Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to put on the record my concern, and the concern of many residents of Adelaide, about the current state of the renewable energy sector in Australia. I raise this matter because it is of critical importance to our nation and to our environment. But it is particularly important to my state of South Australia. I know that the electorate that I am lucky enough to represent here is made up of citizens who are particularly concerned about these issues.

We know that the sector has been hit hard by the uncertainty and chaos that has been created since the Abbott government was elected. It is incredibly unfortunate. South Australia has led not just the nation but, in many regards, the world when it comes to the development of renewable energy. In fact, we know that renewable energy in South Australia has now reached the point where there are days when more than 100 per cent of our state's electricity needs are now met by wind power—which is a huge achievement and something that our state government has worked very hard, along with the previous federal government, to help achieve. But of course we know that all of that renewable energy, all of that investment and all of the jobs that go along with it, is threatened by this government walking away from this sector.

We know that in 2007 there were only 7,400 households across the whole of Australia that had solar panels. When we left government, there were 1.2 million. That is an absolutely extraordinary turnaround. Of course it means much for our energy sector, but it also means a great deal for the employment opportunities—jobs for the future—that were being created here in Australia. There is something that this parliament needs to take note of and that is that at the very same time that our nation is now going backwards and remaining stagnant when it comes to renewable energy, the rest of the world is advancing in leaps and bounds. We know during the same period over which we have seen it drop in Australia, renewable energy investment around the world last year climbed by 16 per cent—a global increase of 16 per cent. In many countries, particularly many of our close partners, investment growth in renewables was even higher. In China there was an increase in renewable energy investment of 32 per cent last year. In Japan it rose by about a quarter.

Contrast that with what happened in Australia last year. Against that pattern, against the tide, against the direction that the rest of the world was running in, in Australia last year's investment in renewable energy dropped by 88 per cent—and, it should be said, the projects which did continue, that made up the remaining 12 per cent, are projects that only went ahead because they had the support of agencies that we on this side of the House fought to prevent the government's attempted abolition of. We know that we have gone backwards, we know that this is impacting on our energy sector, but we also know that this is impacting on the sort of jobs that we want to be creating.

If, like me, you come from an area where we have significant struggles with the manufacturing sector and with the employment opportunities of the future, then you know it is not the time to be walking away from renewable energy, which the rest of the world is out there embracing. I rise today to plead with the Abbott government to not take Australia backwards when it comes to renewable energy, to not turn our backs on the employment opportunities which arise from wind, solar and renewable energy, and indeed to recognise that this is an industry of the future. It is an industry that should be supported by this parliament, it is an industry that should be invested in and it is an industry that deserves to have the certainty that it did have under the Renewable Energy Target, which has now been placed in absolute and utter chaos by a government that do not know what their policies is or where they stand, a government who are throwing away Australian jobs as they throw away Australian renewable energy opportunities because of their own lack of vision.