Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Although in some ways COVID-19 feels as though it was a lifetime ago, we did learn really important lessons from it. I think we were reminded of those halcyon manufacturing days in Australia where, quite frankly, we did make a lot here. That's why the Albanese government is focusing on a future made in Australia. We want to harness the competitive and natural advantages that we have.

Our national economy does need to forge a path to become a renewable energy superpower. Tonight I'm sitting beside my wonderful colleague the fabulous member for Hunter for the adjournment debate. I know he agrees with me that coal and gas serve us well in our current energy mix. We know we will have a lot of hardworking people from our electorates who continue to mine that coal and work so hard. I want to pay tribute to those people, because they do an incredible job. But we also know that we need to move towards a renewable future, and that's why I was pleased to have the Minister for Climate Change and Energy come to Newcastle last week to make an announcement about offshore wind in my electorate and also in the seat of Newcastle.

I know that there were great concerns in Port Stephens over offshore wind, but I want to thank my community for consulting and working with me on this. I know that we've got a way to go, but I also know that we're going to have jobs—that we're going to continue to have the prosperity in the Hunter that we've had for decades. That was because of energy—whether it came from coal, whether it comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, or whether it comes from the emerging and nascent hydrogen industry that's coming.

It's so interesting: we can never get it wrong when we rely on the Australian people. We talk about investment in renewables in Australia, but the largest investment per person that we've had in renewables in Australia is the people of Australia putting solar on their rooftops. Apart from some of the really big developments that we've had just in very recent years, the biggest investment we've had in energy is rooftop solar. People in Australia get it; they know it makes sense and they know it makes their bills smaller. We can always rely on the Australian people making good choices when it comes to energy. They know how to bring their bills down and they have a government that wants to support them in that. From 1 January we'll be supporting them by giving them $300 off their energy bills. I think that's just so important.

I want to compare and contrast that to the other offering that we have. In the Hunter we've got coal, we've got a wonderful renewables industry being built and we've also got hydrogen coming. But the other alternative is nuclear. Seriously, I just can't get over this. Most of the people I've spoken to up to this point are quite flummoxed by this. They say, 'Well, Mel, I understand what you're telling me but I don't believe it will ever happen.' The first thing is that it's going to cost billions and billions of dollars. The second thing is that if we wanted to do it we should have been thinking about it seriously 50 years ago—quite frankly, there won't be a megawatt generated from this shy of the next 20 or 30 years, so the run has been left too late. The main point I want to make about this is that if this was such a genius idea why didn't they do it 10 years ago when they were in government? They had 10 years to get this going and there was nothing—crickets. In fact, people said: 'You know, renewables are good. That's the future.' The member for Fisher said that in 2022; he's on the record as saying that. He said that about offshore wind—he said that it was the future and that we should be harnessing it. Flipside today: we're all in on nuclear.

I want to say to the people of Paterson, and of the Hunter more broadly, that you have a government that believes wholeheartedly in what you do. We believe in a future made in Australia. We know that we can have clean, cheap, renewable energy. We know that we can bring your bills down. We know that we're not going to slug you with a reactor and then put your bills up on top of that. Under nuclear you will pay double, triple and quadruple and you will pay twice. It's a no to nuclear.