Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In just a week, all 13.6 million taxpayers in Australia will be getting a tax cut, our $300 energy rebate begins for all Australians, and 2.6 million low-paid workers will get their third consecutive pay rise backed by this government, because Labor wants Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. Those opposite have shown once again that they have no positive plan and no vision for Australia's future. We are a week on from their nuclear plan announcement and we are still left with no idea how much it's going to cost. All we know is that it's the Australian people who will be paying for it with their taxpayer money and with higher energy bills. We know that the CSIRO has found that the cost of power from nuclear reactors is up to eight times more expensive than firmed renewables. In reality, this coalition plan—if we can call it that—will cost Australians billions, pushing up taxes and pushing up bills.

Our new chair of the Climate Change Authority, Mr Kean, said today of his decision not to pursue nuclear in New South Wales, 'I didn't want to bankrupt the state … I didn't want to put those huge costs on to families.' If only those opposite took advice from the experts, as Mr Kean did! According to the coalition's timelines, the first nuclear site wouldn't be open until 2035. This is a timeline that absolutely nobody believes. The CSIRO has found that bringing nuclear online in this country would happen no sooner than 2040 if there were no delays—if. Yet coal-fired power stations are retiring within the next 10 years. The coalition want to leave a two-decade energy gap that they just can't explain to Australians. Those opposite worry about the sun not shining or the wind turbines not moving; they need to worry a lot more about how Australians will fix a two-decade black hole of energy in this country.

Meanwhile, our renewables plan is real—it is actually real—and it is working. The latest emissions projections released in December show we are well on track to meet our 2030 target, and that is because our current policies are working. Under Labor we've had a 25 per cent increase in renewables in the national grid. We have greenlit more than 50 renewables projects and we've seen record investment in batteries and storage. Australian business and industry say energy policy certainty is good for Australian investment, which means local jobs and growth in regions just like Gippsland—a region that knows energy. Gippsland has powered Victoria for a long time, and we need the expertise of this community to power it into the future. Gippsland is one of the proposed sites for a nuclear reactor—or perhaps two nuclear reactors, if you ask Senator Hume, who was asked whether it was Loy Yang A or Loy Yang B, and answered, 'Why not both?', pushing it to eight nuclear sites in Australia. Gippsland deserves certainty and it deserves answers. It deserves to know what the future looks like for its children, for its homes and for its businesses.

This is a community that knows energy. Offshore wind is a real energy future for Gippsland. It's a future that the people of Gippsland have been working towards. It comes with 7,500 ongoing jobs from the first six licenses that have just been granted, with more to come, and 15,000 jobs in the construction phase—jobs the community can count on. On the other hand, nuclear hasn't been consulted about in this community, it can't be built before coal closes, and it won't deliver the jobs that Gippsland needs and deserves. Renewables are working and they are working for Gippsland.

What will work for every Gippsland taxpayer is also the tax cut that they will see on 1 July and the $300 energy rebate that they will see come off their bills after 1 July. These are real plans that are actually in place. Gippslanders, Victorians and Australians deserve a government that will deliver a secure future, and that is exactly what we are doing—delivering Australians real cost-of-living relief and a real energy future.