Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I like the member for Page a lot, but that was a lot of hogwash—entertaining hogwash, colourful hogwash, sometimes angry hogwash. I don't think it was fixed in the end by the Hunger Games metaphor or by the 6 January capital insurrection allusion that he seemed to be making. The truth is that managing Australia's energy system at a time of change and challenge is a serious matter, and we should actually take it seriously. We take it seriously. We are taking positive action right now while setting Australia up for the long term. What does that look like? It looks like energy bill relief for every household in Australia while improving investment in renewables, storage and grid upgrades for the long term, making things better right now and making things better for the long term. Already there has been a 25 per cent increase in renewable energy, the cheapest form of new energy generation, and AEMO has consistently noted that the moderation of wholesale prices has resulted from an increase in renewables in our system.

The member for Page knows that, but instead what we get from the member for Page and from the opposition is disinformation, negativity, hypocrisy and fearmongering. You can come to the dispatch box and say how much you don't like being accused of all of those things, but, if you don't like it, maybe just don't do it. If you come here every day with disinformation, negativity, hypocrisy and fearmongering and you get called out for it, you can only blame yourselves. There's one other thing I'd add to that: selective amnesia.

The Albanese government is working to support Australian households and small businesses to deal with the pressures that built up through a decade of neglect, and the member for Page seems to have forgotten that already. I don't think the Australian community has forgotten. We inherited six per cent inflation from those opposite. We came to government just after the highest quarter of inflation this country has experienced in two decades. We now have inflation with a three in front of it. We inherited an energy system that in the previous nine years actually went backwards by one gigawatt in overall generation capability—this from a nine -year-old government that never even managed an energy policy, from a government that stifled investment in the cheapest form of new energy generation. They tried to defund and abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Company. They never brought in legislation to help reform Australia's energy system one iota, but the now shadow Treasurer, the former minister for energy, did seek to change regulation at the last moment to hide a massive spike in wholesale prices.

The member for Page might like to engage in some selective amnesia; that might be something that all those in the Liberal and National parties want to do. But I don't think you can come along with some sort of magic wand and expect the Australian community to go in for the same kind of exercise. The Australian community will not forget the fact that, for nine years, those opposite couldn't manage a national energy policy, that they saw a reduction in energy capacity, that they sought to cut and nobble investment in renewable energy. We are dealing with those consequences now. We are cleaning up that mess right now.

When they flipped into opposition after a decade of doing nothing to prepare Australia's energy system but doing plenty to stifle investment and innovation, they continued to bring in this approach of negativity, disinformation, hypocrisy and amnesia. They voted against price caps. They voted against energy price relief. They have opposed our energy efficiency packages for small and medium enterprises. As I said, there's been misinformation, disinformation, negativity, hypocrisy and fearmongering.

I am going to show the member for Page and his MPI a bit more respect than he and his colleagues are showing to the Australian people because I will actually address some of the hogwash in this MPI topic. The Albanese government, through the work of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, is absolutely focused on upgrading our transmission grid. It's been needed for some time. Those opposite know that upgrading our transmission grid wasn't just related to the energy transformation and to the need to enable more renewables and storage into our grid. It was required because the transmission grid is old. It's been around for decades. It's been neglected in many parts of Australia. It needs to be upgraded.

Here's a statement on that topic that I think should interest those opposite:

The development of interconnectors and transmission is critical to bringing new generation capacity into the energy system, while shoring up reliability and affordability across state borders.

Thousands of kilometres of new transmission is likely to be needed to connect new generation, and deliver reliable and affordable energy across the national market.

That makes a lot of sense to me. Who do you reckon said that in 2022? It was the now shadow Treasurer. It was the then minister for energy in the coalition government. Did they actually do any of that? Did they plan for any of that or fund any of that? No. But that was the view of the now shadow Treasurer in March 2022—that thousands of kilometres of new transmission was likely to be needed to connect new generation and deliver reliable and affordable energy across the national market. Well, knock me down with a feather. That is what this government is doing. That's what those opposite failed to do for nine long years. We are doing that because that is what the system needs. It needed it irrespective of the introduction of new renewable and storage technology, but it certainly needs it to enable that, and that is the fastest path to cheaper power in this country.

The member for Page doesn't mind actually having in the text of the MPI reference to 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines. He knows that that is rubbish. The integrated system plan has identified 4,000 kilometres of new transmission lines and 1,000 kilometres of upgrades to existing transmission lines. The member for Page knows that, but he comes in here with a number of 28,000. Why? Because he wants to scare Australians. He wants people in regional and rural Australia to be concerned about something which is absolutely rubbish. That is something that we will call out at every turn.

When it comes to this government, we take responsibility for what this country needs. This country cannot go along with an energy system that was left in tatters by those opposite, that went backwards on renewable energy generation, that had no investment in grid upgrades and that tried to quash and suppress renewables and storage when the rest of the world is going down that path. We are going to clean up the mess. We are not pursuing, as they like to call it, a renewable-energy-only policy. That tricky phrase could reduce a whole range of technologies and measures to a single thing. We are supporting investment in the cheapest forms of energy, with storage and transmission technology, across a whole range of different areas—solar, hydro, offshore and onshore wind, geothermal batteries, pumped hydro and so it goes. We are doing that because all of the economics and engineering shows that that is how you make power cheaper, that's how you reduce emissions and that's how you make sure Australia, but particularly regional and rural Australia, benefits from the global energy transition in which we have significant comparative advantages. The rest of the world is going that way. We ignore that at our peril. The advantages for rural and regional Australia are really considerable.

It would have been nice if, during nine years behind the wheel, those opposite had bothered to do anything on that front, if they'd bothered to even have just one national energy policy or if they'd bothered to add just one watt of new energy generation to the system, instead of seeing a gigawatt leave the system. The only bright new idea that they have after nine years of nothing is this nuclear fantasy. That's the one idea. They never did anything to our grid system or to transmission and never did anything in relation to renewables, interconnectors or storage—any of those things.

Now they finally come along with this fantastic solution of nuclear policy. I don't know if you can call it a policy. We don't know how much it will cost. We don't know when the reactors will be built. We don't know what kind of reactors they'll be. We don't know who will build them. We don't know how much energy they will produce. What we do know is that it's the most expensive form of new energy generation. We know it will be entirely taxpayer funded. We know it will put massive costs on every Australian household and on every Australian business. We know that it will decrease the capacity of future Australian governments to invest in health, education, pensions and our defence forces. We know that it will require emergency buffer zones around every single reactor.

We know it will involve the supply of iodine tablets to every single person who lives within those 50-, 60- to 70-kilometre-radius buffer zones. We know it will have to go on the title of people's properties. We know that it will make Australia less energy resilient. We know that it will make us dependent on the countries that build those reactors and supply their materials, because it's certainly not something we're going to do here. We know that much about their policy. We know that it is absolutely the wrong direction for Australia. The Albanese government is going to continue to deliver a cheaper and cleaner energy future for this country.

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