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

I rise as Chair of the Environment and Communications References Committee to speak to this report of the committee on the closures of electricity generators, Retirement of coal fired power stations: interim report. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Those of us in this chamber who accept the science know that we are in the middle of a climate crisis. The seas are rising and threatening our infrastructure. Our homes are threatened by more-severe bushfires and floods. Increasing numbers of heatwaves will harm our businesses and the health of our elderly. We have to cut pollution. That is why the restructuring of our electricity sector, which is our largest source of carbon pollution, is so critical. That transition is inevitable, but justice for workers and communities is not. That is why we need to plan, and that is why we need to start early.

That was the issue that this historic Senate report considered in detail. Really, the report marks a red-letter day for the end of coal-fired power. It is also a red-letter day for clean energy. For the first time ever, a parliamentary body has called for the managed replacement of coal-fired power with renewables. I congratulate everyone who was involved in this interim report. This report should be a wake-up call for the Australian government. When even AGL, which is Australia's largest coal-fired power operator—and our largest polluter, I might add—is calling for a clear plan to transition, for the orderly retirement of coal-fired power generators, surely the government should listen. On any other day, they would listen to one of our enormous corporates.

I note that the report was supported by Labor senators, and it represents a collective view across much of the community, industry and now the parliament. The electricity market is going through a dramatic transformation whether we like it or not, but we should be managing that transition. Evidence to the committee showed that Australia's biggest power companies, unions, non-government climate organisations and, importantly, affected communities such as those in the Latrobe Valley are all pleading with the federal government to develop a plan. The closure of Australia's direst coal-fired power station at Hazelwood is just the beginning. If we do not have a national plan for the orderly retirement of those remaining coal-fired generators then we will not get the investment that we need in clean energy, and we need that investment for stability, security and a smooth transition.

The government needs to stop sitting on its hands and claiming it cannot do anything and blaming the states. The energy transition is already happening, but if we leave it to the chaos of the market it will not be fast enough. It will be an incredibly bumpy ride and, once again, we will see communities racked with uncertainty, with very little notice given to them when these plants close their doors. Australia's energy future should be decided by our governments working with industry, with unions and, importantly, with communities. It should not be decided in the boardrooms of those big generating companies in Paris or Tokyo. When you have everyone from the Greens to Australia's biggest coal-fired power company calling for a national plan to phase out coal-fired power stations so that workers, communities and clean energy investors can plan for the future then surely it is time for the government to get on board.

I commend this report to the chamber, and I want to thank all of those who submitted to the inquiry. I think we had over 100 submitters. I want to thank those submitters who gave us evidence. I want to particularly thank the secretariat staff who have done, as always, an excellent job, and I also want to thank my colleagues for their participation on the inquiry. It was extremely informative and the level of engagement by all of the senators at the hearing was commendable. I have already mentioned that some of submitters included Australia's biggest power companies as well as government agencies like the Energy Regulator and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, but we also heard from the union sector, many affected communities and environment groups. It is pretty rare that all of those people speak with one voice. That is why we have been able to come up with four very clear and very important recommendations.

The first recommendation is that the Australian government adopt a comprehensive energy transition plan that includes reform of the National Electricity Market Rules. It is no mean feat but long overdue. Those rules were designed when we did not have such a penetration of clean energy and when we did not have those Paris climate commitments that should be driving the transition to clean energy.

The second recommendation is that the Australian government in consultation with the community, industry, unions and other stakeholders develop a mechanism to manage that orderly retirement of coal-fired power stations and that that be put to the COAG Energy Council. As we learned through the course of the inquiry, at the moment companies are making that decision themselves. There is no consultation with communities, and the government is not having any role and so, on average, communities get about four months notice of the closure of one of these big power stations that have often traditionally been very large employers in those small communities. Four months is not enough for an economy in transition or for a community that has been dependent on the company that has just decided to shut their doors. Of course, if we want to continue that secure energy supply, which I am sure we all do, then we need to manage that transition rather than letting those big companies dictate when they close their doors.

The third recommendation is that the Australian government, through the COAG Energy Council, put in place a pollution reduction objective that is consistent with our Paris obligations in the national electricity objectives, or the NEO, as it is known. That guides the sort of decision-making that happens in the operation of the national electricity market. Without a pollution reduction objective in there, it is going to be very tricky for that managed transition to a cleaner grid to be operationalised. Indeed, if as a nation we have signed up to those commitments—and even this government has done so; we think the commitments needed to have been stronger but they have at least been signed up to—then at the very least we should be following through and reflecting that in our domestic energy market.

The final recommendation is that the Australian government establish an energy transition authority, with sufficient powers and resources to plan and coordinate that transition, including a just transition for workers and communities. Again, this comes back to the principle that the energy market is in transformation. Coal-fired power generators are on average about 40 years old now. They are all going to be closing soon anyway. They need to be replaced with something. Government, community and industry should work together to design their replacements in a way that keeps those jobs safe in the community and meets our climate objectives. We think a new body could bring together the expertise to perform that role and to help government finally step into this space.

I mentioned earlier that the average notice that has been given to communities on the closure of one of these stations is less than four months. You could in no way describe that as best practice; that is worse practice. The government is taking such a hands-off approach that we are seeing mass community shocks and, worse, unemployment localised in those regions. Come on. We can actually plan ahead. Surely that is part of the reason that we have been elected. when we have, as I say, not just the Greens but the biggest polluters, the unions and the communities all saying: 'Please give us a plan. We know that we are going to have to shut our doors at some point. We have put our closure dates on coal-fired power stations. But if we can plan that and stage that then the transition to the grid can be smooth. The transition in those communities can be smooth. And we can start to meet our climate objectives. We know there is a lot of doubt about whether the government's policies can meet those climate objectives. Most commentators say there is no way they can. This is one way that the government could start to operationalise those commitments and then ideally increase those commitments.

I commend this report to the Senate. It makes for important reading. This is only an interim report, so the inquiry will continue. We will be reporting in the new year with recommendations as to the sorts of mechanisms that could be used to manage this transition to a cleaner electricity network, which we know will be job rich, which will safeguard communities and which, importantly, will help us make that transition to clean energy which will safeguard beautiful places like our Great Barrier Reef and all of the other important ecological sites, as well as the metropolitan areas in which we live.

Question agreed to.