Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021. We need this bill to create an offshore wind industry to help us drive coal and gas out of our energy system. We need this bill in order to build the international transmission networks that we need to replace coal and gas exports with clean energy exports. It will only be abundant, dirt-cheap clean energy that will enable us to attract manufacturing back to Australia and transform our coal and gas reliant regions so that they remain economic powerhouses that export our sun and our wind to the rest of the world.

Australia has around 2,000 gigawatts of offshore energy that we can harness. To put that in perspective, Australia's entire grid is around 55 gigawatts of capacity. So we're talking about 40 times Australia's current energy use blowing right now across our offshore waters.

However, this bill does need improvement. We have circulated amendments that do three main things. Firstly, to ensure that our abundance of renewable resources are matched by an abundance of Australian jobs, we want a local content clause to ensure that wind companies that commit to securing Australian workers and Australian services get preference in securing offshore titles. Secondly, our amendments would make clear in the objectives of the act that the purpose of the bill is to encourage clean energy exports. Thirdly, we want to ensure the section on financial assurances required of clean energy projects doesn't come into place until a similar regime exists for oil and gas assets. The government said they are committed to doing this, but they're dragging their feet. Once this bill passes, offshore wind projects will have a higher burden of financial assurance than oil and gas projects, which, of course, are far more dangerous—such are the favours that oil and gas companies enjoy in Australia under this government. The Liberals love red tape when they can wrap it around things that they don't like, like clean energy that threatens the profits of their coal and gas donors.

However, we understand we don't have majority support for those amendments and we do want to facilitate the quick passage of this legislation. I understand that Labor supports the intention of our amendments and we will continue to work closely with Labor in future parliaments to ensure that this bill is improved on, particularly in relation to the work health and safety provisions that the government refuses to improve.

We don't want to jeopardise this bill's quick passage. There are projects that need this bill to pass so that work can progress over the summer, like the Star of the South which will replace Yallourn, Australia's oldest and dirtiest coal plant, in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. That project will replace 85 per cent of the supply that Yallourn currently produces. That's Australia's dirtiest and oldest plant, whose life was extended in a secret deal by the Victorian Labor government. This project proves that we don't need it and that the contract to prop up coal should never have been written.

In conclusion, by harnessing the abundance of our offshore wind resources, we can drive the cost of energy down—potentially, close to zero—giving Australia a competitive edge to bring back manufacturing to our shores and to ensure that heavy industry can continue in a carbon-constrained global economy. The biggest winners from this bill and the clean energy transformation will be regions like Gladstone in my home state of Queensland, Gippsland and the Hunter and Illawarra—deepwater ports with heavy industry. These nearby rich offshore wind resources will provide those regions with the clean energy needed to create hydrogen for steel, ammonia for export and power heavy industry and manufacturing at dirt-cheap prices. This is an important step to drive out coal and gas and keep it in the ground. We support this bill's passage through the parliament.