Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It might be an unusual way to start an MPI, but I note that the Prime Minister recently said some very good things about the jobs opportunity in moving to a renewable-energy economy. He said to the Australian newspaper: 'We want to create new, high-quality jobs, from Perth to Penrith, by signing up to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.' We on this side of the House say, 'Hear, hear!' We're very happy with that. The only bad news is that it wasn't the Prime Minister of Australia who said that; it was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The Prime Minister of Great Britain gets it—that the world's climate emergency is Australia's jobs opportunity—but the Prime Minister of Australia doesn't get it. The Prime Minister of Australia doesn't understand that this is so important for our economic future, but a lot of other people get it. The entire G7 gets it. Every other developed country in the world is committed to net zero by 2050. Every state and territory in Australia is committed to net zero by 2050. Business gets it. The Business Council of Australia gets it. APPEA, the peak body representing oil and gas in Australia, is committed to net zero by 2050. BHP, 'the Big Australian', is committed to net zero by 2050. Orica, BlueScope Steel, the National Farmers Federation, the Ai Group, Unilever, BP and other key corporate groups, including Telstra and Woolworths, are committed to net zero by 2050. And the Australian people are committed to net zero by 2050. They get it. They understand.

The Prime Minister is in London at the moment. The Prime Minister of Great Britain said he hoped Australia would commit to net zero by 2050 in the lead-up to the summit. Have you seen the footage? The Prime Minister of Great Britain got so frustrated he actually announced, on our behalf, that the Prime Minister of Australia was committed to net zero by 2050. You see the Prime Minister of Australia standing next to him, thinking, 'Where do I go? What do I do?' There's the sound of crickets.

In fact, this government is committed to net zero, but, under the current trajectory of its policies, it will take 145 years to get there. Those opposite are committed to net zero by 2166. That's their big commitment. To be clear: Australia should commit to net zero by 2050 and outline a clear pathway to get there, not because the rest of the world thinks we should—that's not a good enough reason—or because it's our moral obligation, as important a reason as that is, but because it is economically reckless not to do so. The G7 countries and other forums aren't just talking about net zero by 2050; they're also moving towards carbon tariffs for countries that don't have a pathway to get there. There'll be an economic cost for those countries. This government talks about 'technology, not taxes'. Under their regime, we'll have a tax put on us by other countries. There'll be a carbon tax under the government he leads, but it will be put on us by other countries. That's what will happen because of this government's reckless behaviour.

The member for Dawson recently said that net zero emissions equals net zero jobs. That just shows what this government is dealing with. They have people on that side of the House who are holding back ambition and stopping policies which will create jobs. They don't realise that every $10 million invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency creates 75 jobs, which is more than you get from investing in traditional energy generation, at 27 jobs. That's three times the number of jobs, and it's a great export opportunity. Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of energy, and we can continue to be. There's the Sun Cable proposal for the Northern Territory, which will have 24 million solar panels. There's the Asian Renewable Energy Hub in the Pilbara, which is going to create a whole new town in the Pilbara to take the 8,000 workers to staff it. That's where the jobs will be created, in the regions, which have powered Australia for so long. This government likes to say that climate change is an inner-city obsession. No—climate change is the key to a bright economic future for our regions, for the Pilbara and for all of the regions which have powered Australia for so long.

We've seen more of this government's prejudice on display in recent weeks. The Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia vetoed an investment in a wind farm because, he said, it didn't have a battery. The problem was that it did have a battery. If he was so concerned about the windfarm proposal, he could have looked it up on the website. He would have found it is a 157-megawatt wind farm with approval for a 100-megawatt battery and a network upgrade. So it had the wind farm, it had the battery and it had the upgrade. That wasn't good enough for the minister for resources, because he's so prejudiced against renewable energy. He's not the only one. The Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, who is at the table, has just promulgated a regulation which gives him the power to declare that a technology is low-emission—him; this guy. No, not on our watch. We voted to disallow that regulation and we'll vote in the other place to disallow the regulation. And if those fail, I think the courts might disallow the regulation because he's breached the law, as he does so. This is what we have. We have a minister who tried to legislate the CEFC to invest in non-renewable energy. He couldn't bring that legislation back into the House. We still haven't seen it. Has anybody seen it? He said it was a milestone. It turned out to be a millstone, because it's been 'Barnabied'. We haven't seen it. So he thought he'd sneak around the other way this time and bring down a regulation. That's how determined these guys are.

They are so prejudiced against renewable energy. They've got their lines. We all know the lines. They say, 'The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow,' like they're the only people who've thought of it. It's about as logical as saying, 'The rain doesn't always fall, so we shouldn't drink water. We can't rely on water.' We store water and we can store energy. Part of our community batteries policy is to create 400 community batteries around Australia. It's part of the policy suite that we're rolling out.

Electric vehicles: remember 'they're going to ruin the weekend' and 'they can't tow your boat'? They said that Australians don't deserve the choice. We think Australians do deserve the choice of electric vehicles. That's why we will cut their cost. We believe in technology and tax cuts. That's what we believe in—tax cuts for electric vehicles to make them cheaper. Take the tariff off electric vehicles. Provide an FBT concession for employers to provide their employees with electric vehicles, which will reduce the cost of a Nissan Leaf by $9,000 plus the tariff reduction, which is $2,000. That is up to $11,000 to drive behaviour, encourage electric vehicles and give people the choice. The government says we don't have enough affordable electric vehicles in Australia. I agree. It's because of them, because of their policies, because they don't believe in electric vehicles. This is another part of our policy that we're rolling out together with our rewiring the nation policy, a $20 billion investment. You can have a solar panel on every element of the desert and you can have lots of wind turbines. Unless you've upgraded the grid to get the energy where it's needed, where it's consumed—in the cities—we won't be doing the job. So we'll rewire the nation. That'll create thousands of jobs as we do so, upgrading transmission lines around the country in the regions, which have powered Australia for so long, making sure that we can get that energy out of those regions and into the cities and to export to South-East Asia and Asia more broadly. These are the great job opportunities that we have in Australia which the government simply refuses to grasp.

Of course, there is the rebuilding the nation fund, at $15 billion, with renewable energy at its core as a key priority area, along with some others and renewable energy manufacturing. We as a country in Australia have put 60 million solar panels on roofs in the last 10 years. That sounds impressive, and it is, but it's small compared to what we will put on roofs in the next 10 years. Do you know how many of those solar panels have been made in Australia? A very small number. We can do so much better. There is one solar panel manufacturer in Australia on this government's watch. There can be many more as we build those solar panels to put on roofs.

This is the message that the Labor Party has. In my time as shadow minister I've been to Emerald, I've been to Gladstone twice, I've been to Yallourn power station and to the Latrobe Valley. The message is: we believe in the jobs of the future. I have a message for this government as well about renewable energy. This solar panel is renewable energy. Don't be afraid of it. Don't run away from it. Don't be scared of it!

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