Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024 will transition the current Net Zero Economy Agency from an executive agency within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to a standalone statutory authority, that being the Net Zero Economy Authority. Under the legislation, the authority's functions will be to coordinate net zero policy and planning across government, facilitate both government and private participation and investment, support affected workers, support First Nations Australians to participate in the transition and deliver educational and promotional initiatives as Australia transitions to a net zero emissions economy.

There are two broad aspects to this legislation that operationalise the authority's powers. The first is facilitating the new investment in the net zero transition. The authority intends to be a shopfront for industry and investors. It will seek to work with project proponents and state governments to get renewable projects to investment decision. The authority will also mobilise public moneys through vehicles such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the National Reconstruction Fund with private financing support, address enabling infrastructure needs and navigate regulatory processes.

The second responsibility of the authority is to assist the impacted workers in that transition area through the Energy Industry Jobs Plan. The Energy Industry Jobs Plan would allow the authority to utilise the industrial relations system to manage the redeployment of workers in closing coal-fired and gas-fired power stations and their dependent employers—for example, coalmines that are reliant on a closing power station. The plan does not specify or anticipate the types of employment that workers may transition into. This is essentially an industrial relations bill disguised as a bill for the regions and the transition.

The coalition will oppose this bill due to the following: its bureaucratic waste duplication; its top-down, Canberra-centric approach, which is set to fail on delivering on the unique needs of the regions; its imposition of new obligations on small, medium and large businesses; and the fact that it is yet another example of Labor's haphazard approach on industry policy which delivers no guarantees for local workers. On top of these significant flaws in this piece of legislation, as we found out in the recent federal budget, the government has doubled the authority's budget to nearly—wait for it—$400 million from 2023-24 to 2026-27 alone, with further funding to total $1.1 billion over the medium term. That's according to Budget Paper No. 2, page 159, of the 2024-25 budget.

The federal government cannot afford to waste over $1 billion on Canberra bureaucrats across the Net Zero Economy Authority, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and the Fair Work Commission, when it has been unable to detail the actions that this authority would perform that are not—not—already being done. The component of the Net Zero Economy Authority that relates to new investment in the net zero transition is a bureaucratic waste which largely mirrors the responsibility of existing federal and state agencies. The investment facilitation aspects of the proposed authority duplicate the role of existing funding agencies such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the CEFC; the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA; and the role of existing mechanisms such as the Major Project Facilitation Agency.

The authority explicitly has responsibility for:

… facilitating public and private sector participation and investment in greenhouse gas emissions reduction and net zero transformation initiatives in Australia, including in new industries …

This is almost copied and pasted from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's legislated role to 'facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector,' and to facilitate the achievement of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Similarly, the role of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is to (A) improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies; (B) increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia; and (C) facilitate the achievement of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The level of duplication on the proposed Net Zero Economy Authority's responsibility to promote new investment in the net zero transition and existing Commonwealth entities is beyond a joke; it truly is. How many federal agencies tasked with renewable financing does the Commonwealth require? It's a very, very good question.

This approach, focused on facilitating investment consistent with net zero ambitions, also leans into the government's preference for picking winners rather than genuine investment facilitation and jobs creation. A national body risks a top-down, Canberra centric approach which does not fully consider regional needs and priorities. It is also likely that, once established, the federal government will continue to add additional powers and responsibilities to the authority to support its net zero and climate ambitions.

Will the government rule out giving this net zero authority new powers to streamline and/or expedite regulatory approvals or financing for transformational green energy projects? Following the tabling of Labor's 2024-25 budget, the funding for this authority and its related activities is budgeted to be $399.1 million from 2023-24 to 2026-27 alone, with further funding to total $1.1 billion over the medium term—1.1 thousand million dollars over the medium term. This is on top of the billions of dollars of additional funding being moved into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the newly badged Future Made in Australia.

Over $13 billion in taxpayer funded subsidies for big business don't address the source of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Labor's focus should be on dealing with energy costs, high inflation and out-of-control red tape; that's what they should be doing. Instead, Labor continuously fails to address the fundamental realities facing most Australian businesses. With insolvencies at record highs and more businesses going offshore, supporting a small number of big businesses is irresponsible and a slap in the face for small businesses desperately seeking answers from this government to survive, to stay afloat.

The level of duplication between the Net Zero Economy Authority and existing Commonwealth institutions demonstrates a complete waste of more than $1 billion of federal government funds over the forward estimates. The proposed Energy Industry Jobs Plan is a long-held union wishlist item. It was an election commitment carried under Bill Shorten, the member for Maribyrnong, dubbed the Just Transition Authority, and has been adopted in some form in all Australian Labor Party national platforms since 2018.

Australia's current industrial framework features a well-established safety net that applies and has applied for a considerable amount of time to instances of business closure and industry change, especially relating to the closure of coal-fired power stations. Under section 2.10.1(c2) of the AEMC's National Electricity Rules, coal-fired power stations must provide 3½ years notice before being able to close. Furthermore, a national agency to assist regions is also duplicative of state based mechanisms designed to achieve the very same outcome. For example, regional planning initiatives already exist through the New South Wales government's Hunter Regional Plan and the Victorian government's Latrobe Valley Authority Transition Plan. This new authority would also cut across the work and vision of existing regional development of Australian communities which recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating vibrant regions.

This bill adds an onerous additional layer of regulation not previously considered by the fair-work system. The proposed Energy Industry Jobs Plan process overlaps significantly with existing industrial obligations, including consultation, paid leave, union access and enforcement, without dealing with how those overlapping obligations should interact. This bill takes no steps to harmonise measures which will cause confusion, uncertainty and disputation at a workplace level that can and should be avoided. There are justifiable benefits in mechanisms that attempt to keep jobs and employment in these affected communities, but, in reality, this legislation gives the unions a big stick to threaten employers to provide paid time off, facilitate activities to drive union membership and enforce obligations that a dependent business may not be able to afford. There is no sense of limit around what obligations, pay or work conditions can be applied; as much will be left to the Fair Work Commission to determine.

The regulatory impact statement expects a total annual compliance cost of $1.5 million when the costs for individual employers are aggregated. It is important to note that the larger risk in this legislation is not for the large energy generation companies, such as AGL, Origin and Energy Australia, but, rather for smaller businesses which supply goods or services to a closing power station and may be caught up in this energy industry jobs plan process. These businesses, which typically don't have human resources and internal workplace lawyers, are unlikely to have any line of sight as to what is coming.

In his address to the National Press Club earlier this year, current Net Zero Economy Agency Chair Greg Combet could give no guarantee on the transition of coal-fired power station workers to green jobs in the renewables sector. There is a real risk that these workers will be left with fewer employment opportunities and lower rates of pay. While the bill will require employers to offer workers retraining opportunities and to attempt to match employees with new jobs in the green economy, this is unlikely to benefit older, experienced workers who are approaching retirement or workers with highly specialised skill sets.

There is concern about the scope of the legislation, particularly for smaller dependent employers. The explanatory memorandum provides an example of a local cleaning service that has a commercial relationship with a closing generator being classified as a dependent employer. It is not clear what liability or obligations a cleaning service would be expected to adopt under an energy industry jobs plan. It would be up to the Fair Work Commission to determine. There are no carve-outs or exclusions for small businesses in the legislation—none. These organisations are unlikely to have the resources or capacity to administer the services outlined in the bill. It is also unclear whether this plan will apply only to permanent employees of closing or dependent employers or would also capture casual employees.

The energy industry jobs plan is bought and paid for by the union movement. The union movement want the Net Zero Economy Authority to be legislated, because the authority will be able to collect personal information of employees of coal-fired power stations, from financial records to telephone numbers. Indeed, this bill does not even require the relevant employees' consent for their information to be passed from their employer onto the Net Zero Economy Authority and the legally mandated trade union representation on its board.

This bill is not a bill for the regions. Nor is it a bill to support the net zero transition. This is an industrial relations bill that the Labor government are gifting to the union movement. The coalition will oppose the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024 because of their bureaucratic waste and duplication; top-down Canberra-centric approach which is set to fail on delivering on the unique needs of our regions; imposition of new obligations on small, medium and large businesses; and the fact that it is yet another example of Labor's haphazard, dysfunctional approach to industry policy which delivers no guarantees for local workers. The coalition will not be supporting these bills.

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