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

I rise in this chamber to support the member for Robertson on her motion to recognise that Australia's Technology Investment Roadmap is the comprehensive investment plan we need to bring emissions down through technology and innovation.

As a scientist, I know that you have to have a diversified approach to risk when it comes to new scientific development. We can see that with the COVID vaccine. You can't actually be sure what the outcome is going to be, so you have to have a diversified risk assessment when you're going for new technology, and that is what our low-emissions technology strategy is doing. It's using government to invest in new technology and innovation, which then, once it gets to a commercialisable outcome, unleashes the free market, which will help us to get to where we need with regard to our net zero future. The Technology Investment Roadmap is the country's first concrete plan—the first concrete plan in the history of this country—for getting emissions down with technology. It's practical, it's not pie in the sky, it has goals and solutions that embrace new technologies and it's about partnering with the Australian people to make sure they know what we're doing. It is an investment that is going to have outcomes that benefit not just jobs and our economy but the planet. It is clear that we are now quietly in the midst of an exciting major energy transition to a net zero carbon future. Business knows this, and Australians demand it.

Australia's Technology Investment Roadmap is a plan to create jobs, cut energy costs, and reduce emissions. Affordable, reliable low-emissions energy will be critical to re-establishing a strong economy and supporting jobs as Australia bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic. The road map is expected to guide $20 billion of a government investment in the next 10 years and drive a further $80 billion of investment in low-emissions technology. This is the way that business works. It needs a kickstart. It needs investment, and then basically that unleashes capability. This investment will accelerate technologies such as hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, soil carbon measurement, low-carbon materials such as steel, and long-duration energy storage as well as potentially support 130,000 jobs by 2030 and avoid 250 million tonnes of emission by 2040.

Our technology-over-taxes approach is already delivering results. We're reducing emissions without imposing new costs on households, businesses, or the economy. This roadmap will continue to help unleash the free market and allow sustainable technologies to compete with the mature resources sector. This is about the plan to transition sensibly and practically to the new energy order that we are seeing right around the world.

I recently visited the G-Store in my electorate. They have been working every day for the last 17 years to deliver renewable energy solutions to the Australian market. I was very delighted to see this innovative business, which is now stepping up with new technologies coming on board to deliver solar panels, heat pumps and batteries in a commercial way to the people of Higgins. I was delighted that, after 17 years, it was time for them to update their store. I was happy to cut the ribbon on their new, updated store. Congratulations to G-Store for the wonderful work they are doing in delivering solutions that are helping to bring emissions down right here in Australia.

Hydrogen is a priority low-emissions technology, and the Morrison government is now backing the sector through almost $1 billion in direct investment. We know that hydrogen—firstly blue, followed by green—is going to be the way of the future, and Australia is in a wonderful position to invest in the future of green hydrogen. With our solar and our wind, we can literally bottle these renewables as green hydrogen and 'ship sunshine', as the former chief scientist Professor Alan Finkel said, to the rest of the world. We know Japan is already working towards a hydrogen led future and other countries in the Asia-Pacific are looking with interest at the memorandum of understanding we have with Japan. Furthermore, we know that countries like Germany in Europe are looking towards hydrogen for their future. There is a market that is emerging, and Australia is getting in at the ground level with important new technologies like hydrogen.

It takes time to transition these technologies, it takes investments and it takes partnerships with commercial outcomes in order to do that. We are now at the point that hydrogen could become a competitive energy source for industry, power and heat generation. These new budget investments will help us reach this goal. Australia is positioning for a new energy order, and we're getting in at the ground level.

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