Interview with Amelia Bernasconi, ABC Upper Hunter

AMELIA BERNASCONI: As the country moves to greener energy alternatives, we will say goodbye to a coal-fired power plant this week. Since 2015, we've known the end date for Liddell, which first roared to life back in the early 70s.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen will tour the site today and has been kind enough to join us this morning. Good morning, Minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, Amelia.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: What are you expecting to achieve from today's visit?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, look, I think it's important to say Liddell has given the nation good service and the workers there over 50 years have given the nation good service. I want to just call in and basically say thanks to those who are still there, and in doing so, effectively thank the workers who've worked there all over the last 51 years since Liddell started. Liddell has been right for its times, it's now right for a closure. But that doesn't mean we can't call in and see the workers and talk to them about the future.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: As far as the future, we've heard from AEMO, the energy market operator, there'll be no threat to supply, although some are sceptical about that, can you take us through your confidence in that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, we do a lot of work on this, obviously, and AEMO does a lot of work on this. As your listeners would know, Liddell is an old coal-fired power station. It opened in the early 1970s, 1971/2, which makes it older than I am and it's reached the end of its life. It technically is a 2.23 gigawatt power station, but look, a lot of it has been closing and a lot of it has been needing repairs increasingly, constantly. So, it's not a power station which is a reliable source of energy any longer, given its age. There has been a lot of it come out already. There's been a lot of new renewable energy and dispatchable renewable energy come on in recent times. So, we are not concerned about any supply crunch in the energy grid on Friday or in the period following the course of the closure of Liddell.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: We've heard from AEMO that things might change, though, after 2025. You acknowledge there's been achievements made in the renewable space, but are you confident beyond 2025 in the next, towards the end of this decade, as we see five more coal-fired units go offline, will renewables and our battery capacity be up to scratch, be online before 2030 to keep us from these potential blackouts?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, by and large, that's our job, to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that's the case. We are dealing with a big challenge here. Over the last decade, we had four gigawatts of dispatchable power come out of the grid and only one gigawatt come on. That means we've got a three-gigawatt deficit based on the last ten years. And so we do have a lot of work to do. And, yes, there is more coal fire power that's going to come out of the grid. That is inevitable. And so all our policies are designed to bring on new dispatchable generation, renewable dispatchable generation. By dispatchable I mean accompanied by storage so that it's available when we need it at night and in periods where the renewables aren't generating. So, that means that we need to store it.

So, whether it's our Rewiring the Nation policy which has a big Hunter focus, as you know, it was announced with the former premier and energy minister and the Prime Minister and I last December in the Hunter. Whether it is our Capacity Investment Mechanism which is going to roll out in the year which will underpin investment in dispatchable energy. Really playing that catch-up game. Our transition needs to be faster, but it also needs to be a lot more orderly.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: Poor old Liddell has been a political football for many decades and even in its final months we've heard calls from Liberals and Nationals leaders that it should be saved from demolition. It could potentially be powered back on, they say, in the event of blackouts. Is that feasible? Surely that couldn't be done without federal government backing to, like you say, make those improvements that would be very costly to the ageing plant.

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, it's not realistic and people who are calling for that, frankly, need to get better briefings, as your listeners would understand. A coal-fired power station can't just be switched on and off as necessary. The amount of maintenance that would need to go into keeping the site while it wasn't operating, getting the workers available at short notice to run the site is just not a realistic option. So, I think those commentators of the Liberal Party who are saying that really need to get better facts.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen with us on ABC Upper Hunter at quarter to eight this morning. Just taking a look at some other issues that fall under your portfolio, Minister. Of course we're talking about Liddell and power generation here, but also the coal mines around the Upper Hunter have been for a long time supporting our economy. How will your government support a change in industry to meet the goals that you've set in 2030, 2050 and still keeping our locals employed?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, I've been actually, from the day I took this job in opposition, that we need to be straight with communities like the Hunter and those right around the country that the world is changing, the demand for our resources will change. We can put our head in the sand and pretend that won't happen or we can work with communities to make the investments for the future. Now there'll be coal in the system, the coal exports will continue for years to come. It's not changing overnight, but it is changing rapidly. And that's the whole focus of the work we're doing. Now, we've been doing a lot of thought and thinking about this transformation and what we need to do. We've been doing a lot of that work and we have a lot more to say. But really, at its core, it's making sure that we're getting the new energy generation going. That creates jobs. It's a myth that renewable energy, dispatchable renewable energy doesn't create jobs, it'll create 600,000 jobs. And five out of six of those will be in the regions. Because, Amelia, the areas that are powered Australia for so long will be the same areas that power us into the future. We want to get more manufacturing into Australia, including renewable energy manufacturing. A lot of that will happen in the regions. We make one per cent of our own solar panels here, even though they're an Australian invention. We want to see a lot of more of that happening in places like the Hunter. There's a lot of job creation to come if we get this transformation right, and that's our entire focus.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: Is a lot of it at the hands of countries like Japan, who continually support Australian coal as an export market? Are we really in charge when we're trying to meet these emissions targets - emissions reductions targets?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we're in charge of our own emissions. We work in a world market course and 80 per cent of our trading partners are committed to net zero. That's the fact. Now, yes, different countries will have different pathways. Japan is very energy hungry for Australian energy and increasingly wants that energy to be renewable. Yes, they buy our coal and gas and will for some time, but they're also on a transformation. So, it's both, Amelia, we're in charge of our own domestic circumstances. We work in a world market and increasingly, you have to get ready for changes in that world market.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: Also been some criticisms from Nationals Senator Ross Cadell overnight, asking about the delays to the Kurri gas-fired power station more than a year there. Will there be any updates on your visit to the Hunter on that today?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Mr Cadell could also do with some better facts. It's been very clear for some time that Kurri was running late, not because of any government decisions, but because of weather and supply chain problems. We've been very clear about that. Unlike the previous government, which hid delays, they knew that Snowy 2.0, which is also run by Snowy Hydro, was running 18 months late. They hid that. They lied about that. I take the opposite approach, when I'm aware of delays we make them public. We've made the delays in Kurri Kurri public. But the better news is that since we announced that delay in Kurri Kurri, it is on track to meet that new timetable that we put out.

AMELIA BERNASCONI: Minister, thanks for your time this morning.

CHRIS BOWEN: Pleasure, Amelia. Good on you. Nice to chat.