energy efficient plant and equipment cannot do so, because so much of their revenue is going into paying the bills. This really is not good enough. We need safe, secure and reliable power supply in Boothby and in South Australia, and we need it now.