SA hydrogen office chief’s $600,000 salary and MP travel bills lost as project shelved

Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on travels by MPs and a hydrogen office of no return. Listed: See where they went and what it cost.

• Turbine sell off as $593m plan disintegrates

Millions of dollars spent on overseas travel, 55 staff salaries and a CEO paid more than $600,000 at the state’s hydrogen power office are on the line as the premier switches his flagship project funding to a Whyalla Steelworks rescue package.

After two years of travelling Australia and the world spruiking its hydrogen plan, the state government has announced its Hydrogen Power SA office will be “scaled back” and its $593m funding redirected to the $2.4bn Whyalla investment package announced on Thursday.

The government also confirmed in parliament that there would be redundancies as its much lauded hydrogen jobs plan is “significantly curtailed”.

Huge amounts of money have been spent on the state’s hydrogen jobs plan to date with budget figures showing $23m was earmarked to run the office in the 2023 to 2024 financial year alone.

One hydrogen-focused trip alone cost taxpayers $72,991 in May 2023 when Premier Peter Malinauskas and two advisers travelled to Europe for four days to promote the state’s hydrogen plan.

Premier Peter Malinauskas at the World Hydrogen Summit in The Netherlands.

A media statement at the time said Mr Malinauskas would “meet some of the biggest players in hydrogen and steel manufacturing” in Berlin, then travel to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where the premier delivered the keynote address at the World Hydrogen Summit.

Last week’s budget and finance committee also heard the amount of money spent on the Hydrogen Jobs Plan in the last financial year was $63.4m and the operating budget was $15.7m.

Opposition leader Vincent Tarzia said the heralded hydrogen power plant site in Whyalla is virtually empty despite promises of construction starting on a world-leading project tackling power prices in early 2025.

He was scathing about numerous overseas trips linked to the project that has now been deferred, saying the travel already had cost SA taxpayers’ almost $350,000 over the past two years.

SA Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia at the empty SA Hydrogen plant site in Whyalla this morning. Picture: Supplied

Lodged travel expenses showed Hydrogen Power SA chief executive Sam Crafter spent around $15,000 attending the same Rotterdam summit as the premier in 2023.

He also travelled to Japan and Korea in February 2023 at a cost of $13,661 to provide a briefing directly to the hydrogen industry in those countries.

Mr Malinauskas, Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis and Trade Minister Nick Champion were also on the same trip, but meetings also focused on other key SA industries such as wine, sport and agriculture.

In May last year, Mr Koutsantonis’s $41,794 trip with one ministerial staff member started with the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam.

It then moved onto Italy where he could “eyeball” the company developing the $500m furnace for the Whyalla Steelworks promised by GFG Alliance’s Sanjeev Gupta.

Sam Crafter, Chief Executive Officer, Office of Hydrogen Power. Picture Matt Turner.

Ironically, a new job position is currently being advertised by the state’s hydrogen office for a Business Support Officer at $76,000 to $80,000 a year with a key part of the role around “handling travel bookings”.

“The government has taken its eye off the ball, you can’t have green steel when you haven’t got steel at all and we have been calling out this hydrogen hoax for a long time,” Mr Tarzia said.

“We know it has a chief executive officer paid over $600,000 a year and a bureaucracy that’s ballooned to 55 staff, spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.”

Sam Crafter was appointed as chief executive of the Hydrogen Power SA office in 2022 on a $560,788 salary and this is believed to have now risen to over $600,000.

The huge $2.4bn spend in Whyalla comes after GFG Alliance was dramatically ousted by the state government on Wednesday, legislation was rushed through parliament so the company could be placed in administration.

Counting cost of wasteful trips

An estimated $344,756.67 in hydrogen-related and taxpayer-funded travel costs lodged by the state government are being criticised by the state Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia.

He listed trips by Premier Peter Malinauskas, Mining and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis and the Office of Hydrogen Power SA chief executive.

September 2022: Office of Hydrogen Power SA chief executive Sam Crafter cost $4,343.34 to attend the Investing in Green Hydrogen Conference in Singapore.

October 2022: Office of Hydrogen Power SA chief executive Sam Crafter cost $19,312.75 to travel to Japan and Korea “to accompany and support the Premier and Minister for Energy and Mining and to engage with potential suppliers and partners for the Hydrogen Jobs Plan”.

October 2022: Premier Peter Malinauskas and two ministerial staff members cost $50,867.10 to travel to Japan and South Korea “to engage with potential suppliers and partners for the Hydrogen Jobs Plan.

October 2022: Mining and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis and one ministerial staff member cost $37,463.56 to “travel to Japan and South Korea to engage with potential suppliers and partners for the Hydrogen Jobs Plan”.

February 2023: Chief Executive for the Office of Hydrogen Power SA Sam Crafter cost $13,661.66 travelling “to Japan and Korea to provide RfP industry briefing directly to hydrogen industry and assisted with industry consultation on the draftHydrogen and Renewable Energy Legislation”.

May 2023: Chief Executive for the Office of Hydrogen Power SA cost $15,302.75 attending “meetings with the premier of SA and the World Hydrogen Summit” in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

May 2023: Premier and two ministerial staff members cost $72,991.29 to attend “meetings and the World Hydrogen Summit” in The Netherlands and also attended meetings in Berlin, Germany.

May 2023: Minister Koutsantonis and one ministerial staff member cost $44,807.16 “to further South Australia’s green hydrogen trade and investment opportunities and energy technology investment opportunities by strengthening relationships with European nations which were represented at the World Hydrogen Summit and the World Energy Storage Exhibition and Forum, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

September 2024: Minister Koutsantonis and one ministerial staff member cost $44,212.52 attending the InnoTrans 2024 Conference in Berlin and meetings to further South Australia’s green hydrogen, green iron, and steel trade investment.

May 2024: Minister Koutsantonis and one ministerial staff member cost $41,794.54 on a business mission “to strengthen relationships in green hydrogen, green iron, and steel trade at the 2024 World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and then meetings in Italy.

Originally published as SA hydrogen office chief’s $600,000 salary and MP travel bills lost as project shelved