Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In essence, this motion begs the simple question: what on earth was the coalition doing for a decade in government and, frankly, what on earth is it doing now? Every item of complaint in this motion points directly to an absolute failure by the previous government to take responsibility for Australia's affordable, secure, zero-carbon energy future. In three terms and through three Prime Ministers they couldn't even achieve a national energy policy. Over the course of a decade, they saw the total amount of generation capacity in Australia actually go down. Over the course of a decade, they neglected to do anything about Australia's awful and dangerous level of liquid fuel insecurity.

The motion specifically asks about the integration of Snowy 2.0 and the Kurri Kurri system, both initiated by the coalition, and yet for a decade they did nothing to adapt and improve Australia's energy network for the inevitable transformation that would occur. Now they're back to playing a few of their old favourite games: climate change denialism, fearmongering when it comes to renewable energy and that old chestnut that we heard right at the end there, the fantasy that never arrives: so-called next-generation nuclear power.

This government is picking up the pieces in the aftermath of an extraordinary mess, and we're not going to be dragged down the low road of denialism, fearmongering and fantasy. In fewer than 18 months, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has worked steadily to get Australia back on track at a time when our global and regional competitors are making rapid progress towards the necessary and inevitable energy transformation. The work we've already undertaken, which includes supporting investment in renewables, storage, wind power, hydrogen, a 21st-century upgrade of our energy grid and the delivery of Australia's first national EV strategy, is creating jobs. It's helping to stabilise power prices for households and businesses at a time of global energy shocks. It's supercharging the appetite for innovation and entrepreneurship that is key to our social and economic future.

We've already seen the effects of that good work. This is what AEMO had to say in April, inside the first year of the Albanese Labor government:

Renewable energy is driving down the wholesale cost of energy, setting new records for minimum demand for electricity from the grid and driving emissions to record lows …

The report also shows that new and recently commissioned grid-scale solar and wind units increased generation in the NEM this quarter by an average of 330 megawatts and 134 megawatts respectively, yielding a record quarterly average of 4,654 megawatts, which was 11 per cent higher than in quarter 1, 2022. That is what happens when you have a government that takes seriously its responsibility to work for and deliver for the Australian people—more power, more zero-emissions power and cheaper power.

When it comes to the CSIRO's GenCost analysis, it's interesting that, in the motion, the member for Fairfax makes no mention of nuclear power costs. He and I were part of the committee inquiry in 2019, as was the member for Lyne, that looked at the viability of a nuclear power industry in Australia, and the clearest evidence was that no economic case could be made for such an industry. In fact, Ziggy Switkowski, who'd conducted the same inquiry for the Howard government in 2006, said the case against nuclear had gotten stronger in the meantime. Coalition members of the inquiry took issue with the CSIRO GenCost assessment of the likely costs of yet-to-exist small modular reactors. The predictions in relation to the NuScale project in the US were cited as evidence that SMRs would soon deliver cheap electricity. On that basis alone, some coalition members were adamant that the GenCost numbers were wrong and perhaps represented some kind of technocratic bias. Well, how about some facts?

Back in 2019 NuScale claimed it would deliver a 720-megawatt plant in 2024 for $8 billion. Earlier this year the company provided a market update. The project's generation capacity has been reduced by a third. The latest estimate is for the project to come online in 2029 at a cost of $14 billion—in other words, a third less power, a five-year delay and double the cost. In relation to NuScale's brush with reality, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis observed:

… no one should fool themselves into believing this will be the last cost increase for the NuScale/UAMPS SMR.

The Albanese-Labor government will not be distracted by the ideological flim-flam from the nuclear white shoe brigade and their devotees in the coalition. We'll continue to take on the serious work of supporting Australia's shift towards cheaper and cleaner energy, ensuring we don't get left behind in terms of jobs, investment and innovation at a time of global energy transformation, while improving our energy security at the same time. That's what Australians voted for and that's what we are delivering.

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