Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to contribute to this consideration in detail discussion and to be able to ask the Minister for the Environment and Water questions about why it is so important that we protect our environment, why the environment is back under the Albanese Labor government and how this is so incredibly important.

I'm blown away by the previous contribution from those opposite, who, for 10 years, did nothing but contribute to a crisis of uncertainty in energy that has set us up for the situation we are in now. I want to ask why it is so important that we transition to renewable energy. Why will this help reduce power prices and put us on the path that we need to be on to have a sustainable future for our Earth? It's pretty central stuff, and it's stuff that the previous government ignored for the entire time that they were in government.

Our government is instead working to deliver cleaner, cheaper and more-secure energy for Australian households and businesses through unprecedented investment in renewable energy, including through Rewiring the Nation, to bring our grid up to speed so that it can be ready to transmit that energy from renewable sources, which we need. This is the certainty that the private sector needs to invest in renewable energy, and it's what was missing under the previous government.

Yes, there is an international market crisis at the moment, caused by Russia's illegal invasion in Ukraine, and that is contributing. But it has exposed Australia's underinvestment to date in the cheapest form of energy, firmed renewables. Australian households and businesses are now paying the price for a decade of denial and delay, in which three gigawatts of dispatchable generation exited the grid.

Rewiring the Nation is the $20 billion centrepiece of the Powering Australia plan and a key pillar of the 2022-23 budget. It will provide low-cost finance to upgrade, expand and modernise Australia's electricity grid and drive down power prices. We have already secured agreements with the states to invest in crucial links between Tasmania and the mainland, with the Marinus Link, and between Victoria and New South Wales, through VNI West. Along with other actions in the budget, Rewiring the Nation will help ramp up renewable generation, place downward pressure on energy bills and put Australia on track to becoming a renewable energy superpower.

Investment in reforms to stabilise and improve gas and electricity markets also features in this budget, as does delivering on the government's community battery and solar banks policies. I'm really pleased that the electorate that I represent—the electorate of Canberra—will be receiving one of those community batteries, as will two others in the ACT. This is about enabling households to share in the benefits of reduced power prices from renewable energy and to store that energy. We have already had a great uptake of solar energy in the ACT, in terms of rooftop solar. This is about enabling households that may not be able to do that themselves to benefit from these community batteries, so it's a very important thing, and I'm really pleased that Canberra is part of our federal government's plan.

The ACT is, of course, the first jurisdiction to get to 100 per cent renewable energy. We already see that reflected in the lower power prices that we enjoy compared to New South Wales, and I think that is a case in point as to why it is so important that, as a nation, we make that transition. This is where we need to be. We have fantastic resources and natural advantages in renewable energy here in Australia. We should be making the most of them and becoming a renewable energy superpower. We should be leading the way in the world.

I am so proud that one of the first things we did after forming government was to legislate our emissions reduction targets. It is incredibly important, and it is something that the people of Canberra have been crying out for. The whole time that I have been in this place, people have raised it with me more than any other issue, and it is the issue that I have talked about more in this place, so I'm really pleased to be here today with the minister to talk about why these things are so critically important for Australia and for our world.

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