David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning, the Parliamentary Friends of Clean Investment, which I co-chair with Senators Grogan and Bragg, hosted Beyond Zero Emissions as they launched their battery supply chains briefing paper, meeting with investors and industry about the exciting opportunities for Australia when it comes to batteries and the transition to renewables. They were talking about the opportunity for Australia to move from 'dig and ship' to processing, the opportunity to capture the maximum amount of value here in Australia.

I applaud the Albanese government for adding another $2 billion to the Critical Minerals Facility, which the former government set up. But I raise concerns that there are no safeguards that ensure that's actually used for processing. We learnt at estimates that that facility could be used just to fund mining. We need to be focusing on making more things here when it comes to building our economy for the future and in terms of our national security at a time when we are so reliant on countries like China for solar panels. There are opportunities to make things here, and the longer we delay a comprehensive response like the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate and energy investment in history, the longer we're going to miss out on these opportunities. I will continue to push the government on things like production tax credits, paying for success and only paying once companies are manufacturing things like solar cells here. We can do it. We need the political leadership and courage and the right policies in place to unlock that investment here in Australia.