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

There is a war going on in the Middle East that has brought into sharp focus the gaps in our energy resilience. But there is another war, a war that is being waged in the shadows—predominantly in regional Australia—that is simultaneously undermining our energy resilience. This is an information war of false and misleading narratives that are sowing division and doubt, and sometimes leading to outright hostility, undermining renewable energy.

In regional communities a culture of fear has developed, which is silencing democratic debate and allowing these false and misleading claims to thrive rather than be tested and challenged. This report highlights a playbook featuring a variety of actors who attack credible voices like researchers and scientists, or farmers with lived experience of hosting renewables, while at the same time propagating dubious or fringe claims against renewables. It is backed by a web of vested interests, powerful vested interests. Fossil fuel companies for sure, but they are the usual suspects. But this report has unveiled a whole array of other bad-faith actors who walk among us, quasi-scientists and pseudo-experts, and all of these claims are amplified on social media. The social media companies are as culpable. They have turned a blind eye, and they are adept at the tools of the trade—algorithmic bias, deep-fake interference, trolls and bots pushing these false and misleading claims, preying on the legitimate fears of ordinary Australians and thereby making them more unsure and uncertain. Social media has had a polarising effect in these communities, and for small tightknit communities this is incredibly divisive and damaging—damaging to relationships, damaging to mental health. Maintaining the status quo is a deliberate strategy, and it is designed to grind the gears of Australia's energy shift. Lining the pockets of vested interests is the name of the game, and regional communities pay.

For regional communities, the economic benefits of large-scale renewable projects are indisputable, ranging from jobs to alternative income streams for farmers, buffering them from the long-term impacts of climate variability, and, in best cases, sharing the love, the benefits and the income with the wider community, which is crying out for infrastructure, which is crying out for new clubs, which is crying out for better roads, which is crying out for football fields, which is crying out for essential services. For coastal communities, offshore wind exerts a gravitational pull. It attracts manufacturing, blue economy industries, like low-carbon liquid fuel development, and, most importantly, it creates jobs, which are essential for those workers who are currently in declining fossil fuel industries. With billions of dollars locked up in over 130 renewable energy projects that have been approved by this Labor government, regional communities are in the economic box seat.

Despite concerted attempts and efforts to obstruct the energy shift, aided and abetted by a swath of politicians, many of whom are in this chamber, Australia is making steady progress. For the first time, Australia's main grid hit a new milestone in the last quarter of 2025: 51 per cent renewable energy, overtaking for the first time the contribution from coal. Our homes are flush with rooftop solar—one in three homes. Households have also enthusiastically embraced our cheaper home batteries scheme, with over 280 installations and counting. Regional households are actually overrepresented, accounting for 40 per cent of home batteries, despite the fact that they are less than 30 per cent of Australia's population.

In terms of transport, we've seen a big spike in EV sales and interest. EV sales hit a record in December of last year, spiking at nearly 17 per cent, with over 450,000 of these vehicles sold. We introduced tax breaks and new vehicle emissions standards to deliver greater choice, and we've seen a surge in EV models on the market. When we came to government in 2022, there were 56 models. There are now over 150. And we've also introduced concessional finance for key workers. Uptake has been highest in outer suburban areas, and the EV discount is dominated by working Australians, from nurses to teachers, police and tradies. We're continuing to roll out and invest in EV charging infrastructure, with now over 1,300 public stations installed, up from around 290 in March 2022 when we came to government. With a further $40 million, we will be installing kerbside EV charging on light poles throughout Australia. We're also investing in truck electrification. This has been assisted with concessional finance and grants for charging infrastructure that has taken up by some of Australia's biggest logistics companies.

With a target of 62 per cent to 70 per cent emissions reductions by 2035 in an increasingly fractious world, we need to double down rather than reignite the coalition driven climate wars. Amidst cost-of-living pressures, households, including those without solar, in several states can look forward to three hours of free electricity from the middle of this year through our Solar Sharer scheme. This is a glimpse of that energy-abundant future that is ours for the taking. We have a solar energy glut in this country, and it is starting to pay dividends. This is how we are enabling Australians to take control of their energy destiny. Share the love—the solar love, that is—and realise enduring cost-of-living relief. Our net zero pathway—underwritten by renewables, backed by storage, pumped hydro and gas—is delivering cost-of-living relief, energy resilience and reliability against a backdrop of a global oil shock. Geopolitical volatility only sharpens the imperative for Australia to double down on energy independence, recognising that, unlike fuel imports, the sun cannot be blockaded.

For regional communities, the stakes are even higher. Primary producers, transport companies and industries big and small are centred in our regions. To that end, the expansion of renewable energy is critical infrastructure, which will not only replace ageing coal fired power but bake in independence at scale in the heart of these communities. We are also investing $1.1 billion in low-carbon fuels through our Future Made in Australia agenda. Again, in the box seat will be our farmers, who will supply the sorghum, the canola, the sugar and the waste products towards biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuel and synthetic fuels that will be made in the regions, harnessing cheap renewable energy from the regions. Australians do not wish to be beholden to foreign interests for their energy needs, and by staying the course articulated by our government, through our ambitious but achievable energy goals, they need not be.

I thank the Senate and I thank my colleagues for this important inquiry. We uncovered a disturbing degree of activity and manipulation in the community that is dividing regional Australians and thereby hurting them. The people who claim to represent regional Australia are doing them a disservice by denying them jobs, denying them financial security and denying them energy independence. We need to go further, and this report is just the beginning. I thank Senator Whish-Wilson for his leadership, and I thank all my colleagues. I thank the secretariat and all those participants who contributed. (Time expired)