Interview with Kim Napier, ABC Northern Tasmania

KIM NAPIER: Well, three heavy industry sites in Tasmania will today receive funding to help combat climate change as part of the Federal Government's Powering the Regions Fund. Energy Minister Chris Bowen is in Railton this morning and will hand out quite a lot of money. $52.9 million to Cement Australia's century owned North West facility, and there are a few more. Good morning to the Minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning. Good to be with you today.

KIM NAPIER: Thank you. Now, I know that you're climate change and energy, but we have a huge agriculture festival, I guess, coming up. It's called Agfest. We're giving away tickets to people who do great animal noises on the spot. Minister Bowen, do you do a great animal noise?

CHRIS BOWEN: No. No, I do not.

KIM NAPIER: Not the right portfolio for you.

CHRIS BOWEN: I'm going to have to give up those tickets. I'll leave them for a more worthy-

KIM NAPIER: Alright. Okay. Oh, you had to ask, though. You do understand.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well worth the go. You never know. You could have had a great scoop.

KIM NAPIER: Oh, no, it wasn't after that. Just genuinely wanted to give the tickets away. Now, how will the funding specifically contribute to reducing carbon emissions? And we'll talk specifically at this point about the Railton site.

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah. So, I am making these announcements this morning in Railton, but as you said, it's three separate projects for Tasmania. in Railton, which is a wonderful site. I've been there before. Cement Australia's facility there at Railton, as you said, it's been there for more than 100 years. And what we're doing there is helping them with their investment. They're making big investments to reduce their emissions and in their case, it's really sort of moving away from coal as part of their power source. Cement is very energy intensive and very emissions intensive and what we call hard to abate. You know, some things we know how to abate other sectors, like cement, it's a very technically challenging area. We need to reduce emissions from cement. We need a lot more cement as part of our transition, and we want to see that cement made in Australia, I want to see it made in Tasmania as well. So, we're giving almost $53 million to Cement Australia for that big investment, which will see them moving to 50 per cent alternative fuels, which will have, in their case, 152,000 tonnes of waste will be diverted. So, it's waste that would have gone to landfill or other ways and replace 54,000 tonnes of coal, and that'll lead to 107,000 tonnes less carbon in the air every year from that site at Railton.

KIM NAPIER: And what are the other heavy industries that will receive funding today?

CHRIS BOWEN: So, there's $20 million in two projects for Grange Resources, which will be known to some of your listeners. In their case, they are electrifying some of their diesel haulage in part of their Savage River mine. That's a lot more efficient, a lot lower emissions. So, that's very good. And we're also giving a much smaller amount, but nevertheless significant, $766,000 to Liberty Bell Bay. Now, they will be producing a biocarbon product that can be used as something to reduce emissions as part of their facility there, which again, I've been to before at Liberty Bell Bay, it's a very impressive, long-standing facility. But all these facilities are facing the challenge of being hard to abate, but also, consumers and investors are demanding decarbonisation. And so their customers are saying, "well, what are you doing to decarbonise?" And they are making investments to do so, and the government is going to invest with them because it's in the national interest also to see them continuing to operate and reducing their emissions.

KIM NAPIER: What was the criteria used to select these companies in the state for funding under the Powering the Regions Fund?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, it was emissions reduction and strategic importance for the economy. And there was an independent process which made recommendations to me, I was the ultimate decision maker, but it was an independent panel which went through all the submissions and gave me advice across the board about which were the most worthy across the country. And I made the decision on that basis.

KIM NAPIER: Okay, now, you mentioned customers. The Tasmanian Council of Social Services says around 50,000 Tasmanian households are experiencing energy poverty, which is not good in a cold state with long, dark winters. How long before the benefits of these transitions make their way through to consumers at the hip pocket?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we're already seeing, you know, you saw a report yesterday out from our regulators saying that the increase in renewables in energy generation is seeing prices fall. Now, I understand very, very much how much pressure there's been on energy bills for families, and particularly low income families as a result of all the international factors at play. But the fact of the matter is, the more renewables we have in the system, the more downward pressure that puts on bills, because renewables are so much cheaper than coal and gas, very, very, very much cheaper than nuclear.

But also at the last budget, we saw some big investments to help families. We had a billion dollars to have low interest loans for families, not so much for people on very, very low incomes, but for middle income families who are making investments to reduce their emissions and bills. And importantly, we also have invested $300 million in social and public housing to reduce emissions and bills. Social and public housing is some of the oldest stock in the country. It's very old housing, it's very energy inefficient. The tenants pay the bills, they pay more than they should. So, we're co-investing with state governments across the country, including Tasmania, to see those improvements made to the public housing stock as well.

KIM NAPIER: Potholes sent a text saying, "Morning, Kim. Could you ask the Minister where he stands on the Robbins Island wind farm, where subsidies the Federal Government are paying to the company and landowners for it? And if destroying one of the most crucial wetland areas for migratory birds is really looking after the ecosystem?", that's a text from Pothole. Can you address that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah. Where I stand on Robbins Island is where I stand on every single renewable application across the country. It's got to meet environmental tests, it's got to meet environmental standards and environmental approvals, and no one's more passionate about building renewable energy than I am. I want to see us and we will see us get to 82 per cent renewable. But not every proposal is right for every site. Robbins Island is going through an approval process with Tanya Plibersek, which I have no role in and nor should I have a role in. It's quite independent of me. She is the Environment Minister as the decision maker, that's an important check and balance. And every single renewable energy proposal around Australia has to meet either state or federal environmental approvals and Robbins Island is the same.

KIM NAPIER: One more question just to wrap up our chat. How do you think government envisions the long-term impact of the funding that you're announcing today on Tasmania's industrial sector and its contribution to the national decarbonisation efforts?

CHRIS BOWEN: I think it's interesting that Tasmania has figured prominently there's nine projects across Australia and three of them are in Tasmania, so that's not a bad strike rate.

And of course, I'm announcing it here in Tasmania because, I mean, what it really does, I think, is lock in Tasmania's industrial future. Take Railton, which is the biggest funding I'm making today in Tasmania. It's a site that's been there a long, long time, employed a lot of Tasmanians. As I said, I've been there before. It's a great site, but if it doesn't decarbonise and doesn't find ways to reduce its emissions, it will miss out on business and it will eventually, to be frank, its viability would be threatened.

Now, Cement Australia knows that. They're making big investments across all their facilities to reduce emissions. We know that, so, we're investing in this as well because it's in Cement Australia's interests, it's in the national interest and it's in Tasmania's interest to see these emissions come down and jobs at that site be locked in going forward.

KIM NAPIER: Minister Bowen, thanks for your time this morning and enjoy the north of our state. It's the best part.

CHRIS BOWEN: Always do. Always do. Wonderful, wonderful to be back here again.