As Jay Weatherill confronts Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, poll shows he’s to blame for SA’s power crisis
AS Premier Jay Weatherill exploded SA's relationship with Canberra in a spectacular public ambush, an Advertiser-Galaxy poll shows voters in marginal seats say he is “mostly to blame” for our power crisis.
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AS Premier Jay Weatherill exploded SA's relationship with the Federal Government in a spectacular public ambush, a Advertiser-Galaxy poll shows voters in key marginal seats believe he is “mostly to blame” for the state’s power crisis.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull questioned Mr Weatherill’s mental state after Thursday’s vehement assault, levelled at stunned federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, who was visiting Adelaide to launch a battery scheme aimed at increasing the stability of SA’s grid. This morning he called the outburst a stunt.
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Mr Weatherill said it was a “disgrace” and “outrage” for the Federal Government to be “bagging” SA about its unreliable wind power, while Mr Frydenberg branded the Premier’s outburst as “unbecoming and childish”.
Mr Weatherill said: “It is a little galling to be standing here next to a man who has been standing up with his Prime Minister bagging SA at every step of the way over the last six months.
“For you (Mr Frydenberg) to be standing here, sitting next to us trying to take credit for some small scheme which goes nowhere near fixing the size and the extent of the problems that have been created in this state, it is an outrage.
“It is the most anti-SA government we have seen from a Commonwealth Government in living memory. It is a disgrace the way in which your government has treated our state.”
Mr Weatherill also called for the Federal Government to put a price on carbon emissions, saying it was a “humiliation” for Mr Frydenberg to have dropped consideration of such a move.
The intense electoral pressure of the power crisis on Mr Weatherill is now revealed in exclusive polls of key marginal seats, which also show the Federal Coalition mostly avoids blame.
The polls in Adelaide, Mawson and Newland show 39 per cent of respondents believe Mr Weatherill’s Government is “mostly to blame” for the power crisis, but Mr Turnbull’s Government was held responsible by just 10 per cent of respondents.
However, there are signs that Mr Weatherill’s recent bid to shift blame onto the Australian Energy Market Operator are gaining traction.
He claimed after the statewide blackout that the system was working as intended and shut down to protect infrastructure.
But in recent weeks, he has turned up attacks on AEMO for its management of the interconnector with Victoria and pointed to its failure to turn on the Pelican Point power station as blackout causes.
Thirty-five per cent of voters across the three seats blamed AEMO for high prices and blackouts.
The polls were conducted on Tuesday, hours after the launch of Mr Weatherill’s $550 million power plan that has a new taxpayer-funded power station as its centrepiece. More than 500 people were surveyed in each electorate. All are considered critical battlegrounds for the state election, exactly a year from today.
During Mr Weatherill’s tirade on Thursday, Mr Frydenberg stood quietly and looked bemused, before declaring: “Maybe Tom (Koutsantonis) will be the next premier of SA because I think after Jay Weatherill’s conduct today, the public would think that is pretty unbecoming and childish and pretty unacceptable for a senior political figure of their state to behave.
“I feel that the Premier is trying to come into this to crash-tackle us at this announcement where he hasn’t put any money into this important initiative, which the Commonwealth and AGL have, just shows you, unfortunately, how desperate he is.
“They didn’t give the Commonwealth any heads-up over their announcement (on Tuesday). You would have thought if the SA Government was intent on producing the best outcomes for their constituents, they would work with the Federal Government, but there was no pre-warning.”
Mr Frydenberg later accused Mr Weatherill of gatecrashing on Thursday’s event, after the Premier was added to the official list of speakers at 7am. But Mr Weatherill’s office said it alerted energy retailer AGL — which staged the event — last Friday of his desire to attend.
The Premier made his intentions clear at the start of the press conference. When a reporter asked Mr Frydenberg “Is this a bit awkward?”, Mr Weatherill quietly interjected: “It’s about to be.”
Opposition Leader Steven Marshall described Mr Weatherill’s attack as “unhinged behaviour”.
The blow-up overshadowed Mr Turnbull’s Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme announcement. In Talbingo, NSW, to spruik plans for a $2 billion expansion of the scheme, he was forced to address the incident. “I understand that the Premier’s conduct spoke volumes about the Premier’s state of mind at the moment.”
This morning Mr Turnbull told Channel 7’s Sunrise show that Australians wanted action “not stunts like Jay Weatherill pulled”.
Mr Weatherill branded the Snowy expansion an “insult” to SA. He said the spend was intended to “keep the lights on” in Sydney and was an announcement “on the run”.
After the press conference, Mr Frydenberg said he hoped the two governments could still co-operate on energy solutions that would restore security and affordability in SA.
Thursday’s event, in the garage of a West Beach AGL customer, was to launch the rollout of solar-powered batteries across SA.
– WITH RENATO CASTELLO