Petroleum Bill

Extract from Hansard

Legislative Council
4 October 2001

Sandra Kanck
Deputy Leader Australian Democrats
Member of the Legislative Council

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The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney- General, representing the Minister for Minerals and Energy, a question about renewable energy.

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: Last week, the Advertiser reported that the state government had broken its promise to establish a sustainable energy authority with an annual budget which would have been up to $6 million and that, instead, it will allocate just $1.29 million to a renamed agency, Energy SA. In defending the broken promise, in an interview on 5AN, Minister Matthew claimed that the government had looked at the models of other states and decided that we were better off going this way. SEINS (Sustainable Energy Industry National Survey) paints an entirely different picture. SEINS indicates that, of all the states, South Australia, which does not have a sustainable energy authority-

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: -has the least number of businesses benefiting from government programs for sustainable energy. It should be noted that much of this money comes in the form of federal grants. Hence, South Australia is missing out on its fair share of this federal development money. Other damning statistics of South Australia's performance include the fact that the average wage bill for South Australian sustainable energy firms was $ 462 100 in 1999-2000 compared to a national average of $774 000. That expenditure on research and development by such South Australian firms averaged just $65 000 in 1999-2000, well below the national figure of $350 000, and the average number of full-time equivalent employees in South Australian sustainable energy firms was just 4.4 compared with the national average of 15.6.

By way of contrast, New South Wales, with the oldest sustainable development authority in Australia, SEDA, has the lion's share of the sustainable energy market. Kim Yealdon, the New South Wales Minister for Energy, has released figures indicating that 40 per cent of all sustainable energy firms are based in New South Wales. Thus, New South Wales snares $16 billion of the $33 billion in economic benefits generated by the industry in Australia, and it has 11 500 full- time employees compared to the 380 employed in South Australia. My questions are:

1. Did the minister receive a report on the matter before making a decision to ditch the concept of a sustainable energy authority?

3. If no report was produced, on what basis did the minister decide that South Australia would be better off without a sustainable energy authority?

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN (Attorney-General): I will refer the question to my colleague in another place and bring back a reply.