Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Despite the interjections from those opposite, who left this country in a mess and dare open their mouths, Australians understand that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy and they are embracing it in droves. We have rooftop solar and we have home batteries, and what's next in that trinity? Electric vehicles. Australians have already bought 400,000 electric vehicles. When we came to government, sales were moribund—stuck at two per cent under those opposite—flat and going nowhere fast. We brought in tax breaks, thanks to the support of the crossbench, and we have seen an increase in electric vehicle sales of 12 or 13 per cent. That's 400,000 EVs on the road. And do you know where most of those sales are? Most of the sales—you'd be surprised—are actually in the regions and in peri-urban areas. Why? Because Australians in those areas have rooftop solar. They're now charging their cars at negligible cost, if any, and realising that these cars are a lot cheaper to run. The servicing costs are considerably lower than fossil fuel or ICE vehicles.

This is what Australians are doing, but this is not all we are doing. Also, as part of those foundational supports and climate policies, we brought in a suite of measures to help industry. One was the safeguard mechanism, which was passed thanks to the support of the crossbench. It's designed to help big industry decarbonise without deindustrialising. Every year, around 215 big emitters in this country will be forced to reduce their emissions by five per cent year on year. That has a strong incentive built in for them to electrify their power trains—the big miners, for example, and aviation companies like Qantas. With our assistance, sustainable aviation fuels are being backed in to enable our aviation companies to decarbonise. We brought in something called the Capacity Investment Scheme. It's getting into the weeds here, but the Capacity Investment Scheme was designed to underwrite large-scale renewable projects like grid-scale batteries, for example, and solar farms and wind farms. When we first came into government, we set the ceiling on that at 32 gigawatts. Because of the overwhelming interest in this scheme, we raised that ceiling to 40 gigawatts by 2030.

With these measures we have seen a huge uplift in renewable energy in our grid. Under those opposite, four gigawatts left the grid and one gigawatt came in, which left the grid unstable, unreliable and too costly. What we have seen under our stewardship is that 18 gigawatts of renewable energy has entered the grid—thanks to the suite of policies. We've also approved six offshore wind zones, which are designed to help electrify large industrial areas that are important for our country, noting that offshore wind has a much shorter transmission build-out than just about anything else. We established the Net Zero Authority, to enable those workers who are exposed to fossil fuel industries to have a transition into good, secure, well-paying jobs, like in the manufacturing sector, underpinned by renewable energy. Within the National Reconstruction Fund, which is a $15 billion investment vehicle, we have over $5 billion dedicated towards clean technologies. So you can see how, with a suite of policies, we are turning the supertanker that is this nation towards a much greener, cleaner future. But it's not going to happen by sloganeering; it's going to happen with policies—the how. This is how we get there.

Along with the 2035 target that we announced was also a net zero plan and a set of six sectoral plans. These sectoral plans are pathways for areas in our economy to get to net zero. It's a road map, effectively, and it covers energy and electricity, agriculture, the built environment, transport, industry and our resources sector. If you're interested in better understanding how we get to net zero, have a read of these plans. It's clear from reading these plans that there is an enormous economic opportunity for us to seize with this transition, with this energy shift that is already underway. Those economic opportunities are for our future generation, for our children. We're not necessarily going to be the beneficiaries—we're too old—but it's absolutely going to be yours for the taking. It'll be secure, well-paid jobs that are immune to the boom and bust of mining—a sustained prosperity in a high-wage economy. That is, effectively, the holy grail.

Australia, although it contributes one per cent to global emissions, has the potential to lower the world's emissions by 10 per cent. That's based on advice from the Climate Change Authority, who also set the 2035 targets which are achievable and ambitious at the same time. Unlike Senator Pocock, I actually am very optimistic about our future, as long as we stay the course. The foundations have been put in place by our government with support from the crossbench. Now we need to follow through and ensure we are not swayed by nonsense from the other side. (Time expired)