Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The creation of the Net Zero Economy Authority is central to our government's vision for a future made here in Australia, and it speaks for the example that drives each and every government member each and every day: no-one held back and no-one left behind. This is about making sure that no community is held back from the new jobs and opportunities of the global shift to clean energy that we are seeing, but it's also about making sure that no community is left behind by economic change. That is the responsibility of this authority, and it's a mission of this government, because we want to create a new generation of economic growth and prosperity for Australia. We are determined for our nation to seize the opportunities that are there—the clean energy to power a new era of advanced manufacturing, particularly in our regions; to make Australia a renewable energy superpower; to make the most of our comparative advantages; and to make things here again. We want to unlock all the flow-on economic benefits that that will bring—the new, secure, well-paid jobs in our regions and in our suburbs.

This legislation—the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024—is about making sure this transformative economic opportunity is shared with every Australian, town by town, worker by worker, business by business. We are living through the most significant economic change since the industrial revolution. Nations representing 92 per cent of the global economy are signed up to net zero and so are 97 per cent of Australia's trading partners. Net zero is the future of the global economy, and this legislation recognises that reality. What's more, it reflects our government's determination to shape that future rather than wait for the future to shape us.

For the world to reach net zero, it will need much more clean energy—solar power, wind power and green hydrogen—and it will need more of all the resources and technology that go into producing that energy—the metals, critical minerals and rare earths that Australia has in such abundance. If you could have designed a global opportunity from scratch, you could not have put Australia in a better starting position. But it is just that: a starting position. It's a foundation. We have to build the architecture. Part of that architecture is this legislation. That is what we have been doing since the first sitting week of this parliament. We legislated our emissions reduction targets for 2030. We legislated for net zero by 2050. We created the safeguard mechanism, giving business and industry the certainty to invest in reducing their emissions. We have our new vehicle efficiency standards, getting Australia up to speed with the rest of the world and giving Australian drivers more choice. There's Rewiring the Nation and our Capacity Investment Scheme, overdue investments in the national energy grid after a decade of neglect, when it was allowed to fall into disrepair. Those opposite, when they were in government during that decade of lost opportunity, had 22 separate energy policies. They just didn't land any of them. We have had one, we have landed it and we're getting on with implementing it.

We're also rebuilding our international relationships, demonstrating that Australia's back at the table and ready to be part of the global solution, making climate and clean energy the third pillar of our alliance with the United States of America. We're strengthening our critical minerals partnership with India and maintaining our important energy partnerships with Japan and the Republic of Korea. We're signing a new green economy agreement with Singapore, with new work on green shipping. And, of course, there are the investments made in the budget earlier this month, supporting our vision for a future made in Australia. There are new incentives to drive business investment in critical minerals and hydrogen. There are production tax credits that back job creation and reward success, and we're speeding up approvals and streamlining the investment process.

The Net Zero Economy Authority is another key part of this architecture. It will have the responsibility and the resources to engage directly with those communities and workers who are on the front line of the shift to clean energy. In our regions in particular, this change is the work of a generation. Preparing for what is coming next, anticipating the change and shaping it in the best interests of our people, has to start right now. That is where this new authority will ensure programs and policies are coordinated at a federal level across departments as well as working with states and territories and the private sector. We'll engage directly with workers in emissions intensive industries and regions to invest in new jobs, skills and opportunities, and we'll focus on the broader community, on the schools, hospitals, infrastructure and services that are needed.

For example, if a power station is approaching its scheduled closure, we believe government has a responsibility to be there ahead of time, not wait until it's occurred, to engage with workforces, local businesses and community leaders, to be there helping workers plan their features by reskilling, training and being ready for new job opportunities.

Consider the contrast between Hazelwood and Liddell. Hazelwood shut with a few months notice, and far too many workers and families were left behind. At Liddell, AGL is working to turn the site into a new energy hub for the Hunter, and our government's Solar Sunshot program is going to create new manufacturing opportunities right along the supply chain. That's an investment in our national economic resilience, it's an investment in our energy sovereignty and it's an investment in more jobs for the Hunter in the future than there were at the old power station, at that site alone.

That's how you make change work for people. That's how you build community support for the transition that is occurring—not through having slogans but by having serious policies that make sure that workers and communities benefit from the change which is occurring. It is not through what we saw from those opposite—the denial and delay, closing their eyes and trying to wish the problem away. We saw that over Liddell, where week after week, month after month, year after year, the former minister Frydenberg used to stand at this dispatch box and speak about how Liddell was going to be extended into the never-never. It never happened, because it simply wasn't possible for it to happen. It had reached the end of its life. We saw it when they stood here and announced, on budget night, funding for a study for the proponents of the Collinsville coal-fired power station. It was never going to happen. It didn't stack up. It had no investors. But what it did was stop serious action. But it also wasn't honest for those people in North Queensland, just as the statements about Liddell weren't honest for the people of the Hunter Valley.

What we need is to have real solutions to the challenges which are there but also to seize the opportunities which are there. And we're seeing it play out again from those opposite, with their swapping of economic reality for their nuclear fantasy. It won't occur. Communities won't be looked after by pretending that somehow Australia can afford the most expensive form of new energy and the slowest to build. Last week the CSIRO confirmed that any form of nuclear reactor would not be possible in Australia until at least 2040, and the best-case scenario cost of construction for just one of the many nuclear reactors that the Leader of the Opposition keeps saying he's going to announce any day now is at least $8.6 billion, and it could easily be twice as high.

We know that serious people such as the shadow minister at the dispatch box here have indicated that they don't want it anywhere near their electorate—in his case, Gippsland. It's one of those circumstances. You can imagine them having all of their members lined up, and they'll say, 'Please step forward, those who want a nuclear reactor in your seat,' and, one by one, they'll all take that step back, which is why the Leader of the Opposition can't announce his policy, even though his party is full of 'nuclear reactionaries'. It's not just the massive cost of building nuclear reactors or the higher cost of the energy they would produce; it's the years that we'd waste; it's the price that Australia would pay for missing the opportunities that are in front of us right now—because, make no mistake, the world isn't waiting around for us. The world is moving forward, with the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States; with similar legislation in Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Union; and with the work that is taking place. If we stand still—or worse, if we go down the rabbit hole of nuclear reactors—then the world will go right past us. Our government is absolutely determined to make this moment count, to make our future here in Australia, and this legislation is an important part of that. I thank members of the crossbench and others who have engaged constructively, including a meeting I had yesterday with the member for Indi. She has a very sensible amendment to this legislation that she will try to progress through the parliament to ensure that there is regional representation as part of the authority's independent oversight that will occur.

My government is investing in the new skills, new infrastructure, new incentives and new energy which will seize the opportunities which are there before us. This legislation is about seizing those opportunities and also about sharing them, making sure that people are not left behind. This is a reform that holds no-one back and progress that leaves no-one behind. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.