Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News

KIERAN GILBERT: The Energy and Climate Minister, Chris Bowen, joined me a short time ago. Thanks for joining us this Easter Monday. Let me ask you about this trend of the EV purchases from the outer suburbs of capital cities. Are you surprised by the trends you're seeing in terms of who are buying the most EVs right now?

CHRIS BOWEN: Happy Easter to you, Kieran, and your family and all our viewers. I hope everyone's had a really good break. No, I'm not, Kieran. I'm not surprised by that. I live and work here in Western Sydney, and you just look around and you see big increases in EV's all the time, and hybrids, people making choices, and that's what it's all about. You know, Kellyville and Rouse Hill are the highest selling suburbs for EVs. That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. It's a bit of a myth that some in politics perpetrate that EVs are only for inner cities or only for rich people.

We want more Australians to have better choices, including here in Western Sydney and in the regions. We want people to be able to make informed, good choices. That's why I put out the data today about EV charging, you know, 100 new fast chargers in the first quarter of 2024. Because even over Easter, as I've been around with family and friends and community members, people have been talking to me about EVs and thinking about buying an EV, but a bit worried about whether there's enough chargers. So, it's important to remind people and show people that actually chargers are rolling out very fast across the country.

KIERAN GILBERT: And you're talking about the number is going to double, is that right, over the next twelve months? Is that the sort of pace we need to see for the uptake that you're planning for as a government?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, I mean, as I said, you've seen two-thirds of the EVs on the road today were sold under the Albanese government. So, EV charging needs to keep up because take up is, is going up very fast now. We've got 90 per cent more chargers out there than we had two Christmases ago, so that's a big increase. But also, as you said, EV charging, EV take up is increasing exponentially as well. So, we've got to make sure we keep up. So, this is just a bit of a quarterly update to say 100 new chargers in the first quarter. Our Driving the Nation policy is really only just starting to hit its strides now because we're putting chargers here where in many instances, there's not even an electricity grid. So, that takes some management and some planning, which we're doing with the NRMA.

I opened the new chargers in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, and Katherine, a few weeks ago, we opened more in South Australia during the week. So, people need to know that if they want to take those long drives, most people will charge at home when they're driving to and from work if they want to take those long drives, either whether for family or for, or for work, that we are rolling out the charging - Federal Government, State Governments, some local councils and private sector working together to ensure that we increase the number of chargers available.

KIERAN GILBERT: When you look at the broader issue here, there's a real divide now before the next election. Nuclear on the one hand, from the Opposition, the Solar SunShot that you announced last week at the Liddell Power Station, and renewables from your side. I just want to get you to respond to the assessment that renewables have stalled, and the number that people are referring to is the Clean Energy Council number, utility scale investments in 2022 was $6.5 billion investment. The following year, only $1.5 billion. Have investments in renewables stalled due to the public concern around transmission lines particularly?

CHRIS BOWEN: There is some issues that we are addressing around transmission lines and better social licence. But actually we've seen - we've seen some encouraging figures out of the investment figures. We've seen a record investment of batteries, big batteries, for example. We've seen 5.9 gigawatts invested in those figures. So, that's good. But we have more to do, and hence we've announced we'll have the Capacity Investment Scheme to really underpin that dispatchable renewable investment, because that's - as countries around the world are all on the same journey, we're all competing for the same capital and the same supply chain inputs. So, our Capacity Investment Scheme, which I'll have more to say in the next couple of weeks about the details of the auctions, but it's going to really underpin more renewable investment, more dispatchable renewable investment. And this is the way of the future.

You know, in Europe, just for the last year, for example, they installed as much renewable energy every week as one nuclear power plant every week. So, this is all pretty impressive figures around the world that we're competing in that environment, the way the world is, to get on with that investment, as opposed to this nuclear fantasy that some propose, which is slow to roll out you know, many many years and the most expensive form of energy available. Why you would do that with these wonderful renewable resources we have in Australia is beyond me.

KIERAN GILBERT: Well, the AGL company is obviously backing your idea with the Solar SunShot initiative at the various other sites where the coal fired power stations are being phased out. Ted O'Brien is confident that others will be of a different view. What's your read on that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, come on and tell us your policy, Ted. I mean, you've been talking about it for 18 months and AGL has made it very clear, as other energy companies have, that they're not interested in nuclear because why would you roll out the most expensive form of energy?
You know, AGL is the owner of the old Liddell Power Station site. They're turning that into a renewable energy hub, including the manufacturer of solar panels, which will employ more people there than were employed at the old Liddell Power Station in one factory. That's a big step forward under our Solar SunShot policy that we announced during the week.

Now, if Mr O'Brien is so confident that Australians want the most expensive form of energy, want the energy, the form of energy which is so slow to roll out many, many decades, and they want it in these six large nuclear reactor locations spread around the country that they've now said that they're going to do. They spent two years telling us they were going to have small modular nuclear reactors. We spent two years reminding them they don't exist anywhere in the world. It's not actually a real thing - small nuclear reactors are a concept, they're an idea, but they're not actually being done anywhere in the world - they’ve now acknowledged that.

They're going to have six large nuclear actors spread around the country - tell us where, Mr Dutton and tell us the cost and tell us how long it's going to take and release all the details and then we'll have a proper discussion about it. They've been, you know, flim-flamming around for the last 18 months on it. We've been rolling out policies in that time. It's time for Mister Dutton to get on with it and announce the full details of this nuclear fantasy.

KIERAN GILBERT: Just finally an assessment of who might follow Prime Minister Albanese in the top job. Your name is mentioned in that report in the SMH today. I wonder, do you, do you have a leadership baton in your knapsack?

CHRIS BOWEN: This might be something journalists are interested in. This is the most important job I've ever done and probably the most important job I'll ever do being Minister for Climate Change and Energy. And I think you'll find Anthony Albanese and the entire Cabinet are all just focused on our jobs. It's a bit of fantasy football from journalists and that's fair game. That's okay. But I expect we'll be working with Anthony Albanese for many years to come I hope and expect.