Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased that the chair of this committee has joined us in the chamber. He won't like what I'm going to say, but I'm disappointed with the negativity and with the committee comments—that is, the majority of the committee, which was made up entirely of government members—in the interim report. It is curious and depressing how government members form a different view to the rest of the G20 nations. I was just listening to the member for Swan speaking about community license, and it would come as a disappointment to her just how much the community is accepting the view—particularly young Australians—that we need to find a different way to net zero because the pathway we are on is costing us business, wealth and investment all around Australia.

The government's net zero by 2025 plan, with impossibly shorter-term targets, target that destination with a renewables-only pathway. Quite frankly, only zealots believe this is close to possible without an alternative to coal baseload generation. The world is choosing nuclear in the mix.

Let me go to the South Australian experience. I'm a South Australian. We're very lucky in this parliament—as I've said on many occasions—that we've had South Australia on this electricity pathway for some time. They are the canary in the coalmine. South Australia has a 75 per cent renewable network, and we should say: 'Wahey! That's a really good outcome!' It is better than the next mainland state in Australia by double. South Australia has doubled the amount of renewable electricity put into the grid from the next state. But it's not the only thing we excel at; we have a 50 per cent higher retail price then the next state. The price of electricity is 50 per cent higher in South Australia than it is in New South Wales, and Victoria has a very similar rate. It's like that old saying: 'South Australia is the driest state on the driest continent.' In this particular case, South Australia has the highest electricity price in a country that has some of the highest electricity prices in the world. No wonder our businesses and our industries are struggling.

As a matter of proof on this, I use my own build. I'm very happy to do so. I went back recently and pulled out some accounts from just after the election of the Albanese government—from July 2022. My electricity was 28 cents per kilowatt hour. My latest bill is 42! I don't know what the member for Hunter is like with his maths, but I can tell you that's a 50 per cent increase. It's 50 per cent higher now than it was three years ago, and it's bound to get worse, because Victoria is shutting down its coal-fired power stations—it may not be, actually; it's looking for an extension on Loy Yang at the moment—and that's where South Australia is getting it backup from. When the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine—we've heard it all before—that's where South Australia gets its power from. There is an investment in batteries around at the moment, but we know, and this is an important thing for people to understand, that the cost of renewable energy is in the firming. When you begin the journey of firming, it is cheap. It costs virtually nothing. Going from zero to a position of 20 per cent renewable—you just plug into the power station. The coal-fired power station comes in, the gas comes in, and they back it up. It doesn't cost anything. When you get to 50, it starts to hurt.

It was the lowering of cost when energy was abundant that closed down the coal-fired power station in Port Augusta. A power station that used to be able to sell energy at a profit all of the time became a power station that could sell energy at a profit only some of the time. In fact, that place could run at a profit for fewer than 70 days a year, but it had to operate all the time. In the end, it became a liability. They closed it down, and the price of our power spiked in South Australia quite dramatically. It has not come down since. My bill that I was telling you about has had a 50 per cent increase in the last three years. I was at a fish processor in Port Lincoln quite recently, and they shared their electricity bills with me. Despite the fact they'd covered the roof with solar panels, they'd had more than a 50 per cent increase. They use bucketloads of electricity because they have giant freezers there to chill and freeze the fish. I haven't spoken to them, but I bet they're very excited about the $150 rebate that came through the budget yesterday! They'd be even less excited, even marginally, about the scrapping of the instant asset tax write-offs.

The problem with renewables is this cost of firming. When this committee was established, I criticised it's narrow scope in a speech. It was then, and it remains, a lynch mob—a platform for antinuclear zealots that was always intended to find the government's renewable-only policies were the best pathway, despite clear evidence from many people in the inquiry. I haven't had the opportunity to read every page yet, but I can certainly find evidence of disputing opinion. One of the sections in this report calls for social licence, and the committee went to every site that the coalition has nominated as a possible site for nuclear generation. I think the member for Hunter would've been disappointed with the protest crowd at Port Augusta when he got there. They weren't exactly manning the barricades out there with their placards, were they? There were a couple of people who were opposed who gave evidence; I can report that they were left over from an earlier nuclear war about the siting of the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility, where one of the sites suggested was the Flinders Ranges. Despite the fact that they live nowhere near Port Augusta, they came down for the hearing on that particular issue. It shows the government's complete fear of anything that looks like nuclear.

We had a community in Australia—Kimba, my hometown—that had stuck its hand up to host the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility and was keen to do so, with more than 62 per cent of the population in favour of it. It had been through both houses of the parliament, and then, when an Indigenous organisation raised an objection—an objection that would, in fact, have been easily overruled—the government ran for cover. Here we are now, three years later—

and we still have no answer for where the waste—

from Lucas Heights is going to go when that facility is full. ARPANSA has warned that it will be full in some sections by 2029. This government has no plan.

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