Dr. Honey questions the Premier on guaranteeing energy supply during the transition to renewables, citing gas shortage concerns. The Premier responds by criticising the opposition's past energy policies and assuring careful management of gas reserves during the transition.

AnsweredQoN 543Legislative Assembly
Asked
15 August 2024
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

DOMESTIC GAS SUPPLY
543. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
Given the warnings regarding gas shortages, how will the Premier guarantee the
WA community that lights will stay on and air conditioners will keep running
under his transition plan?

AnswerView source ↗

The people of Western Australia
recently had a narrow escape. We all remember the press conference in 2021,
when those opposite and, in fact, the then shadow Minister for Energy, the
member for Cottesloe, would have seen the lights turned out within five years!
They were going to retire all coal-fired power stations and somehow sprinkle
fairy dust around the transmission lines and hope that the lights would stay
on. If it was not so tragic, it would have been funny, but the fact that a mainstream
political party would take such loopy policies to the election was really just
an embarrassment for democracy in Western Australia.
We will carefully consider the
report that the parliamentary committee has tabled today. We will make sure
that it feeds into our ongoing work to make
sure that we move to a renewable energy future and make the energy transition in a smooth and carefully managed way. Rule one: we are going to keep the
lights on. We can do that through the careful management of our gas reserves
and smoothing fuels, such as gas and other fuels, as part of that energy
transition. We are the only state in Australia that will be coal free by 2030.

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