Leaked Peter Malinauskas audio says no ‘BS’ power bill promises from Labor

Leaked audio has emerged of the opposition leader declaring he will not promise lower electricity bills – despite that being a key selling point of a major Labor pledge.

Leaked Audio has emerged of Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas telling a meeting he will not take a plan to cut household electricity prices to the election and that voters thought such plans were “BS”.

Mr Malinauskas was spruiking his plans announced last year for a hydrogen electricity plant to cut wholesale prices for industry by 8 per cent: “You will not hear me in this election campaign running around to households and saying ‘I’m going to deliver lower electricity prices’, because most of the time they think that is BS anyway”.

Mr Malinauskas was speaking at the start of the campaign this month to the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy which represents the mining industry.

At the time of the Labor $593m hydrogen generation plan launch in November 2021, Labor stated: “independent analysis by Frontier Economics has forecast South Australia’s hydrogen plant will reduce the wholesale cost of electricity to industry by 8 per cent”.

Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture Emma Brasier

“Its uses are diverse, including manufacturing, firming energy to lower electricity prices, manufacturing green steel, being injected directly into furnaces to offset coal use and use in heavy vehicles and passenger vehicles to lower emissions and lower costs.”

The person who secretly taped Mr Malinauskas is not known.

Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan said Labor had now admitted its hydrogen plant would not deliver lower prices.

“Peter Malinauskas has been exposed as an L-plate leader willing to waste taxpayers’ money on an experimental hydrogen plant that won’t save South Australian families a cent on their electricity bills,” he said.

“In fact, I’m willing to bet that under a Labor Government electricity prices will skyrocket again, which is why Malinauskas is hiding the modelling and costing for this billion-dollar white elephant which has been panned by experts.

Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

“Coincidentally ANZ Research has today released a report that confirms that South Australia has had the steepest reduction in power prices of any state or territory in the last two years.”

But Mr Malinauskas hit back, saying the Labor hydrogen plan was to cut high power prices for industry, and the state government had not delivered cheaper prices as it promised.

He said this was the reference to BS that he had said at the meeting.

“The emphasis of our hydrogen plan is as an industry policy focused of the reduction on price for industrial users to create jobs,’’ Mr Malinauskas said.

“My remarks to SACOME are consistent with our policy’s objective to reduce the wholesale price of electricity, with an emphasis on industrial users, allowing them to create jobs.”