George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition does not oppose the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill 2011 or the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2011. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill establishes the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, known as ARENA. ARENA is designed to centralise the administration of $3.2 billion in existing federal government support to the renewable energy industry currently managed by the Australian government and by Australian government funded bodies such as the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy, ACRE, and the Australian Solar Institute, the ASI.

ARENA will also assume the work of ACRE in establishing and maintaining links with state and territory governments and, with the ASI, in fostering and developing collaborative research partnerships internationally. ARENA will also be responsible for the policy advice to the Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism, and will take over and expand the activities of ACRE in this regard. The bill also establishes the members of the ARENA board, its chief executive officer and its chief financial officer, and sets out how ARENA will operate and be funded. Funding to be provided to ARENA each year is prescribed in the bill until 2020 and will be held by the government until required by ARENA. Around $1.7 billion of the funding allocations to be made by ARENA is currently uncommitted and will be available to ARENA to provide financial assistance for the research, development, demonstration and commercialisation of renewable energy and related technologies, the development of skills in the renewable energy industry and the sharing of non-confidential knowledge and information from the projects it funds.

The Energy Agency (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill complements the main ARENA Bill by providing the transitional and consequential activities that need to occur in order for ARENA to take over funding and administration from the existing programs and projects transferring from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism to the ASI and ARENA.

The coalition believes these bills create a better vehicle for the delivery of renewable energy technology project funding and support, and the coalition's position with respect to these bills is an entirely separate matter from the position the coalition may adopt on any particular project that ARENA may inherit or later consider or support. While the coalition does not oppose the establishment of ARENA, as it will allow for the streamlining of procedures and for appropriate corporate governance in the sector, it should not be taken as carte blanche approval of specific programs to be administered by the proposed ARENA. It is a matter of public record that the government has not covered itself in glory when it comes to the implementation and operation of energy projects, including renewable energy projects. There is a long and chequered history of failure, as there is on most things in the performance of the current Gillard and prior Rudd governments, on a whole range of programs they have attempted to administer.

We need look no further than the establishment of the carbon tax to again see a program and a policy that have been all over the place. We now see of course, as a result of a breach of promise, a carbon tax that will be introduced into Australia and will be far deeper, far broader and far more economically damaging than any other tax of its type in the world. It is a tax which will drive up the cost of living, put more pressure on electricity prices and make Australia's energy and resources industries less competitive than their global counterparts. This is a hallmark of this government, as is the incompetent management of a whole range of programs, including its renewable energy programs, to which I will come back in a moment.

There are reams of economic modelling that show that the carbon tax will put a significant burden on the Australian energy and resources sector and expose it to disadvantage in terms of competitiveness. Yet the members of the government have shown us, on the passage of that legislation through the parliament, that they would rather celebrate than think about the damage that it is going to cause to our competitiveness and to our economy. The carbon tax is designed, they say, to try and lower carbon emissions. In reality, of course, it does nothing to drive the fuel switches and energy efficiencies that we need. At least with the bill we have before us today there is a structure, corporate governance and an outcome. You do not see the same thing in the carbon tax legislation.

We have also seen in recent times this government, through its renewable energy and carbon reduction programs, demonstrate the incompetence that we have grown used to across the board. We saw it in the last fortnight in the announcement by ZeroGen that it was in receivership and would soon disappear from the face of the earth. Hundreds of millions of dollars, a good proportion of which have been contributed by this Labor government, will disappear with it for no outcome. With it goes taxpayers' dollars that this government so unwisely invested in it.

That investment is part of the Labor government's whole smoke-and-mirrors approach to clean energy, where it promises the world but delivers absolutely nothing. Given that ZeroGen is now in receivership and $40 million of federal taxpayers' money—and a substantial amount, perhaps double that, of Queensland taxpayers' money—has disappeared and gone down the drain, we need to ensure that, as much as is possible when you have a Labor government in power, these sorts of things do not happen again. That is why the coalition will not be opposing this legislation. We hold out some hope, through the structure of ARENA, that they will not appoint only Labor apparatchiks to the board of ARENA but will get the expertise they need to ensure that the board is constituted of men and women who understand the importance of renewable energy projects and who understand how to invest money. We hold out some hope, although it is perhaps a faint one.

ARENA will be made up of a board of six appointed members plus the secretary. There will be at least one person from the field of renewable energy technology, another from commercialisation, another from business investment and another with expertise in corporate governance. There may be, unfortunately, a cross-membership with the $10 billion Greens slush fund that the Labor Party has set up so that the person who runs this country, Senator Bob Brown, can get what he wants out of the project. It is money poured into projects that will probably end up in the same place as ZeroGen.

We do not oppose this legislation, as I say. We understand the reasons for setting up ARENA and will watch very closely as it is done. Whilst it is reassuring that renewable energy issues—and energy in general—are going to be overseen by this body, it is somewhat disappointing that we have still not seen the framework for Australia's energy in the form of a white paper. We are of the view that it is very difficult to invest in any form of energy, particularly renewable energy, in the complete absence of a policy or structural framework on energy policy going forward. The last energy white paper was delivered by my colleague Mr Macfarlane for the Howard government as long ago as 2004. Seven years is an extraordinarily long time for the sector to have to wait for a comprehensive statement of the government's energy policy, yet seven years is the length of time that the sector has had to wait with no promise of that situation improving any time soon.

Throughout those seven years the world has changed dramatically. We have seen the growth of China and the expansion in emissions that that has caused. We have seen a huge shift in energy demand as countries develop their economies. We have seen in Australia not only a huge focus on only supplying that demand through coal or liquefied natural gas but also an energy shift that has seen an expansion of the wind energy industry. Without an energy white paper it does not matter how good ARENA is, the energy sector will still be staring in the dark as to which direction it should take.

We in the coalition do support renewable energy. We do not support some of the programs that the government has in place, and at an appropriate time we will go into that in detail. The renewable energy industry was started by a coalition government. I know that those who sit opposite like to take full credit for everything to do with renewable energy, but let us get a few facts on the table. The Mandatory Renewable Energy Target, the MRET, was introduced by a coalition government—the Howard government. It was put in place and was up and running. It was the first in the world. It was a coalition government that established the photovoltaic industries in Australia. It was a coalition government that funded the first wind projects in Australia. It was a coalition government that funded the first photovoltaic large-scale generation programs. It was a coalition government that put money into the first solar thermal projects. It was a coalition government that continued to ensure that we had alternative energy projects that worked.

So we in the coalition do have a strong basis on which to support renewable energy. We do have a very strong interest in making sure that we put in place a structure that will be able to administer the programs that the government puts in place to bring about an outcome that actually produces lower emission energy and energy that is renewable. The problem that we have is that this government continually come up with bright ideas and then comprehensively bungle them through bad administration and failure to oversee policy development properly. The coalition will make sure that the onus is put on the government, by the establishment of ARENA, to be effective and efficient in their management of policies and projects as this money is rolled out. Who knows when the next election will be? But between now and then there is going to be a sizeable amount of money put into this sector and if it is managed properly it should have a positive outcome.

I hope that this government uses the establishment of ARENA as another chance and a turning point in its poor planning and policy implementation. I doubt that it will—though we live in hope—because this government has not heeded any of the wide-reaching warnings from the industry or from the coalition to date. The coalition will not object to the introduction of appropriate policies that can assist and not impede the energy resources sector, including the renewable energy sector. But examples of success have been very few and far between in the life of this Labor government. We will not stand in the way of a government that pushes ahead with good policy, but we will stand in the way of policies that are destructive or based on a poorly thought through agenda.

We would in our time, had we had the opportunity, have established—or when we get the opportunity will establish—a structure perhaps similar to this one. But the crux of this bill is that it is a second chance for the government. It will be another chance—perhaps a last chance—for the government to demonstrate not only to the energy industry but also to the people of Australia that it can actually manage money. I live in hope but, as I said before, it is a faint hope indeed for to date we have not seen that competence from this government. ARENA will not only have to administer the renewable energy sector but will also have to be a miracle worker to give the government a lead and show it how to manage money and not waste billions and billions of dollars.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the legislation to set up the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. This is something that I announced on 8 July 2011 as a result of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee negotiations. It is something that the Greens have long argued for and I am delighted that we are now seeing the legislation that will set up ARENA. It will be a statutory authority with an independent board. The reason for that is that we have seen many problems with a disparate array of various government schemes over a long period of time. I will get to all the problems with those in a moment. But what is really interesting is that the coalition have said—with an oath in blood, I believe—that all of the bills that deliver the clean energy package will be repealed under any Abbott government should one occur. But not only are they not going to repeal the legislation that creates the Australian Renewable Energy Agency; they do not even oppose this, because they recognise it as good and sound policy.

What is more interesting is that one of the reasons that Senator Brandis just cited for supporting ARENA was its structure and the fact that it would have experts in investing money on the board and be independent. It is the structure of ARENA that gave the coalition the confidence to think that it might disburse the funds in a proper manner, which is precisely why the Greens have argued for independence and a statutory authority.

But exactly the same thing applies to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It has an independent board and is a statutory authority. And yet in that case we have Mr Robb and no doubt Senator Brandis as well running around saying that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be a honey pot for the white shoe brigade. How can it be that you have two independent statutory authorities with independent, professional, expertise based boards with the coalition supporting one and not supporting the other because it is going to be politicised? That shows the complete nonsense and drivel that comes from the coalition when it comes to policy on renewable energy.

Everybody knows that what we need in Australia is to advance a renewable energy revolution. We need to get 100 per cent renewable energy as quickly as possible in this country. Not only will that be a great thing for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and seriously addressing the climate crisis but it is a recipe for sophistication in the Australian economy, greater diversity and a rollout of investment in the bush in particular. It will mean new jobs. As we have just heard in the debate on the steel transformation plan, it is where Australian steel needs to be directed. It is needed to build the towers for the wind turbines and the support for the solar arrays. Solar thermal needs steel; renewable energy needs steel. The advancement of renewables has so many advantages for Australia in terms of our future economy, our jobs growth and our whole manufacturing mix.

I wanted to put on the record at the start that this absolutely puts paid to the coalition's suggestion that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation cannot be supported. If they can support ARENA because they recognise that it has the right structure, that puts a great big bucket of water over the top of the coalition leader's oath in blood, which is getting more watery and anaemic by the moment. It also shows how absolutely bereft of any policy rigour the coalition's response is. However, I am diverted.

It is important to point out that under ARENA all the existing Commonwealth government renewable energy programs—except the renewable energy target—will be administered by the new independent statutory authority. It will be the first time that we will have a systemic whole-of-government approach to renewable energy at arm's length from government. With ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation we are covering the whole spectrum of innovation, which is very exciting.

The first half will be covered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which will look at early stage research, development and rollout and possibly up to pilot stage. The programs that are being rolled into the Australian Renewable Energy Agency are the Solar Flagships Program, the Australian Solar Institute, the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (Solar), Renewable Energy Demonstration Program, the ACRE Solar Projects, the Renewable Energy Venture Capital Fund, the Australian Biofuels Research Institute, the Emerging Renewables Program, the Second Generation Biofuels Research and Development Program and any uncommitted funding from the Connecting Renewables Initiative. I think you can see, Mr Acting Deputy President, why it is so sensible to pull together all of those different strands of funding and put them into one agency—a one-stop shop, if you like—for people out there in the sector wanting to know how they can get support from government for their particular project and get an expert board who oversees this whole thing.

What we are also going to see is that the independent board will immediately manage the $1.5 billion in funding that is already committed under some of those programs, plus it will manage the $1.7 billion in uncommitted funds that already exist as a result of all these programs out there. That $1.7 billion has not been disbursed to date, and now we will be able to get it out there into renewable energy research, development, commercialisation and demonstration. By bringing all these programs under an independent authority we can finally deliver consistent, systemic support for the industry.

Senator Brandis seemed to imply that the only problems that have occurred with renewable energy funding and rollout have occurred under a Labor government. That of course is quite wrong. These problems in supporting the renewable energy sector have been there since the Howard government, because government departments simply do not seem to be able to talk to the industry and work out how to support them in a way that is both rigorous and actually gives them what they need. The reason there is all this undisbursed funding is that the rules that have been set just do not suit the industry.

I want to quote from a paper that was written by Wayne Smith, a director of Clean Economy Services, in July last year. He wrote:

The only thing certain about Australia’s solar policy is uncertainty. That’s the key lesson from the last five years of solar policy at a national level. Whether it’s residential solar or large-scale solar, the ground has constantly shifted for the solar industry.

…   …   …

The Photovoltaic Rebate Program began in 2000, offering rebates of up to $4000 for solar panels on homes. This resulted in some 7000 homes installing solar panels … In May 2007, the then Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announced a doubling of the rebate to $8000—

and, whilst that got attention—

the Rudd/Gillard Government argued it drove a massive budget overrun of more than $850 million. In May 2008, the Rudd Government restricted the $8000 rebates to households earning less than $100,000 and in June 2009, the Rudd Government’s Solar Homes and Communities Plan was abruptly stopped and replaced by a new Solar Credits Scheme.

So you can see there, all the way through, just as industry gears up for the rules that are set, suddenly, because the community is so keen to actually embrace renewable energy, particularly solar, the rules change—and that undermines business and sets up a boom-bust scenario. As has been indicated from the paper I was reading from, the problems started from the initiation in 2000 of changes that then Minister Turnbull made, then from the changes introduced under the Rudd government, through to then Minister Garrett getting rid of it altogether.

The same thing happened with the sudden decision to end the Rural and Remote Power Generation Program, and the suspension of the popular Solar Schools Program, before it was reopened later, on the eve of the federal election last year. In terms of the Rural and Remote Power Generation Program, I stood in this Senate endlessly saying to the minister: 'You simply can't do this.' However, it was done—Minister Wong did get rid of it. But I am glad to say that, as part of the negotiation over the carbon pricing legislation, we now have an investment to go back into conversion to renewables, particularly in remote Indigenous communities. I think around $40 million has been allocated for that, and I am very pleased to see it back there.

You see a similar story with solar hot water. In July 2007 the Howard government was providing a $1,000 rebate for solar hot water systems and heat pumps, and that was a practice continued by the Rudd government. In February 2009 the Rudd government increased the rebate to $1,600 without means-testing, through a new Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme, as part of its response to the global financial crisis. In September 2009 the rebate for heat pumps was reduced to $1,000 and in June 2010 the system was changed again, under the Enhanced Renewable Energy Target. In July 2010 there were yet more changes, with a commitment by the government and the coalition to take $150 million from the Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme to fund other election promises—and on and on and on it goes. The industry is totally fed up.

The Solar Flagships Program is a classic case in point. In that case the rules were badly set up in the first place, and it was very difficult for industry to actually apply; and then, under the rules of the second round of the Solar Flagships Program, it is hard to see how it could ever have been delivered or rolled out—because, in May 2009, after the government had announced the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program, it was redesigned, it was split into two funding rounds, with the first round delayed for more than a year; and then in the course of the election campaign suddenly it was all changed. In July 2010, in the lead-up to the federal election last year, both the Labor Party and the coalition announced a $220 million cut to the Solar Flagships Program. Then over the summer we had the Prime Minister say that she would take money from the program to fund the flood levy. It was the Greens who said: no, we will not stand for the idea that you take money from the renewable energy sector, which is a solution to climate change, to fund the cost of the damage caused by climate change, which was the flooding in Queensland and the extreme weather event, in terms of the level of intensity of both the flooding and Cyclone Yasi, which are climate related.We managed to stop the bleeding of the finance out of the Solar Flagships program. We organised a roundtable in the process of that.

So you can see that this has been nothing other than frustration for people in the industry and it is costing the industry jobs. Now there will be an independent statutory authority with a finance pool that cannot be raided or changed for 'cash for clunkers' or flood levies or anything else that any political party would want. Instead we are saying that this is the money to get it right, to get the early stage right though to the pilot stage and then from there it will go to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to assist in getting funding for technology-ready projects that are unable to secure the commercial financing at that particular time. That will help to leverage private sector finance.

What is also interesting about the coalition's view on all of this are events that have happened in places like the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Given that we have just debated the Steel Transformation Bill and we are now talking about setting up the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, it is worth noting that the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, went to Whyalla and predicted the area would become a ghost town, an economic wasteland and even be wiped off the map under the carbon tax—so-called—and the Clean Energy Future program. Then the Steel Transformation Plan was announced—$300 million in addition to the compensation for energy-intensive, trade-exposed industry—and the coalition voted against providing this money for OneSteel in South Australia. In fact, OneSteel actually came out and said that the clean energy package was 'appropriate and sensible'.

What is even more interesting is that when my colleague Senator Sarah Hanson-Young pointed out that the future for Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula was in renewable energy, in rolling out the massive change that will be delivered through ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the coalition screamed and ran around South Australia laughing saying, 'No, this will not be the future.' But we note today on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald that Mr Mark Cant, a former Liberal candidate—which is quite interesting—who now speaks for the Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula Regional Development Board, has said:

We want to be one of the top 10 clean-energy regions in Australia.

He went on to say:

There's a wave energy pilot project set to begin in December, a rare earth minerals processing plant—providing metals used in modern technologies such as hybrid cars and iPods—also set to begin construction this year, well-advanced plans for a large-scale solar project and a study showing the region has the potential to provide big amounts of wind power.

Mr Cant said companies including Pacific Hydro, Orica and Origin Energy had bought land in the area and put up monitoring systems in preparation for possible wind-power investments and the region intended to apply to the federal government's clean energy fund for a high-voltage transmission line to connect the proposed projects to the national electricity network.

Imagine that. The coalition are now opposing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which will be the basis for supporting this clean energy plan for Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula, as my colleague Senator Hanson-Young pointed out some months ago to the screams of ridicule from Liberal and National Party senators. In fact, this week, instead of the coalition leader cutting and running to London, where he did not have to be until 10 November, he should have gone to Whyalla and stood up and told them there that not only did he oppose the $300 million in the Steel Transformation Plan but he also opposes the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which the area has now said it really needs in order to advance the new vision and new future that it sees. That is increasingly what we will find.

Coming out of this debate on the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, I know that it is embraced and welcomed by the industry. They are really looking forward to a board with expertise working out the rules, to being able to access funding and to being able to see a clear path from research and development through to the demonstration pilot stage and then going to ARENA for leveraging private sector finance. For once we in Australia now have a pathway for renewables. I am really proud of the role the Greens have played in negotiating with the government and the Independents to get this as a major part of the Clean Energy Future package. Not only does it do great things for areas like the Eyre Peninsula—and it will do so in Tasmania and lots of other parts of rural and regional Australia, as well—it will also massively increase our capacity to reduce our emissions. I think it was ClimateWorks that said recently that the massive expansion in renewables will lead to a much faster and deeper cut in emissions than that projected and modelled by Treasury, which had very conservative assumptions.

What we have here results from the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee and the negotiations to get an emissions trading scheme to implement the polluter-pays principle. In addition to the carbon price, which will drive some sort of conversion from coal, we now have the additional support for renewables, which is welcomed by the industry.

Those statutory independent authorities are critical and I put back to the coalition: what is the difference between the government's structure of ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation? If the coalition can support ARENA and are now saying it is such a good idea—having suggested that the Greens were holding the country hostage—isn't it time they admitted that they will not repeal the Clean Energy Finance Corporation legislation, just like they will not repeal the rest of the bills?

Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill 2011 and the related consequential amendments bill. These bills are a very important element of the government's Clean Energy Future program. Yesterday we established finally a price on carbon emissions within our economy. And in doing so we established the architecture for a new era of economic development in our country, an era of development that will see not only emissions in our economy reduce over time but also households, businesses and communities adapt over that process, over that trajectory, to ensure that we are investing in new technology, in new production methods and in new businesses that harness the power of renewable energy.

It also recognises that we make an effective transition to a long-term trajectory of reductions in carbon emissions. To achieve that we must support and invest in research and development, capital production and commercialisation of renewable energy development in this country. We have established the price mechanism to ensure that there is the incentive amongst households and businesses to promote new ventures. These bills ensure that we use some of the revenue generated from the carbon price to support the commercialisation of the technology and the development and investment that will assist in the reduction of emissions in our economy.

Australia has a great tradition of innovation, resourcefulness and entrepreneurship when it comes to new technology and inventions that have reformed the way Australians and the rest of the world communicate and operate. For a population of close to 20 million people we punch well above our weight when it comes to innovation, research and development and the development of new technology throughout the world. The black box flight recorder, the stump-jump plough, the Hills hoist, the refrigerator or solar hot water: these are inventions that Australians have commercialised and revolutionised the way that humans conduct their affairs. We also are leading the way when it comes to harnessing the energy generated from our great natural resources.

I have been fortunate to witness some of those innovations turn from ideas into research and into commercial projects. A small business in the Illawarra has commercialised the use of the power of the coastline in that area, the power of waves, and turned that power into electricity, which is powering homes in the Illawarra. There is Mackay Sugar and their very innovative production techniques associated with refining sugar at their plant in Mackay and their plans to use the by-product of the refining of sugar, the molasses that is created from that process, to process it into ethanol for the future as a renewable fuel source. There is the farmer I met when I attended a carbon farmers conference in Dubbo who informed me of the changes he had made to his tractor that allowed him to capture and refine his diesel emissions and to turn them into a fertiliser that he was using to improve the productive capacity of his land. Australians have a great history of innovation, research and development and I am sure that with proper support through the establishment of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency the possibilities are boundless and we will begin to see Australians develop ways to harness the power that exists in our natural environment and commercialise those for the benefit of not only our own country but the wider world.

Australia is a land of extremes. This was so eloquently described by Dorothea Mackellar: a land of droughts and flooding rains, of damaging winds, of powerful swells, of searing heat. But it is also a nation that has the ability to harness those powers. Due to the sheer size of our great nation, it is not uncommon for such weather events to occur simultaneously. Many view this as a negative. Historically it has been an issue that we have come to adapt to, but it is also an issue that provides an opportunity for our nation—a positive, an ability and a resource that does not exist for other nations as we move into a clean energy future. We have an ability to harness the natural powers that exist throughout our country and turn them into renewable energy sources. And as we enter this new phase with the enactment of this legislation, we can be reassured that the government is supporting ideas, research and development and technology that allow us to harness our natural resources.

The future of our nation and our trajectory to a low emissions country and a thriving economy at the same time depends on our ability to properly harness these natural forces, and it is through independent bodies such as the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, or ARENA, that we will indeed maximise our opportunities to benefit from the clean energy productive capacity of our environment. The decision to establish ARENA was an agreement between the members of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, and was announced on 10 July 2011 as a part of the government's Clean Energy Future package. The proposed legislation is established through two bills, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill 2011 and the consequential amendments bill. ARENA will consolidate around $3.2 billion in existing government support for renewable energy technology innovation currently administered by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, and Australian government funded renewable energy bodies such as the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy and the Australian Solar Institute. ARENA will have the authority to administer around $1.5 billion in current renewable energy technology funding agreements. It will determine its funding strategy and develop and manage programs for funding around $1.7 billion in unallocated funds. It will also have the independent authority to select projects and make binding funding decisions for provision of financial assistance for research, development, demonstration and commercialisation of renewable energy and related technologies, including enabling technologies. Where appropriate, it will share knowledge and information with industry from the projects that it funds.

ARENA's objectives will be to improve the competitiveness of and increase the supply of renewable energy technologies. It will also promote collaboration with state and territory governments to support renewable energy technology innovation. Importantly, ARENA will be independent and will not be subject to direction from government on the particular projects it selects to be awarded funds. The Australian public can be confident in the independence and integrity of this body in the selection of projects that will receive funding. This is just another example of the government working to reassure the public that we are deadly serious about this clean energy future package.

Indeed, this legislation has won support from many of those opposite, including Tony Abbott's resources spokesman, Ian Macfarlane, who was quoted in the Australian newspaper just last week saying that it was 'reassuring' that this agency would provide 'structure for policy and program development in energy and resources'—an endorsement of the government's program in this area and an endorsement of the establishment of this body, one that no-one can deny is positive in nature and will make a real difference to the commercialisation of renewable energy projects and capital in this country.

The establishment of ARENA proves this government is doing what it takes to work with industry to ensure a smooth transition to a prosperous clean energy economy. There is a lot of potential for major advances in renewable energy technologies over the next few decades. Rapid advances in the science and engineering of renewable energy are being made on several fronts. It is our goal to ensure that this continues and that we harness this exciting new industry and the benefits and changes that it will make to our nation and our way of life.

As a father of two young children, I am quite proud of this government. Through legislation such as this we are doing our bit to ensure the good health of our nation and our planet for future generations. We are also investing in new industries and new jobs growth in the new economy. Tackling climate change is something that we must do to ensure that we transform our energy sector. Luckily, we are extremely well placed to do so. We have the landscape, the weather, the know-how and the political will to make the change to a clean energy future. We have a dynamic and competitive private sector. We have abundant resources of renewable energy, from sunshine to wind power to geothermal energy, and we have the wave and tidal power of the oceans surrounding our great nation. With the raft of clean energy legislation that has been enacted and is being enacted, all the pieces of the puzzle are finally falling into place. The architecture is there for us to make the transition from an industrial carbon-polluting economy into a clean energy technology based future. We can now tackle this generational challenge through the transition to a clean energy future. It is through bodies such as the Australian Renewable Energy Agency that this transition will be successful. In this respect, I commend the bills to the Senate.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we are speaking on the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill which establishes the entity that will administer the $3.2 billion in existing federal government support: ARENA. ARENA will be administering all renewable energy projects, and it still has $1.7 billion in funds out of the $3.2 billion. On top of this, the $10 billion clean energy fund will be there. The Greens demanded that from the government. Senator Milne, leading the government around by the nose again, got this. This is one of Senator Milne's great trophies. She wanted it; she got it. She told the government the Greens would not support the $23 entry price if she did not get the $10 billion, so this is her trophy. It is another trophy for Senator Bob Brown, when he goes over to visit Durban. He can swan around there and say he screwed $10 billion out of Australian taxpayers and got not only the world's biggest carbon tax to inflict on Australia but also the world's biggest renewable fund. It will have to be heavily subsidised to exist—up to, I would say, $70 or $80 on renewable energy certificates. The Labor Party are in fairyland about this. They have to understand that one person's green energy subsidy is another industry's penalty. That is what we have to face.

I am concerned that the superannuation funds run by the unions are going to invest heavily in this artificial, make-believe renewable energy Clean Energy Finance Corporation. They will be trying to get maximum leverage out of the $10 billion. Personally, I would not put Confederate money into a renewable energy bank that relies on an artificial price to supply industry and has to have huge subsidies to keep it going. Inevitably, there will be a day of reckoning when the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry or some other peak body says that the carbon tax and renewable energy are killing Australian industry by making it uncompetitive and costing jobs. We cannot keep increasing costs and expect to sustain a manufacturing industry in Australia. In the face of a collapsing manufacturing industry, governments will have to act. You cannot have a carbon tax and renewable energy. It is a double whammy. We cannot compete with our exports and compete against imports from other countries that do not have either.

Bindaree Beef runs an abattoir in Inverell, which is where Senator 'Wacka' Williams lives. Bindaree Beef is the iron lung of Inverell and employs 630 people. It is paying around $3,185,708 in renewables and electricity. That is their estimate. Next year the carbon tax will put up electricity prices by about 30 per cent and renewables by about seven or eight per cent, so their electricity bill—and these are my figures; I just put 30 per cent on top—will go from $3,185,000 to $4,364,000. That will be on top of the increased taxes on all beef that comes in and all meat that goes out by road. Bindaree Beef have said in their submission to the Senate that they cannot absorb the costs. They have worked out that they will have to pay the farmers $11.26 less. Farmers are not in those 500 dirty polluters who are going to be penalised; everyone will get penalised. That is a huge hit for Australian graziers. Those charges will be the same for all Australian abattoirs, give or take a few bob.

Rick Morgan owns one of Queensland's finest seafood restaurants at Redcliffe. Senator Brandis would know it. He has employed a consultant to assess his future electricity and renewables bills. The price is going to increase by 24 per cent. It is a relatively small restaurant and he has a few trawlers. He employs 140 people with the restaurant, the trawlers, the trucks and so forth. It is going up 24 per cent, up to $64,000. I am afraid to tell the Labor Party that Rick Morgan does not share the government's view that there is a bright, new renewable business that is going to take his 140 staff to a new fish restaurant paradise. In fact, he is distinctly pessimistic.

The Labor Party and the Greens can always see a bright future with increased jobs and a business utopia when it comes to renewable energy and the carbon tax. None of them have ever run a business. They are always looking towards the green emerald city that is going to produce jobs and all sorts of wonderful things in the future. I hope they are right, but I do not think they are. Senator Thistlethwaite today was talking about wave power. There are all these sorts of new things. You can produce wave power but no-one has ever been able to do it commercially. The only renewable at the moment that is in anyway feasible is wind, and even that is terribly expensive.

The $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation legislation has not been introduced. When it is I will say a lot more about renewable energy. These ARENA bills now give me an opportunity to address the fiasco on rooftop photovoltaic cells. The government could not even administer that. Now it has introduced the most complicated and convoluted carbon tax. I confidently predict that this will end in the same way as roof insulation did. There is a very clear likelihood that the impact will be even worse and possibly much worse. There are a whole series of policy and administrative failures from this government that provide no confidence that it is capable of administering any policy of substance, let alone a policy on the scale of the carbon tax. We have seen that in virtually everything it does. We have had the pink batts fiasco, the school halls debacle, the asylum seekers disaster, the live cattle trade mess—and the impacts of that are still unfolding—and the biggest infrastructure project in the nation, the NBN, rolling out without a business case and with very few signatures to get on board.

We have had serial policy misjudgment associated with serial shocking maladministration. This is the hallmark of this government. Most Australians think of this government as being chronically incompetent. No example is more pertinent to consideration of just how bad the carbon tax might become through maladministration and incompetence than the disaster that Labor is making in renewables. The Renewable Energy Target is a subset of the carbon tax. It is an abatement measure. Seeing how it is being handled fills you with dread in the context of a carbon tax. The people who are chronically mismanaging it are the precise people who will be charged with the administration of the infinitely more complex carbon tax. I am obviously referring to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

Let me give you the shorthand version because, if we were to go into it thoroughly and do a thorough clinical autopsy, we would be here all day. We need to go back a bit. In the last Howard government the government budgeted $150 million over five years for cash subsidies for rooftop solar. It blew out by over half a billion dollars in 18 months before Garrett finally pulled the pin.

Debate interrupted.