Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy President. I will turn my remarks now beyond just our government's broader investment in regional Tasmania to look at how we are working within the regions to ensure that Tasmania plays its part to reduce emissions, and that we are good custodians of the environment. The government is progressing the Battery of the Nation plans with the Tasmanian government, to increase the interconnection between Tasmania's energy market—which will be underpinned by an abundance of clean, reliable hydropower supported by newer wind developments—and the rest of the National Energy Market. I hear time and time again just how necessary this investment is in the regions and in hydroelectricity in Tasmania to ensure that we have jobs for the future, and also to ensure that we do our part in reducing emissions.

It often surprises me how pessimistic people can be about the world's capability to achieve the goal, which is some years away. When you look at the rate of advances in science and technology over the last century, it seems to me that we should be very optimistic about what we can achieve by 2050. As I've said, as a government we are investing to support that innovation here in Australia and particularly in regional Tasmania.

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to be able to visit an incredible Tasmanian business which was the recipient of a grant from the coalition government's Accelerating Commercialisation fund. This fund supports projects within the government's six national manufacturing priority areas, including food and beverage, recycling, and clean energy. It supports businesses which have ideas to undertake commercialisation activities in R&D, invest in technologies that will assist them to upscale their operations and secure further investment to expand both nationally and internationally.

Sea Forest, based at Triabunna in the south-east of Tasmania, is one of those businesses. They are doing world-leading work, cultivating a particular species of seaweed which, when added in small quantities to livestock feed, greatly reduces the amount of methane which is produced by those animals. This has huge potential for the livestock industry in Australia and around the world, because not only does growing the seaweed help to absorb carbon in and of itself, the end product reduces the amount of methane going into the atmosphere from one of our key industries in Australia. It was incredibly exciting to see the work that the team at Sea Forest are doing and how, with the support of this government—this government that invests in the regions, that has a plan—they are working to take that idea as a commercial product to the industry. If and when they take the next step, they'll be able to add significantly to their 40-strong workforce in a regional town which really needs jobs and career opportunities. That is just one example of the thousands of businesses around Australia, in the regions, who are innovating here and now in 2021 to create jobs and reduce our emissions.