Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the matter of public importance debate today. This is a very timely debate on energy policy. Although we already knew it, the United Nations has today confirmed that Australia will not meet our Paris emissions reductions commitments under the current Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government energy policy paralysis. We won't meet the commitments that this very government signed up to just a few years ago, and yet what is this government's response? From Prime Minister Morrison down through his ministers, we hear that Australia will meet our commitments in a canter—a statement that is misleading and downright dangerous. Of course we didn't need the UN to tell us this galling fact; the government's own data shows that, under Mr Scott Morrison's hopeless climate change policies, carbon pollution will continue to rise all the way to 2030, which is as far as the projections go.

They're finally beginning to admit the ridiculousness of their statement that, under their policies, we will meet our commitments in a canter. As Senator Fawcett told a Senate estimates hearing:

… the reduction we had over the 2016-17 year, if we continued that and that was our current settings then we would do that.

But that reduction is not a real reduction but a reduction relative to the forecast emissions. The government's own data shows that, in each year since they came to power, emissions have increased, and perhaps worst of all is reliance on the current settings. What are the current settings? Policy paralysis, no certainty for the renewable energy industry and an arrogant government that doesn't seem to care about our future energy needs. They don't care about reliability, they don't care about price and they don't care about emissions. All they care about is playing politics to see coal as their electoral saviour. It is an obsession akin to the Greens in reverse. Instead of sensible, pragmatic policies to transition Australia's energy sector to focus on what is the most cost-effective, cleanest energy, all they want to do is talk about the government building a coal-fired power plant as though it will solve all our energy policy problems. But they have no desire to work through a bipartisan agreement on energy policy.

Labor's position is clear. In fact, despite the roller-coaster of positions adopted by the government, our position has always been clear. We are willing to work with the government to deliver a bipartisan energy policy. On no fewer than six occasions today in question time, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Cormann, was asked about the government's shambolic approach to energy policy. What is their current policy? What was it? What is it? They could work with Labor to find a path forward on the very policy, the National Energy Guarantee, the NEG, they proposed just months ago. Would this Morrison government—with the architect of the NEG policy, Minister Frydenberg, as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party—work with Labor to deliver the very policy they proposed just months ago? What was Minister Cormann's response? No commitments to work together, no acknowledgement of the complete shambles the Liberals and Nationals have left the energy sector in over the past five years, and no vision for how to break their self-imposed impasse.

It's clear only one party is serious about taking up the challenge of energy policy, and that's the Labor Party. Last week, Labor leader Bill Shorten and energy spokesperson Mark Butler announced our plan for more renewable energy and cheaper power. What we're proposing is not a short-term political fix—that seems to be the obsession of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—but a comprehensive 10-year energy investment framework that will deliver certainty for industry, lower power prices, improve reliability in the grid and drive investment in the renewable energy generation that will address climate change.

How are we going to do that? First, we'll double the original investment in the Clean Energy Finance Corporation from $10 billion to $20 billion. Then we'll provide $5 billion to futureproof our energy network through the Energy Security and Modernisation Fund, and we'll implement a new $31 million energy productivity agenda that will seek to turn around Australia's flailing energy efficiency performance, which has seen us fall to last out of developed countries in energy efficiency policy and performance on the Liberals' and Nationals' watch.

I note that the CEFC and ARENA are achieving fantastic things across our energy generation and distribution sectors, as well as working with organisations and business to improve energy efficiency. But, to keep doing this work, more finance is needed. In contrast to the ATM government, who wanted to shut the CEFC down, we see its great work and want to boost its impact across the country. We want to boost investment in large-scale generation and storage projects including solar and wind farms, boost the use of solar and battery systems for homes across the country, and boost investment in energy efficiency projects, commercial and community renewable energy projects, and industrial transformation.

In Tasmania, the CEFC's major investment is in the Granville Harbour wind farm on Tasmania's magnificent west coast. I've been a passionate supporter of the Granville Harbour wind farm since its inception by a farmer and his mate, Royce Smith and Alex Simpson. The CEFC is investing $59 million for the $280 million project. Once completed, the wind farm will produce up to 112 megawatts of renewable energy, generating enough electricity to power more than 46,000 homes. That's enough energy to power most of the homes in the north-west and west coast of Tasmania, improving our generation capacity and creating much-needed construction and maintenance jobs. It's happening right now on the north-west coast and on the west coast of Tasmania. I'm excited by this project—and by other wind farm proposals on the table in Tasmania, including at Cattle Hill and Robbins Island—and I'm excited that it is being assisted by the CEFC, a body that Labor created back when I first started in this place in 2011; a body which, with only around $5 billion in investments, has leveraged a massive $19 billion of investments in clean energy projects so far; and a body with the personnel, the mandate and, with Labor's support, the resources to drive further investment. Such further investment will hopefully include Tasmania's Battery of the Nation project.

The Battery of the Nation is a phenomenal proposal that could see a number of projects built that cumulatively would deliver an additional 3.5 gigawatts in storage and up to 3.5 gigawatts in transmission interconnection, unlocking 6.5 gigawatts of wind generation. It uses Tasmania's natural hydropower assets and our amazing wind resource to deliver pumped hydro to boost Tasmania's contribution to the National Electricity Market. It will boost reliability and decrease emissions. While ARENA is currently co-financing the feasibility study with Hydro Tasmania, the power of the CEFC is that it could provide a large amount of finance for the delivery of the project and crowd in any private investment that may be needed to get it over the line. But the Battery of the Nation isn't feasible without a national energy policy. It needs strong leadership from government to see the project over the current hurdles and into construction. It needs a national energy policy that supports greater investment in renewable energy. It needs governments in Canberra and Hobart that will drive the case for a second Bass Strait interconnector, not the current sop from Liberal energy ministers Taylor and Barnett—and not the stunts we saw today from the Greens that are more focused on reigniting division than on delivering improved outcomes for households and the environment.

Labor has put a strong plan for more renewable energy and cheaper power on the table. It picks up some strong policy work by the government in the reliability space and builds on the clear gap in their policies around emissions reductions. Labor's plan will help deliver 50 per cent of power from renewables by 2030. It will keep power prices lower, it will improve reliability in the electricity grid, and it will create tens of thousands of jobs in the renewable industry. It's time for the other parties in this place to embrace our plan and end the senseless division that we are continually seeing on energy.