Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is perfectly clear to me that the only way to achieve satisfactory action on climate change is to change the government. Moving away from the dependency upon fossil fuels requires an actual renewable energy transition. Only an Albanese Labor government will provide that certainty. People in my electorate tell me the climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing the planet, but I firmly hold it is also the biggest economic opportunity in front of Australia and, in particular, for our regions. We should be the renewable superpower. In my electorate of Gilmore we have amazing community groups leading the way on renewable energy, groups like Repower Shoalhaven, a not-for-profit volunteer run renewables organisation that not so long ago raised $500,000 in community finance in just two days. Repower Shoalhaven is an incredible community group made up of volunteers that are so passionate about seeing more renewables right across our region. It just goes to show what can happen when local community is leading the way.

The establishment of Shoalhaven's first solar farm is on 10 hectares of low-value land near Nowra Hill that has been transformed into a productive ambitious asset with 8,000 enormous solar panels generating 6,000 megawatts of clean energy per year to power the equivalent of about 2,000 homes. However, this is only half of the story. The leadership of Repower Shoalhaven is in partnership with energy retailer Flow Power—you see, 20 per cent of this clean renewable energy is already allocated, and to whom? The City of Sydney council. Again, from a former low-value unused space south of Nowra, renewable energy is being generated, enabling the City of Sydney council to achieve their zero emissions target nine years early. Could there be a better win-win-win than community involvement through Repower Shoalhaven, local government involvement, local businesses to benefit by purchasing the power, job creation and local investor benefits with returns tracking at five per cent per annum?

And, announced only yesterday, the University of Wollongong Shoalhaven campus will use 100 per cent renewable energy generated from the Shoalhaven community solar farm. Chair of the University of Wollongong Sustainable Futures Committee, Professor Tim McCarthy, said:

Keeping our energy dollars in the region gives us satisfaction and having it at the doorstep of our Shoalhaven campus is perfect alignment.

If this is not the definition of a circular economy, I can't tell you what is.

Then there is SHASA, the Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance, with a president speaking publicly that a key aspiration of SHASA is to have a community solar farm in the Eurobodalla as well. The Gilmore electorate wants to see more solar farms. We want to see more electric vehicles. Where are the EV charging stations along the South Coast? There is no charging station between Canberra and Batemans Bay. We want to see more renewables jobs on the South Coast. This fulfilled dream by Repower Shoalhaven of a solar farm shows that it is truly possible; it just needs a federal government that will support it.

The world is moving rapidly towards renewable energy. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australia to jump ahead of the pack. The Morrison government can't be trusted on renewables. In the past eight years, this government has announced more than 20 energy policies and delivered nothing. The Prime Minister's untrustworthiness is undermining Australia's international reputation and interests.

Labor would turn good climate policy into good jobs policy and create work, long-term secure work, in the process, additional to helping reduce power prices and emissions. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to seize this change. In the interest of our regions, we need a government that has the ambition to seize these opportunities. And that is an Albanese Labor government.