❓ Question regarding the threat to power supplies despite contingency plans, and justification for blaming Epic Energy for Western Power's gas supply contracts. The Minister deflects blame to the Leader of the Opposition's past decisions regarding privatisation and contract allocation.
AnsweredQoN 1240Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the minister’s comments in this House on 19 August 2003 that Western Power had contingency arrangements in place to minimise the risk of short, rolling interruptions to electricity supply during maintenance on the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline. (1) If Western Power does have contingency plans in place, why is there yet another threat to power supplies? (2) How can the minister justify blaming Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has 80 per cent interruptible gas supply contracts and obviously no other alternative fuel supplies? Mr E.S. RIPPER
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(1) If Western Power does have contingency plans in place, why is there yet another threat to power supplies? (2) How can the minister justify blaming Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has 80 per cent interruptible gas supply contracts and obviously no other alternative fuel supplies? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(2) How can the minister justify blaming Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has 80 per cent interruptible gas supply contracts and obviously no other alternative fuel supplies? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(1) If Western Power does have contingency plans in place, why is there yet another threat to power supplies? (2) How can the minister justify blaming Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has 80 per cent interruptible gas supply contracts and obviously no other alternative fuel supplies? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(2) How can the minister justify blaming Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has 80 per cent interruptible gas supply contracts and obviously no other alternative fuel supplies? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
(1)-(2) I thank the National Party once again. I do not blame Epic Energy for the fact that Western Power has those poor gas transport contracts. I blame the prince of privatisation opposite - the Leader of the Opposition! When he split Western Power from AlintaGas he allocated those poor gas transport contracts to Western Power. That was his first policy decision, which has helped create the present situation. His second policy decision was the privatisation of the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and its sale to Epic Energy for $600 million to $700 million beyond what was economical for Epic Energy to pay. There may be a problem on the pipeline, but I hope it is not related to Epic Energy’s financial circumstances. I know that Epic Energy is claiming publicly to not have the financial capacity to expand the pipeline. By virtue of the contracts that were allocated to Western Power in the Western Power-AlintaGas split, any problem on the pipeline is not borne by AlintaGas or Alcoa; it is borne by Western Power and the electricity customers of this State in the first instance. Western Power managed the August gas shortage very effectively. I pay tribute to the managers and workers in Western Power for the way in which they handled that circumstance. There was no inconvenience to the public of Western Australia because of the skilful management and planning by the people at Western Power. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: I am confident, despite the obvious lack of respect shown by the Leader of the Opposition for the work of Western Power in this matter, that Western Power has very good contingency planning and management mechanisms in place to deal with this particular gas shortage. However, it cannot be denied that there is a risk to our electricity supplies, but not necessarily one that will result in the supplies not being delivered to people as they demand them. Nevertheless, there is a risk, courtesy of the policy decisions left to us by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the Minister for Energy. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: It would be interesting to see the Leader of the Opposition take some responsibility for some of the awful decisions he made. The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
The SPEAKER: Order! I hope the private conversations are finished.
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