Interview with Adam Steer, ABC Darwin Breakfast

ADAM STEER: As I was saying, the Federal Government has announced $20 billion to rewire Australia, as they say, handing over $250 million to the Northern Territory. It's part to accelerate the renewables industry in the Northern Territory. Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Minister, welcome back to the programme. Let's explain what this investment is, $250 million, what's it exactly for here in the NT?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah. G'day, Adam. Good morning and good to be back with you. Yeah, look, as you said, it's part of our Rewiring the Nation policy, which is really a big and overdue upgrade to our transmission grid around Australia. We need to better connect how energy moves around our country. And as you know, we have really three different grids in Australia. We have what's called the National Energy Market, which is the east coast. We have a Western Australian Grid, and we have a Northern Territory Grid. And so, this is our investment in Northern Territory in partnership with the Lawler government, and it's $250 million to basically make transmission, which will be built, make it built cheaper and earlier, to get renewable energy in particular, onto the grid quicker and more cheaply, and get it moving around the Northern Territory in a way that we need to get it from where it's produced to where it's consumed. So, it's low interest loans to those who will build it. And it's in partnership with the Lawler Government as well.

ADAM STEER: We already have three dormant solar farms in the top end of the Northern Territory. Will this money, as far as you understand, facilitate those farms that have already been built to attach to the grid here in the top end of the Northern Territory?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, look, broadly, it will certainly enable more renewables. I'm not going to make specific claims about specific solar farms. The Territory government now needs to work through some of the details and there's transmission and there's distribution, which are different things. But look, in the broad. Yes, it will certainly help get more solar farms, whether the ones that are already in the system or ones that are being thought about, and indeed wind in some areas, get them into the grid more quickly and most efficiently.

ADAM STEER: I mean, we've spoken to a lot of people, obviously, about those farms and the difficulties they've had in attaching to the grid and some of the reasons why. But the solar farms, as I say, have been sitting dormant for three years. I mean, have you got confidence that the Northern Territory government will be able to manage the $250 million you're handing to them? Have you got some checks and balances in place to make sure they do the right thing?

CHRIS BOWEN: Oh, certainly. Look, the two governments are completely on the same page, and Minister Kate Worden's an excellent Minister and she and I negotiated this arrangement. She held a strong negotiating position for the Northern Territory, and we started at different places, but we got to the right place about what the right balance was for the Northern Territory, and they now will get on with the job of delivering this. And I should say, Adam, that's not all we announced when I was there last week. We also announced solar policy, which perhaps we can touch on as well. But that's less money, but also very important for getting more solar into the hands of particularly vulnerable households and those who have difficulty getting solar, including renters.

ADAM STEER: Okay, well, let's touch on that. It is a push to get more solar into residential properties. Exactly where is that money going?

CHRIS BOWEN: So, look, two different parts of our solar bank's policy for the Northern Territory, $2.3 million for each part, one of them is solar for multi dwelling. So, apartments in effect, which is an area where people often struggle. So, you've got apartments, stratas, body corporates, and they struggle to make it work. And this is designed to make it a bit easier. So basically, where you've got an apartment complex and the strata or the body corporate is happy to put the solar on with it, helping subsidise that, the body corporate has to agree to pay the upfront costs and agree to share the savings from renewable energy with all the tenants. And we will help make that cheaper and make those upfront costs more reasonable with our $2.3 million contribution. And that represents good savings, particularly for renters. 48 per cent of people who live in apartments in the Territory are renters, and that's a real disconnect in our system. It's hard to get it to work for renters and we're doing a lot of work for that.

And then secondly, a different programme is where the territory will put solar panels onto their buildings. The territory government, NTG, will put solar panels onto their buildings and work with energy providers to make that solar energy available to struggling families, to vulnerable families. So, a bit of detail to come there. But we estimate around 700 households will benefit from that going forward. And that's a good thing for the Northern Territory.

ADAM STEER: Yeah. You alluded to how many people are renting here in the Northern Territory. I think in Darwin and Palmerston, we have the highest rental rates out of any of the capital cities in the country. So, there's also a lot of mum and dad investors, for want of a better description here in the top end of the Northern Territory. So, if, for example, you have a unit that you used to live in, or it's your investment unit, what does this mean for you? Are those investors now supposed to go to their body corporates to try and get solar on the roof for their tenants?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah. Well, when you've got a strata arrangement or a body corporate arrangement, it can be very difficult, you know, and it's complicated to manage through multiple owners, multiple tenants, etcetera. So, this is really designed to make it a bit cheaper and easier for people. So, really you can't, if you live in an apartment complex, you can't just put solar panels on the roof of that apartment complex one out, you know, you're the landlord that you refer to. You can't just say, well, I'm going to put solar panels on the roof and connect it to my apartment. It doesn't work like that. You've got to get the strata and the body corporate to manage it. And those costs can be high if you are dealing with multiple landlords and multiple tenants.

So, this contribution from us makes it easier and cheaper. You've still got to work through the system, through the strata and the body corporate. And each state, territory has different rules. You know, states and territories are working on that to make it as simple and easy as possible. But this is a financial contribution from our government, the Albanese government, to make it easier for body corporates. So, the Territory administration will be putting out, the Lawler government will be putting out more details over the next period about how people can apply, et cetera. And I certainly encourage landlords and tenants and body corporates to look out for that.

ADAM STEER: 20 to nine on ABC radio, Darwin Adams to you. Your guest, Chris Bowen, the Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy. I’ll just go back to that question. So, now you've handed out some multiple millions of dollars to help get solar on the roof for apartments and for some of our more vulnerable people here in the Northern Territory, and $250 million to upgrade our system so that hopefully we can get some more solar farms onto the system. The grid up here in the Northern Territory. You're saying the Northern Territory government is in charge of that? Will you be keeping an eye on how and if they spend that correctly?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, certainly. I mean, as I said, I have full confidence in the Lawler government and the Minister, Kate Worden. Absolutely. But we have federation funding agreements which we sign, which has reporting requirements back to us as to how the money's being spent. That's pretty standard. That's not something special for the territory that's standard in any funding agreement I enter into with any state, whether it be NSW or the Northern Territory. Of course, we don't just hand a cheque over and say, you know, spend it wisely, don't spend it all at once. We have arrangements in place for reporting back to ensure that the objectives are being met.

ADAM STEER: The NTEPA has recently given approval for the Sun Cable project. So, this is the largest solar project in the southern hemisphere. Plans to be bringing electricity up to Darwin, which will be used for manufacturing or for industrial here in Darwin, and then also to send some off on some big underwater sea cable all the way to Singapore. They say they need to raise $35 billion in the next two years. Do you think they'll be able to do that, Minister?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I hope so. It's a good project for Australia. It's good, as you said, for the energy for Darwin and it’s also exporting electricity to Singapore. So, it's part of making Australia a renewable energy superpower, which really means exporting renewable energy. There's two ways of doing that: submarine cables and green hydrogen. Both, you know, require a lot of investment and all the work, but both have enormous potential for Australia. So, it has several benefits for Australia, not least of which more renewable energy for Darwin. As you said, 24 million solar panels connected to Darwin and then onto Singapore and Indonesian water. So, it's a very big national project. Of course, it's got plenty of obstacles to jump and we'll help them jump those obstacles where we can.

ADAM STEER: Before I let you go, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has, or is being sworn in very, very soon as we speak in, into the Indigenous Australians Ministerial. Have you touched base with her lately?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, I'll be seeing her later this morning. We have a ministry meeting later this morning after they've been sworn in, and it's a good day for the Territory to have a cabinet member from the Northern Territory. It doesn't happen all that often. It's a very good thing. So, big congratulations to Malarndirri. She'll do a great job. And also, of course, Luke Gosling, who I saw when I was there the other day. He's been appointed a Special Envoy, which is a promotion for him. So, all in all, good day for Territorians.

ADAM STEER: Minister, good to hear from you. Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: Nice to chat, Adam.