Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Certainly; I'm very happy to.

Just a few weeks ago, I was in Townsville with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen to announce that we are investing $70 million to develop Townsville's hydrogen hub. This is a huge project for Townsville and I am so proud of it, and I'm so proud of all the people in Townsville who have worked to achieve this goal. Construction on this project will begin next year and be complete by 2026, with commercial operations scheduled to start in 2027. This initial stage of the hub will produce 800 tonnes of green hydrogen per year. That's enough to fuel over 40 heavy vehicles a year. It will then ramp up to around 3,000 tonnes for domestic supply and, ultimately, 150,000 tonnes for export to the rest of the world.

Not only will this hub, led by Edify Energy, produce tonnes of green hydrogen per year; it will also create 200 direct jobs—opportunities for local electricians, plumbers, fitters and concreters—during construction. As well as the ongoing jobs in technical and engineering fields, this is all about delivering good, solid and local jobs for the people of Townsville. Edify, with its partners, including Queensland TAFE, James Cook University and Townsville Enterprise, will work with industry bodies to provide education and training to ensure that Townsville's workforce have the skills required to develop and sustain the region's hydrogen industry.

The Australian government's investment of $70 million is being met by a $27 million investment from the German government into Edify Energy. That is a vote of confidence from our partners across the world that we have something unique to offer—and that is our renewable energy jobs. That is something really to be proud of and I'm so excited to see this evolve over the next few years. This is happening while our government is busy delivering projects like this across the country. Townsville is just one chapter of our $500 million investment in hydrogen hubs in regional centres, including in Gladstone, which is also in Queensland, Bell Bay, Kwinana, the Pilbara, Port Bonython and the Hunter.

These are projects that support Australia's future as a renewable energy powerhouse—because we understand that renewables are the cheapest and cleanest form of energy. I want to say that again because it bears repeating for those who may not be quite sold on renewable energy: it is the cheapest and cleanest form of energy. We are building these projects right now. While we're busy at that, what is the LNP's plan for energy in Queensland? They want to stop investing in job-creating projects like the hydrogen hub in Townsville and they want Australians to wait another decade while they start building nuclear power plants across the country, and that includes right next to the Great Barrier Reef. Yesterday, in the Courier Mail, the LNP said that they have sites in Central Queensland where would put nuclear power plants, including a site in Central Queensland which is also referred to as the 'gateway to the southern Great Barrier Reef'. Analysis shows that Australians would be lumped with a $387 billion cost burden if nuclear power was to replace the retiring coal fired power station fleet, and we would need a minimum of 71 small modular reactors to replace the fleet itself. Peter Dutton and the LNP like to talk up their record on the economy, but these figures are proof that the nuclear energy plan flies in the face of economics and reason itself. After nine years of energy policy chaos, rather than finally embracing a cheap, clean, safe and secure renewable future, all the LNP can do is promise a multibillion-dollar nuclear energy policy. They won't say how much it costs and they won't say what they would cut to pay for it. They are saying now that they are going to put it right on the coastline of the Great Barrier Reef.

Our government is getting on with the job of investing in renewable energy right now, and we're getting on with the job of creating jobs in regional Queensland with renewable energy. That's what Queenslanders want to see, not a failed plan from the LNP. (Time expired)