Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 18 February the South Australian government removed more than $1 million from the Remote Area Energy Scheme. This is a subsidy paid to towns and communities that generate power off the grid. Generally, it is a diesel generation arrangement. There are 13 communities affected, the largest of which is Coober Pedy, as well as Andamooka, Yunta, Nundroo, Marla, Oodnadatta, Marree, Kingoonya, Glendambo, Parachilna, Blinman, Manna Hill and Cockburn.

The result of this withdrawal of subsidy is these towns and the businesses in these towns, the bigger users of electricity, will see a greater than 100 per cent increase in the tariff that they will pay. It is not as if they start from a low base. Already electricity in these communities is about 50 per cent higher than that paid by the rest of the people on the grid. Typically, they pay around 29c or 30c a kilowatt-hour. They will be paying 60c a kilowatt-hour. For some businesses it will mean extra bills in excess of $100,000 a year. If I take the case of Coober Pedy, not only is electricity difficult there, it is a pretty dry spot as well so water is also difficult. What they have to do is desalinate the saline groundwater supply. That will cost the council an extra $185,000 a year under the new electricity rates, which will be passed on to the water consumers who already pay $4.93 for a kilolitre. They will be paying $5.70 for a kilolitre. I know we are all complaining about water and electricity prices all around Australia but it is $5.70 a kilolitre. What the state government has done here is increase the cost of living for everybody who lives in these communities because these business owners will have to pass on the cost to their consumers.

The great insult we have in South Australia with this dereliction of duty by the government is that every other state in the Commonwealth actually recognises this as an issue and has state-wide electricity pricing policies. But the Minster for Energy, Michael O'Brien, says, 'These people choose to live there; they can pay the bill.' I might point out to Minister O'Brien that subsidies work both ways in our economy. For the people of Coober Pedy, Oodnadatta and Andamooka it is a little hard to access the public transport subsidies that are directed into the city, or the subsidies which go into the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Festival of Arts or the V8 Supercars races that take to our streets each year, or the new tram lines that are being built in the city, or indeed the $500 million plus to be spent on the Adelaide Oval upgrade. I am not particularly picking on any one of those investments by the state government, but the point is that taxpayers' dollars from all over the state go into those projects and they choose not to spend any of the dollars in these remote communities.

The government is prepared to put millions of dollars into supplying electricity to remote Indigenous communities, but towns like Coober Pedy have significant populations of Indigenous people and their electricity prices are all affected by the cuts in subsidy. It flows right through the economy and affects the price of everything they buy. One of the reasons Indigenous people come to these communities is that there are jobs there. So what these policies are doing is barring them access and pushing them further and further out into the remote communities, when in fact we should be trying to draw them into the communities where they can find work.

The minister, under a great deal of pressure, has recently announced a phase-in period, but it does not cut the mustard. I attended a meeting in Coober Pedy two weeks ago with Senator Nick Xenophon and John Darley, who is an independent member of the state's upper house. We had more than 200 people attend. I believe we would have had more but we had it underground and that is about all we could get into the dugout at that point. I can tell you the people of Coober Pedy, who are leading the charge on behalf of the other 12 communities affected, are incensed by their treatment from the state government, which has turned its back on the regional parts of South Australia.