E&OE…
Topics: SA blackout; Arrium; Labor Senate motion; plebiscite
DAVID SPEERS:
Alright, you’re watching PM Agenda. It’s two weeks yesterday since the South Australian blackout, that blackout that knocked out the electricity for the entire state.
Two weeks on, there are plenty of arguments still going on about exactly what happened and why, but also about how to prevent this sort of thing happening in the future.
We’re also going to get a few more details now about the cost this has had on industry as well. With me now is the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Greg Hunt. Thank you for joining me this afternoon.
GREG HUNT:
Thank you David.
DAVID SPEERS:
Start on this cost question. Some of the big, heavy industry like Arrium, they are now, the steel maker, they are back up and running?
GREG HUNT:
Correct.
DAVID SPEERS:
But are they running 100 per cent operations?
GREG HUNT:
So I met with the general manager of the Whyalla Steel Plant today. They are running. They have no spare capacity in case there’s any disruption to their electricity.
They’ve had to bring in, fly in and truck in 20 megawatts of diesel capacity. We of course offered the South Australian Government to use the RAAF to fly in from Tasmania.
They declined, so the firm went about it themselves. Very strange decision. Secondly, we know that Arrium has lost about $30 million.
DAVID SPEERS:
$30 million?
GREG HUNT:
$30 million.
DAVID SPEERS:
It is a company already …
GREG HUNT:
For a firm at a critical time in its history.
DAVID SPEERS:
And some of the other industries and even small businesses, what sort of costs have been racked up now?
GREG HUNT:
Well, in Port Lincoln the Possum Corner Store, as it’s known, lost $20,000 when its refrigerators went down and all of its food was spoiled.
Now, who knows what will be covered by insurance, but it has a huge cash flow effect as well as the loss of stock, because they lost internet, they lost EFTPOS, they lost lighting, they lost telecommunications.
People weren’t moving. So it had a huge impact on their cash flow as well as $20,000 directly.
DAVID SPEERS:
Now clearly, no-one wants this to happen again. No side of politics wants this sort of blackout to happen again.
Labor and the Greens, and in particular Sam Dastyari and Larissa Waters in the Senate yesterday, have tabled a motion in which they’re calling for a committee to investigate a number of things, including whether regulated planned closures of electricity generation and some industry could alleviate this sort of problem in the future.
GREG HUNT:
So this is an extraordinary proposition, and I think that it’s unique in Australian history where we’re talking about regulated planned closures of electricity generation and other industrial assets.
What does that mean? It means deliberately closing steel plants, deliberately closing lead smelters, deliberately closing an aluminium plant.
Essentially, deliberately closing blue collar employers on a grand scale.
In the week where we have just followed from the terrible loss of jobs in the automotive sector, now what Labor is saying is we’re going to throw all these workers on the scrap heap, we’re going to drive power stations out of business, and we want to drive industrial firms out of business.
I would say to Bill Shorten, rule this out today. Rule out forced Government closures of private sector businesses.
DAVID SPEERS:
Because in fairness he’s not, or the Senators aren’t saying this is what they want to do.
But they want it looked into, whether this could help.
GREG HUNT:
Look, when Sam Dastyari says he wants to examine forced closure of industrial assets, in other words, steel, aluminium, lead, could be other forms of heavy manufacturing such as cement, what he’s saying is let’s get rid of them.
It’s not just an accident.
This is their path to deindustrialising so much of not just South Australia but Australian industry, and it’s an extraordinary proposition from a party that was created by the unions and for the workers which has abandoned the workers and is at a place in history where it no longer cares about jobs.
DAVID SPEERS:
What about [inaudible] do they have a point, though, about planned regulated closures of electricity-generating assets?
Because isn’t part of the problem behind the South Australian power crisis that one private operator, the Port Augusta power station, was closed. But if that had been planned and regulated …
GREG HUNT:
Well, they drove them, they drove them out of town.
DAVID SPEERS:
Okay. But better planning, better regulation around the closure of these things might help. Is that what they’re getting at?
GREG HUNT:
What they’re saying is more job losses earlier. That’s what planned regulation means, where you are deliberately driving firms out of business.
DAVID SPEERS:
But couldn’t it also be interpreted to mean find a way to close these down, if they’re going to close like this one has on commercial grounds that it’s not going to have the sort of impact it has on South Australia.
GREG HUNT:
So we’re throwing taxpayers’ money at deliberately closing firms, destroying blue collar jobs, destroying industrial capacity, and destroying towns.
DAVID SPEERS:
Well, I’m not sure they’re saying all of that.
GREG HUNT:
I mean, that is the effect. So we are fighting to keep every job we can, and they’re building a plan to deindustrialise Australia.
In other words, we want to be a country that makes things. They want to be a country that imports things.
DAVID SPEERS:
But the full motion they’ve tabled says we’ve got to pay attention to the Paris commitments that your Government’s made [inaudible] the minister.
GREG HUNT:
Sure. We’re going to meet and beat them. We will meet and beat our Paris commitments.
DAVID SPEERS:
So we’ve got to do all of that, plus there will be power assets that need to be closed down.
So we need to plan that, we need to regulate that. We need to do it so it doesn’t have the impact on these blue collar jobs.
GREG HUNT:
I think this is an extraordinary moment where what we know is that we’re going to meet and beat our targets.
But South Australia right now, as Manufacturing Australia warned only yesterday, has power prices which are off the scale and energy security issues which are so bad that investment is being threatened.
In other words, the manufacturers of Australia are saying we don’t have the confidence to invest in South Australia.
So we’re trying to do everything we can to actually protect and create jobs in the industrial sector, which is why I met with people from Whyalla today, including the manager of the Arrium steel plant in Whyalla to try to build the case for a sale, whether domestically or internationally, to keep those jobs alive.
Labor would have it closed down.
DAVID SPEERS:
What happens with Victoria, with their brown coal-fired power station, and particularly Hazelwood?
The speculation is that will have to close some time next year. How well planned and regulated is that at the moment, so it doesn’t have the sort of impact you’re talking about?
GREG HUNT:
Well, the Andrews Government is trying to run Hazelwood out of town.
And what that will mean is again hundreds and hundreds of jobs for workers in the area, and I think it’s time for them to say do they want it to stay open, or do they want it to be closed? Because …
DAVID SPEERS:
What do you think? What do you think?
GREG HUNT:
I think that individual firms should decide, and our approach is to make sure that we are reducing emissions.
And we’re going to beat our 2020 targets, not just by a little amount. We are at minus 78 million tonnes.
We’ll probably be well north of a hundred and tracking towards a much higher figure by 2020.
We’re going to beat our 2030 targets. So we’re doing our very, very significant part.
But the current debate is extraordinary, where there’s a sense that these workers’ livelihoods don’t matter, that these communities can be cast on the scrap heap, and we’re fighting to keep every job.
They’re suddenly saying we give up, and in fact we want to run you out of town.
DAVID SPEERS:
Let me ask you finally, because we’re nearly out of time, the same-sex marriage debate. If the plebiscite doesn’t get up, what do you believe the Liberal Party should do?
GREG HUNT:
Well, I think we can get the plebiscite. I think Labor should get on board.
DAVID SPEERS:
What gives you that confidence?
GREG HUNT:
And secondly, we’re going to fight right through the process in the Senate.
I was told on many occasions that legislation I was working on in Environment would never get through the Senate, such as the Emissions Reduction Fund, such as the repeal of the Carbon Tax.
We got there, and we got there by working with the crossbench. Now …
DAVID SPEERS:
You really think this will get through?
GREG HUNT:
Well, I hope it does.
I want it to, and we’ll fight to make sure it does, and the reason is this is the first time in Australian history where a Government has put in place a path to resolution for same-sex marriage.
DAVID SPEERS:
Okay, but when you say you’ll fight for it, does that mean you’re willing to make changes to it?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I won’t pre-empt the discussions that another minister, in terms of George Brandis, the Attorney-General, is having and will have.
What I will say is this matters. This is a chance to resolve something.
DAVID SPEERS:
A flexible approach, though a flexible approach might be necessary.
GREG HUNT:
Well, he did sit down with the ALP, and unfortunately there was nothing put forward.
DAVID SPEERS:
Okay, but if it fails, if it doesn’t get through, then what?
GREG HUNT:
I’m not looking beyond the Senate. My hope and our goal is to get this passed, because it would be a profound moment in Australian history.
DAVID SPEERS:
Greg Hunt, Minister for Industry and Innovation. Thanks for joining us this afternoon.
(ENDS)