Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a momentous day. I could not be more proud to stand here tonight in support of the Climate Change Bill 2022. After a decade of inaction, we might finally see our country start to seize on all the opportunities our transition to a renewable energy future has to offer. We will finally take meaningful action to address climate change.

I know this will be welcome in my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast, because climate change isn't something that will maybe, perhaps, happen in the future; it is something that is happening right now. It is something that has happened that we are experiencing. My electorate has been directly impacted by the last decade of inaction on climate change. What does a change in climate mean? It means more extreme weather. And, boy, have we had some extreme weather. Just in my time as member for Gilmore in the last three years, my electorate has been severely hurt by drought. We have been severely hurt by record-breaking bushfires. We have been severely hurt by a seemingly never-ending sequence of disaster declared floods, one after another. Our communities are seeing climate change firsthand. They are feeling the hurt and the impacts on our health right now. They are seeing environmental degradation from these disasters to an ecosystem that can barely cope and will have trouble renewing after such devastating loss and damage. The State of the environment report that the minister released only recently shows that the 2019-20 bushfires have had a lasting impact on our environment and our biodiversity, and it is struggling to bounce back. Local people in my electorate don't need to be told that. They see it every single day, and they want something done.

Our communities want us to take action now to help them better prepare for these events. They want to be made more resilient, with an energy system that can withstand challenges—things like community batteries like the one I promised at Maloneys Beach. During the bushfires, so much of the South Coast lost power altogether. It's one of the biggest anxieties I hear from people about our disaster preparedness. What happens when the power goes out? It's not just about keeping the lights on; when the power goes out, all too often communications aren't far behind. We lose landlines and sometimes we lose mobile phone reception. Even if we don't lose reception, if the power stays out, eventually the mobile phones will go out too. We need batteries to help provide that resilience and that security. So I'm excited to deliver that battery for Maloneys Beach, and I hope to work on even more batteries across the South Coast.

But the point is that the people of my electorate have had enough of the wasted opportunities. What do they want to see? They want to see us power Australia. They want to see the New South Wales South Coast become a renewable energy powerhouse, and so do I. That is why I am so excited today.

There is something the Liberals always seem to forget when they try to paint Labor's climate policies as some kind of boogieman, some kind of pie-in-the-sky fantasy, and the 'oh so scary' green agenda. What they forget is that this is about energy. This is about the absolute abundance of renewable energy opportunity that we have here in Australia that we are wasting—that we have wasted for a decade. The Albanese Labor government wants to stop that waste, and our Powering Australia plan will do that.

The bill enshrines our 43 per cent target to reduce emissions on 2005 levels by 2030, and achieve net zero by 2050. We hope—and I'm sure from the work I have seen in my electorate already—that the commitments of our industries, of our communities, will have us see even greater reductions than this. But the modelling that we have done shows this is what our policies will achieve. It's a mighty goal, and I am proud of it. Under this bill, by 2030, more than 82 per cent of the electricity we consume will be generated by renewable energy. And we will see the jobs that come with that in our renewable energy economy. That is my focus: the jobs. That's what my electorate needs and wants.

How do we take advantage of those job opportunities? We start by training the workforce. I was a TAFE teacher, so I know how crucial education is. Our plan will spend $100 million to train 10,000 new energy apprentices in the jobs of the future. Our $10 million New Energy Skills Program will help to provide additional training pathways. And our investments in education and TAFE will also make a huge impact here. Young people in my community need support. They need to know they can live, learn and work without having to move to the cities. That's what I am working towards.

I want to talk a bit about the opportunities I am most excited about for my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast. I want the South Coast to become a renewable energy powerhouse. And I am going to work every single day with the ministers, with the community, with industry, with businesses, to get this done. Interestingly, I recently received an email from Kenneth in Culburra Beach. He said:

As a Culburra Beach property owner, I have been advocating for the installation of an EV charging station in this popular seaside town. As it is only 180 kilometres from Sydney and 211 kilometres from Canberra it is well within the range of an electric vehicle but not near enough to return on one charge. A charging station would be an excellent investment for the town encouraging sustainably minded tourists to visit in the knowledge they could recharge for travelling around the area and return. I do hope you can support the proposal.

Well, Kenneth, under the Albanese government, we will finally have Australia's first national electric vehicle strategy. We will double the existing investment in electric vehicle charging and establish hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, up to $500 million.

The Shoalhaven actually is home to an electric charging station already at the Silos Estate in Berry. Owner Raj told me it's actually the biggest charging station in Australia—one mean feat. They have 16 charging units, with 12 that are superchargers. These can recharge an electric car in 20 minutes. What is one of the best things that comes from the chargers? Tourists. Being a winery, this is a win-win for Raj, but it is also a boon for our economy. After years of natural disasters and COVID-19 that have kept tourists away, it is amazing to think that these renewable energy ideas could also help drive our tourism industry. Batemans Bay, in the south of my electorate, also has an electric vehicle charging station. With our investment, we can see these charging stations in even more locations, creating the electric vehicle superhighway we need to move people up and down the coast and around Australia.

My electorate on the New South Wales South Coast also has a fabulous manufacturing industry. But that industry has been crying out for more investment, crying out for help to transition to a cleaner energy future. I'm excited to see the opportunities our $3 billion investment in the new National Reconstruction Fund will create for our community. This fund will support renewables, manufacturing and low-emissions technology. The South Coast has proven we want to, and will, innovate. I have spoken many times in this place about the biogas plant that local dairy farmers are helping establish. It's an exciting project, and I want to see more of them. Now there will be energy policy certainty to support those ideas. There are many fantastic ideas out there in our community on the South Coast, just itching for investment, just waiting for a government that will take them seriously and give this country some energy policy certainty.

Before the election, I held a climate change forum. The Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance, affectionately known as SHASA, is one of the groups that were at that forum. They have been doing simply amazing work in this space for years, taking great advantage of the bits-and-bobs grants that have been available. Their focus has been on making the Eurobodalla more resilient, and they have helped to retrofit six community facilities into heatwave and bushfire havens.

Our plan will see $300 million for community batteries and solar banks across Australia. We can support organisations like SHASA and Repower Shoalhaven, and we can supercharge it. SHASA have been busy indeed because, as I said, they have also partnered with Repower Shoalhaven to propose a pilot program of renewables and electrification of the Shoalhaven and Eurobodalla. These groups want to create jobs, they want to invest in renewables, and they want to provide power savings for local households. There are many groups that support our Powering Australia plan. We have to get on with it. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context