Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that gas:

  (a) will be central to our ongoing economic recovery;

  (b) is a crucial input in our manufacturing sector, which employs over 850,000 Australians; and

  (c) provides the firmed electricity generation needed to balance Australia’s record levels of renewable investment; and

(2) calls on all Members of the House to support the Australian gas sector and the important role it plays in creating jobs, providing affordable energy and reducing emissions.

I will start off by talking about renewable energy. Australia is leading the charge in the surge to renewable energy. Our CO2 emissions in Australia are at their lowest level since 1995 and we are 19 per cent below 2005 levels. It is a remarkable outcome and it takes to task those who say the government is doing nothing. It is just simply not true. Since 2007 Australia has invested $35 billion in renewable energy, and my state of South Australia is more than 50 per cent renewable on the electricity grid now. New solar and wind are being constructed at 10 times the global average and more than twice as fast as the next quickest nation in the world. These are remarkable outcomes. But, while this is admirable, the faster we go, the harder it gets.

You need to have some understanding of the way the electrical grid system works to get your head around this. Renewable energy works quite well when there is a diverse mix of energy across the grid. 'If the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow' is a phrase we've heard a lot. When you come to that point of time you need something to fill the gap. The more intermittent electricity you have on the grid the fewer the days of the year those who supply on-demand electricity can make a profit on their investment, on their powerhouse, if you like. If a coal-fired power station, for instance, goes from being able to sell its electricity at a profit from 365 days of the year down to 200 days of the year, 100 days of the year or, as happened in South Australia with the closure of the Northern Power Station, about 70 days a year, it gets to the point where the profits it makes on 70 days a year, or 50 or 20 or whatever it might be, are just not high enough to keep its doors open. So they leave the industry. They leave the electrical generation grid.

What is there then to fill that gap? In Australia, there are a number of options. One that is getting a lot of attention at the moment is battery backup. There have been some significant investments in battery backup—in South Australia too—but battery backup is still, by my calculation, probably about 10 times as expensive as it has to be to affordably fill that gap. It's very, very good for frequency modulation and it's very good for instantaneous response, but to build enough battery to be able to supply one, two, six or eight hours of electricity to power virtually the whole grid would be way beyond the scope of any economical suggestion. The government, through Snowy Hydro, is investing in Snowy Hydro 2.0, and that will make a significant difference. It will be the biggest battery in Australia and it will be efficient. But there are only so many Snowy Hydro 2.0s that you can build, and we need something else to fill the gap.

In South Australia, indeed in Australia, we are blessed with abundant gas supplies. I am a South Australian, and Moomba, the Cooper Basin, is largely in my electorate. It has been one of the predominant suppliers into the eastern gas market for the last 50 years, and there's a lot of gas left there. It's a place where the gas industry excels and where, despite a lot of the knockers from elsewhere, fracking has been successfully undertaken through most of the last 40 years or so. You need the gas to fill the gap when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. We need to understand that gas is not an enemy but an enabler of renewable energy. You need something to fill the gap, and you can't keep building renewable energy unless you've got that something to fill the gap. The most economical, most sensible and most environmentally friendly is gas. Through government policies, we have seen a reduction of 40 per cent in gas prices across Australia. Largely, we've moved legislation but haven't had to enact it because companies have pulled themselves into line. The gas industry in Australia underwrites our fertiliser manufacturing industry. It underwrites our manufacturing industry generally. Gas is a great industry for Australia.

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