Doorstop at Parliament House, Canberra

JOURNALIST: Another delay in the coalition's nuclear costings?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I mean before Christmas, before the Election, before Easter? I don't know. It should have been out months ago. It's been months since they released their seven sites. Their seven sites don't stack up. Their costings won't stack up. This is a just a rolling mess. Imagine if the Labor Party from Opposition said we're going to have an energy policy but we won't release the costings. I mean, this is just treating the Australian people with utter contempt.

JOURNALIST: When will we see Labor's costings on renewables?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, it's the Opposition which has to produce their costings. Our costings are there to see in the ISP, in Gencost, etc.

JOURNALIST: Minister, the 2030 target is largely dependent on the grid getting to 82 per cent renewables. The Clean Energy Council is projecting, even with current projects and those in the pipeline.

CHRIS BOWEN: The Clean Energy Council?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, the Clean Energy Council has said that it's only going to get to 46 per cent.

CHRIS BOWEN: That's not right. I'm sorry, that's not right. That's not what the Clean Energy Council says.

JOURNALIST: It's in their report.

CHRIS BOWEN: 46 per cent?

JOURNALIST: 46 per cent.

CHRIS BOWEN: That's not right.

JOURNALIST: Okay, so – but it's still a big issue.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, with respect –

JOURNALIST: I mean, you're modelling this on projections of projects that don't exist yet, correct?

CHRIS BOWEN: That's not right. I mean the 82 per cent target is important for our 43 per cent emissions reduction target. That's true. It's not the only factor. I mean electricity emissions are about a third of our emissions, but it's the biggest emitting sector. We put in place the policies to get to 82 per cent. The Capacity Investment Scheme being the most important one. Today I'm releasing the Climate Change Statement, the quarterly inventory, the Climate Change Authority's advice, my response to Climate Change Authority's advice and the Department's projections for 2030. All of which, all of which show we're on track for those targets.

JOURNALIST: Minister, electoral reforms reported to be pulled last night. That's something I personally wasn't expecting. Were you expecting - are you concerned about if we have to delay this particular piece of legislation?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, I'll just say this generally to predict some other questions. It's the last sitting day of the year. Second last sitting day of the year. I look forward to seeing you all at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. And on the last sitting 24 hours of the year, you're going to see all sorts of speculation about legislation that's on, that's off, that's going to pass. That's not going to pass. I just think we all just take a chill pill and wait for this evening and see what legislation passes. The government's working very hard to pass our legislative agenda.

JOURNALIST: When you talk about emissions targets being on track, do you think that's really resonating with voters and everyday Australians right now, particularly in states where there are heat waves and they don't know if they're going to have power or not?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, in Sydney yesterday, we saw AEMO take appropriate action to ensure that there were no blackouts caused by loss of energy generation yesterday, despite five coal or gas-powered units being offline, out of action, two of which were breakdowns unexpected, which did put pressure on the energy system. But to your question, Australians care about bills, they care about reliability, and they care about emissions. The good news is the government's policies increase reliability, reduce bills and reduce emissions because renewables do all three.

JOURNALIST: But Minister, Australia, has a very modern economy. It wasn't a particularly warm day.

CHRIS BOWEN: It was 39 degrees where I live, mate.

JOURNALIST: Well, it gets hotter and we're only at the start of summer, so it must be. It's a bit embarrassing, isn't it, for a nation like ours that we have these energy problems?

CHRIS BOWEN: We have AEMO, which is the, I regard as amongst the world's best operators of an energy system. They took appropriate action. They have various levers at their disposal, like issuing a lack of reserve notice, which is what they did yesterday. That is telling energy companies to, if they can generate more electricity, telling transmission companies to ensure their transmission lines are operating. That happened 36 times in the last quarter of the Morrison Government and 55 times in the second last quarter of the Morrison Government. We didn't politicise that because that was the system working now. Yesterday, we saw the system work. Now you'll get politicians out there saying there's going to be blackouts. Ted O'Brien's predicted 10 of the last zero blackouts. I mean, he said we're going to have blackouts all last summer we had none caused by a lack of electricity generation. He politicised yesterday a blackout in the Riverina which was caused by a transmission line tripping in a storm.

Now, that will happen. It will happen. If I'm the Minister, it will happen. If he's the Minister, it will happen. Has happened for years. Will happen for years. I'm yet to see the technology which stops a transmission line tripping if it's impacted by lightning or a storm. It doesn't matter whether that power comes from nuclear, renewables, gas, coal. I'm a big fan of renewables, but I'm not here to tell you it stops transmission lines tripping in a storm. It doesn't. Neither does nuclear, gas or coal. Now, Mr O'Brien can play chief politics about that. That's his want. I'm focused on the job at hand. Last couple of questions.

JOURNALIST: The international community is expecting our targets for 2035 by February next year. Are we in breach of international obligations if we don’t do that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, I've just come from COP, where I met with a range of international colleagues, so Matt Kean was there, the Chair, Independent Chair of the Climate Change Authority. He met with 20 of his counterparts. So, far, four countries have set their National Determined Contribution or three and a half, because Japan is still consulting on the ones they've released. We're going to see a lot of countries release their NDCs over the course of the next year. In Australia's case, I'll be complying with the Law of Australia. The Law of Australia, which is best practice around the world, is that the government will declare its NDC after I've received Climate Change Authority advice. When I've considered it, then I take it to Cabinet. The Cabinet decides whether they agree with my recommendation. Then we release it. Now, I will not be acting unlawfully. I'll be complying with the Climate Change Act. Last question.

JOURNALIST: Minister, is it democratic? Is it fair? Is it doing politics better and differently to try and ring in 40 bills through the Senate in one day?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, I'll just say this similar answer to Sarah. You're going to see a lot of bills dealt with today, a lot of bills that have been talked about for a long time. You know, these are not bills that the Parliament should be surprised about. These are bills the government's been progressing for a long time with a very heavy legislative agenda, because we do it. We're an activist government doing a lot of things. Now, I've been here for 20 years. If we didn't try and get legislation through on the last sitting day, it would be the first time in 20 years that that would happen. Governments try and get legislation through, that's what governments are for. And whether we get all our legislation through or not is a matter for the Senate. Pretty confident in the House. We've got a bit of work to do in the Senate, but I know that that is well in hand with our discussions with prospects.

I said last question.

JOURNALIST: Minister, I understand what you said about the advice, about the advice on the 2035 targets. Assuming we go to an election before you receive that advice. I mean, if you're asking Australians to vote between nuclear and an energy policy?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Ted O'Brien said that their 2030 targets will be after the election. 2030.

JOURNALIST: You're in government –

CHRIS BOWEN: 2030. Well, he wants to be in government. 2030, he said targets after the election. Now, our 2030 target we're on track to meet our 2035 target will be, I make no apologies for saying we're going to comply with the law. If you want to argue that we shouldn't comply with the law, we should ignore the Climate Change Act, I'm going to respectfully disagree.

JOURNALIST: All right. Definitely tomorrow.

CHRIS BOWEN: See you at 7:00.