Interview with Charles Croucher, Nine's Today

CHARLES CROUCHER, HOST: The Albanese Government is in Parliament and in the hot seat today, attempting to pass their first major test introducing their climate Bill. To discuss we're joined by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen from Canberra. Minister. Good morning. You've made some changes to keep the Greens happy. Are they on board this morning?

CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, Charles. Well, it is a big day. We are introducing our Climate Change Bill into Parliament today, the Australian people voted for climate action on May 21 and now the Parliament has the chance. Now I've been in discussions with people of good faith across the Parliament about making this work. That's what a sensible Government of grownups does, that includes the Greens, that includes the cross benches. Those discussions have been based on our principles that we won't be walking away from the things we went to  the people to seek a mandate for and got a mandate like 43% emissions reduction. Unfortunately, Charles, the Liberal Party has ruled themselves out of that conversation, because Peter Dutton doesn't support any action on climate change. So there can't be any discussions with him, because he's just said he's voting against the Bill without even having seen it. But we'll keep working across the Parliament. But big day for Parliament today introducing the first comprehensive climate change Bill in well over a decade.

CHARLES CROUCHER: Well the crucial point is that a decade ago, it was the combination of the Liberal Party and the Greens that sunk what was then the Rudd Government's Bill, have you got the Greens on board?

CHRIS BOWEN: Those conversations will keep on going. This will just be introduced today Charles, has a bit to go yet. I want to get it through the House of Representatives this fortnight to then send it up to the Senate so there'll be ongoing discussions. That's the way this building works. Nobody just walks in and agrees with everything all the time. But again, Charles, those discussions have been very clear, we sought a mandate for 43, we got a mandate for 43. We're implementing 43. But a sensible Government, when somebody's got a good idea which complements our agenda, improves or helps our agenda, we'll take it on board. That's what we've done. That's what we'll keep doing. But this is what happens when you change the Government, you get a country where the Government actually wants to do something about climate change and gets on with it, we've already started. We've notified the UN of our target, we've put the R back into ARENA for to get it to focus on renewables, we're fixing up carbon credit system, we've reduced the amount of sulphur in our petrol sound regulations to do that, so we're getting on with the job. But this legislation will be really important in terms of sending the message to business and investors that the days of chop change policy, of 22 energy policies are over. The country's got one energy policy, we're open for business, we're open for investment in renewables in transmission and storage, which will create hundreds of 1000s of jobs across our country. 

CHARLES CROUCHER: Yeah, consistent policy is crucial here. Is a new gas powered gas power station part of that policy?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we were committed to build the Kurri Kurri power plant and to build it and to move it to green hydrogen as quickly as practicable. That's our policy. That's what we'll get on with, we're not going to go down the road of promising new coal and gas power stations. That's what the Liberals did. It was always nonsense, Charles, they promised one for Collinsville in North Queensland, it was always a lie. It was always nonsense. We don't play that game. The future of New Energy is almost exclusively building the renewables, building the storage and building the transmission lines to get us to 82% renewables across our country.

CHARLES CROUCHER: You mentioned the Opposition. We've had Matt Canavan on the program already this morning and he's linked this legislation to the current higher energy prices. Now, how worried are you about the price of power and the fact this could be the hurdle to getting this past the Australian public?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, well, Matt just pedals lies, Charles, let's just call it what it is. He claims that renewable energy is expensive. He's lying. He claims that nuclear energy is cheap. That's a lie. The cheapest form of energy is renewable energy, the most expensive form of energy is nuclear. It goes renewable, then gas and coal then nuclear, it's pretty clear. And the more renewables you have in the system, the cheaper energy Bills are. Yes, you've got to build the transmission and the storage to go with it, even taking that into account the CSIRO and other world experts have found consistently that the way to get cheaper energy prices is to build renewables into the system to do it carefully and properly and have an orderly transformation. That's exactly what we're doing. And you know, if Matt Canavan just wants to go around telling lies that's a matter for him. I'm getting on with the job of telling the facts and implementing good climate policy, which is good energy policy.

CHARLES CROUCHER: Big day ahead, Chris, great to speak to you this morning. Always pleasure to talk to you,