Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my honour to rise, in this place, for the first time of this sitting period after what has been a pretty tough few months for Australia. It's been tough for all Australians, and the government's record for keeping Australians safe is to be commended. Australia has been lucky, with a good dose of hard work along the way, but the next 30 years in Australia are going to look vastly different from the 30 years that have preceded it.

Going forward, it won't be business as usual. This horrendous virus has opened up a world of pain. For instance, our tourism industry and international education industry will be severely hampered—at least, for the short and medium term. But COVID has also opened up a world of opportunity. We have the chance to do things better, to work to our strengths. With a well-managed health and economic response, we are positioned to grasp those opportunities with both hands and, hopefully, swifter than the rest of the world. We have to look to ourselves to realise the potential of investing, investing in our future. At the core of that is investing in our power infrastructure and renewable energy, right here in our own backyard.

To come out of the other side of this virus we need to have affordable and reliable energy for all Australians, while driving hard to reduce our emissions and continue to deliver on our international obligations. I would like to see us become a leader in the opportunities that a renewable-led recovery can provide. Our government's plan is to lead through technology—not taxes. That means a lot to me as a scientist. We've commenced that plan through the technology investment road map, which seeks to develop Australia's plan to make sure we are reducing our emissions but also to put us on the front foot of renewable technology and our ability to contribute to the world's growing appetite for cleaner, greener energy. As the Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, has said, we have the opportunity to bottle and ship our sunshine to places like Japan.

We have to get to a renewable future. Australians know that. We can be proud that, with more solar panels on roofs per capita than almost any other country around the world, Australian science and innovation is being used in almost half of the world's solar panels. We have a proven track record in using our resourcefulness, in using our resilience and in using our technology to help solve some of the world's most important problems.

But for our economy to prosper we have to ensure that our energy is also reliable. We need something to balance the system and ensure baseload power supply when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. We know we are currently transitioning to a renewable energy future and we need to keep affordable and reliable energy at the centre of that. The coalition government's investments in large-scale storage will help us to move to a standalone carbon-neutral future. Large-scale storage, like Snowy 2.0 and the Battery of the Nation, will help to provide the reliable power needed to keep the lights on during peak demand. Gas, and our emerging capability in hydrogen, will also help us transition to renewables and help provide stability in the network while the new technologies come online. Hydrogen in particular has the potential to serve us not only as a viable energy source for Australia but also as a large-scale export industry which will benefit Australia's economy and help the rest of the world—in particular, developing nations—moved to a carbon-neutral future while serving their large populations.

Developing a large-scale hydrogen industry will benefit regional Australians almost more than any. The size and scale of production naturally lends itself to any producer basing themselves in regional Australia. An Australian hydrogen industry could create as many as 8,000 jobs, with even more secondary jobs. On current growth figures, a well-run supported hydrogen industry could generate more than $11 billion a year. The Morrison government has backed this energy source with over half a billion dollars already invested, including $300 million for the CEFC Advancing Hydrogen Fund.

Finally, as a scientist, I believe we need to be open-minded about new technologies, which are coming online all the time. As the world moves to a carbon-neutral future, most countries with ambitious energy targets have nuclear somewhere in the mix. We need to think about small modular reactors and new nuclear technologies if we are to compete in getting to a carbon-neutral future as fast as possible. Energy technology is moving rapidly and we wouldn't want to miss any opportunity to lead the revolution in the world's bid for a carbon-neutral future.

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