Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was born and bred in Townsville in North Queensland. When Cyclone Yasi—a category 5 cyclone—hit our north coast in 2011, numerous houses were destroyed, phone lines were down, and people were without power for weeks. During that time, not one member of the coalition came out and blamed the coal industry for the power outages. So why is this government so set on creating the renewable energy bogeyman, even though experts agree the statewide blackout was the result of a massive storm inflicting large amounts of damage to transmission infrastructure? No-one blamed the coal industry for the severe damage Cyclone Yasi caused, and no-one should blame the renewables industry for the damage in South Australia. Instead of showing true leadership during a very difficult time for South Australians, the government chose to scaremonger. The coalition have been at war with the renewable energy industry for many years now. They fail to understand the importance of the term 'transition'. The term itself does not mean that we leave one industry behind, but rather have a plan to move successfully into the future.

This balance is imperative when it comes to Queensland, where terrific things are being achieved when true leadership is shown. We are seeing a completely new industry being brought to Queensland with the Palaszczuk government's mandate on biofuels. Through this initiative, we are seeing our sugarcane farmers in the Burdekin region branch out into new crops. But it has become very clear that this government has no plan for the future, has no ability to adapt and will continue to bury its head in the sand when it comes to sustainable energy in the future. The government says it wants a national approach to renewable energy but refuses to provide any support to renewable energy post 2020. The government says it wants harmonised renewable targets post 2020 but is only willing to contemplate targets of zero.

Just two weeks ago, the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, called renewable energy targets 'certifiably mad'. He said:

The Queensland Government may as well promise to build an alpine skiing resort in North Queensland. That has more chance of happening than Labor’s renewable energy target.

Minister Canavan, as the only one of the two of us who actually resides in North Queensland and is proud to be a North Queenslander, let me tell you that this target is real and achievable.

Today, the Queensland government released their independent task force report on their 50 per cent renewable energy target. This government should be interested to learn the expert panel concluded the 50 per cent target is economically and technically feasible—not 'extremely unrealistic', as the Prime Minister has previously stated. Further, it will not negatively impact electricity security, and it will create over $6 billion of new investment and over 6,000 jobs by the year 2030. This is the future the Turnbull government rejects. I am not saying in this place today that we will leave one industry behind. We cannot currently leave our mining industry. But we are currently a transitioning economy, and there needs to be room for both industries and a clear plan for the future.

It is very well known that Central Queensland and North Queensland are rich with minerals. We have mines in Mount Isa and Collinsville and, until recently, we had Queensland Nickel. However, our largest untapped resource is our glorious sunshine. On average, Townsville has sunshine on around 360 days of the year. We have so much sunshine in Townsville that we are colloquially referred to as 'Brownsville'. Our sunshine has the ability to create thousands of new jobs and bring investment to our region. Just last week, Sun Metals released plans to invest $460 million over the next five years in the region, which will involve the construction of a 100-megawatt solar farm designed to power the refinery and sell electricity to the grid. It will also include a second stage of expanding Sun Metals's Townsville refinery, using cutting-edge technology to provide a 25 per cent increase in zinc production.

Only a Labor government has the vision and history to deliver a sustainable future. Under Labor, renewable energy boomed and Australia rose to one of the four most attractive destinations for global renewable energy investment, along with China, the US and Germany. It is a very different story under the Liberals. These are issues Labor take very seriously, and we are continuing to work on detailed policy to meet our challenges: clean energy transformation, energy security and a just transition for workers and communities. That is why we have a policy to invest in the latest renewable and other technologies, to achieve a target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, to plan for the orderly closure of the dirtiest and oldest coal power stations and to achieve a just transition for workers and communities. Only Labor have a true commitment to the renewable energy industry.

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