Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and her strong commitment to seizing the opportunities from the transition that are available to us. The National Reconstruction Fund is one part of our plan for a future made in Australia especially focused on seizing the opportunities from that transition. I'm delighted to inform the House that, since it was established less than two years ago, it has made nine investments, worth over $430 million. It's investing in innovative technologies and local manufacturing which will help the transition. For example, the NRF has invested $200 million in Arafura Rare Earths Ltd. This will deliver the rare earth minerals essential for renewables and the energy grid of the future.

These investments will ramp up over time, but, as I said, the fund was established less than two years ago. This is only one part of this government's commitment to seizing the opportunities of the global race to net zero, and I talked about a few of those yesterday. They include production tax credits for critical minerals and renewable hydrogen; $2 billion to transition the Australian aluminium smelters to renewable energy; and $1 billion in the Green Iron Investment Fund. This Green Iron Investment Fund is critical for decarbonising Australia but also for decarbonising the world. It was also a feature of the Prime Minister's trip to China. This will complement what the National Reconstruction Fund is doing and the investments it is making.

Other complements of the National Reconstruction Fund include the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's investments. Last year the Clean Energy Finance Corporation committed $4.7 billion to that decarbonisation agenda. The member, in her question, talked about leveraging private-sector investment in this transition, and I'm delighted to inform the member that the CEFC has been leveraging $4.14 of private-sector capital for every dollar of public-sector investment. So that $4 billion unlocked $25.7 billion of total investment and supported over 4,000 jobs.

ARENA has also been really successful at leveraging private-sector capital.

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