Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator. The government has made no commitments to other governments or to proponents about financial support for carbon capture and storage associated with the Barossa project. I also indicated that I would seek a more precise formulation of the new Carbon Capture Technologies Program. I concede that my earlier answer possibly, aside from anything else, was grammatically incorrect, so can I provide this additional piece of information: the Australian government is developing a new Carbon Capture Technologies Program with a focus on prioritising technology development for hard-to-abate industrial sectors, accelerating carbon dioxide removal and negative-emissions technologies, and supporting research opportunities. The program will be an open, competitive grants program aimed at accelerating the integration of novel CO2 capture technologies and CO2 utilisation technologies into Australia's growing CCUS capability. Importantly for you, Senator Whish-Wilson, this new approach shifts government funding away from commercial-scale CCUS activities and focuses on technologies that are key to achieving net zero by 2050. Demonstrating the technical capability and reducing the cost of these novel technologies now will enable their scale-up over time to meet our long-term climate objectives.