Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Australia needs to get off natural gas if it is to have any hope of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Household gas amounts to 17 per cent of all of our emissions in Australia. As a paediatric neurologist I committed my professional life to looking after sick kids. That was a job I loved, and I'm very lucky that in this place I have the chance to still uphold those core principles. Getting off household gas will significantly improve health outcomes for all of us, but it will particularly improve health outcomes for children.

When gas is burned it releases carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde and ultrafine particulates. These substances are harmful. One study estimated that exposure to gas stove emissions was responsible for as much as 12 per cent of childhood asthma in Australia. Another found that exposure to indoor gas appliances in early infancy was associated with lower scores on general cognitive, memory, verbal and executive function testing in four-year-old children. The reality is that the faster we electrify our homes, the healthier our children will be. We have to do that, though, in a way that will raise all boats. We have to help those people who might well struggle with the cost of transitioning to electric appliances, heat pumps, home batteries, solar and the cheaper forms of active transport. We all accept that electrifying Australia will be a challenge, but we know that the most vulnerable will benefit most from cheaper and cleaner forms of electrification.

This challenge is one which, like other significant challenges we face to overcome climate change—transitioning our industries away from fossil fuels, upgrading the transmission grid and ending new coal and gas projects—comes with exciting opportunities.

Electrification is an intelligent, targeted way to tackle inflation and to reduce our cost of living. Australia is blessed with the greatest renewable energy resources in the world, and we are brave early adopters. The 3.3 million homes with home solar will attest to that. That's almost one-third of Australian homes. The more electric appliances that we have, the more rooftop solar that we can tap into and the cheaper our power bills. Estimated savings per household from electrification of our transport and of our homes is $5,400 a year per household. Spending less to power our homes will help bring down inflation.

The federal government recognised that with this years meet budget. It earmarked $1.3 billion for home energy efficiency retrofits and for electrification. But we've not yet received any information regarding the government's plan for low-cost loans and for subsidies. We need national leadership to help lower our power bills, save our climate and protect our children's health. With all-electric homes being cheaper to run, better for our health and crucial for driving down emissions, supporting households to transition away from fossil fuel appliances has to be a climate, cost-of-living and health policy priority, but doing so is a complex task. Households will need support to help them overcome the many financial, regulatory and informational barriers to electrification, and that particularly applies to those who are renting and those on lower incomes. We need our state and territory governments to set end dates for the use of gas and for all governments to launch campaigns to support and encourage people in switching their homes from gas to all-electric.

I was proud to host the second Electrify Parliament event alongside Allegra Spender MP and Senator David Pocock this morning. Their election, alongside the election of other independents in 2022, demonstrated that the Australian public now expects the parliament to act decisively on climate change not just to save our planet but to usher in a cleaner, greener, cheaper economy. This morning's event was one which saw Liberal, Labor, Greens and Independent MPs unite with a common aim to electrify Australian households, and I look forward to working with everyone in this building to accelerate electrification of our homes. I thank the member for Wentworth for introducing this motion and highlighting the goodwill that is behind this most important transformation.

See this speech in context