Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Wentworth for the opportunity to speak on electrification and the role the federal government can play in encouraging electrification of our households, because we know that the role of electrification of our households is incredibly important to mitigate the climate crisis and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. It will also help lower the cost of everyone's energy bills, which is incredibly important. These are established facts. This is something we can achieve not only here in Australia but right across the world. And there are added benefits. It simplifies construction by just having one source of energy going into a home. It also reduces maintenance costs, helps quieten households and creates scores and scores of jobs in the construction and energy creation industries.

When I was having a chat to some people in my community about this over the weekend—and again I thank the member for moving motion up—I found that a lot of people don't really understand what the benefits of electrification are and how it will help diversify our energy needs. Rather than just relying upon gas or coal for heating—we've got gas cooktops, gas-fired solar heaters and, of course, central heating—by electrifying those household appliances, we can actually diversify the energy that we need to power those things. When the gas prices spike, as we see at the moment, we can switch to the cheapest and most abundant form of energy we have at the moment, being renewables.

Having one source of power go into a household and power everything means that we're not exposed to these international shocks in energy prices across the world. Cheaper energy prices are one of the main motivators to electrify everything, and electrification also enables us to reduce emissions, which is incredibly important. Renewable energy is a huge part of the electrification of households. It applies to transport—anywhere between 18 and 25 per cent of a household's emissions are created by transport alone. If we electrify bus networks and our own personal transport, that will mean that emissions are reduced.

Thankfully, we finally have a government that understands this. If you look to the former government, you see that they had 10 years of division and delay. Even the Leader of the Opposition's budget reply speech still seemingly ridiculed the role that renewable energy can play in our economy and in reducing emissions across the nation. We have a government that gets electrification and understands its importance and is also delivering policies that will help us achieve it. We look to our magnificent community battery program, with over 400 community batteries funded and $224 million committed in the budget. I am very proud to confirm that one of those community batteries will be in our community in North Epping. What these community batteries can do is encourage people to not only get solar but, for those who have solar, store that excess power that they don't use during the day, in the community battery, to then use at night. It reduces the cost for an individual to get a battery at each home. A 500-megawatt-hour battery will help about 250 households power their home with cheap, emissions-free renewable technology.

We are so excited to be able to roll this out as part of the Albanese government. I know many members are very happy that some community batteries were committed to during the election campaign, but of course there are many, many, many more to be rolled out through ARENA and through working with community groups. I know the community in Bennelong are incredibly excited to be able to participate in one of the first. Hopefully, we will see that policy kickstart a battery revolution in our communities right across the nation, because we know that technology will not only help the grid but also help reduce emissions.

We know that the government is pushing a national EV strategy and an electric vehicle superhighway of chargers. These are all incredibly important investments. We finally have a government that gets it—a government that is keen to reduce emissions through electrification.

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