Interview with Matt Shirvington, Channel 7, Sunrise

MATT SHIRVINGTON: The supply of electricity in New South Wales is facing its biggest test as the shutdown of the state's third largest power station begins today. The giant Liddell generator in the Hunter Valley will be offline within days, with fears of higher prices and power shortages to follow. The coal-fired power station previously supplied up to 10 per cent of the state's grid, and there are concerns if renewables can't fill the gap. For more, we're joined by Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Good morning to you, Minister. Thanks for joining us. If coal-fired plants like Liddell are shutting down, do we have enough renewable energy in the grid to avoid big power prices?

CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, Shirvo.  Yes, we do, is the short answer. As you know, Liddell is an old power station; it started in 1971. It's been increasingly unreliable. It's done a good job over those more than 50 years, but it's come to the end of its life. I want to thank the workers who’ve worked there for so long. I'll be going there next week to thank them in person. But the world is changing. Coal-fired power stations will be closing, but the good news is we've got plans in place to ensure we not only have renewable energy coming on, but the storage, because when the wind isn't blowing, the sun isn't shining, we can store the energy from when it is, to get us through those periods.

So we have those plans in place. Yes, it's hard and difficult to manage this transformation, but that's exactly what we're doing, in partnership with all the states and territories working together to make sure that we get through this transformation. We have cleaner, cheaper, reliable, renewable energy that's just being stored and can get us through the periods we need to get through.

MATT SHIRVINGTON: Is that gap going to cost consumers though?  Do we have enough to reach this scale up of renewables? 

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, we need to do more, but we are doing more. Of course renewable energy is actually now the cheapest form of energy. Actually coal is an expensive form of energy compared to renewables. That wasn't always the case, but it is now. The wind and the sun don't send a bill. Once you've got your infrastructure up, once you've built your storage and transmission, it's still the cheapest form of energy that there is, and that's the case right around the world. So governments right around the world are making this transition, not just because of emissions, as important as that is, and it's vital, but it actually does make now economic sense as well.

MATT SHIRVINGTON: Another big output for electricity stations: you're releasing Australia's first National Electric Vehicle Strategy, which aims to give Aussies a better choice of electric cars and encourage the use of cleaner and cheaper run vehicles. One of the big things EV owners find difficult is the lack of infrastructure. We saw the big wait times for charging stations over the holiday period. How will the Government address that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, a couple of things, Shirvo. Yes, we're releasing the strategy today, and yes, we and Russia are the only developed countries in the world which don't require car manufacturers to send us fuel efficient vehicles, so they don't send them to us. It's pretty simple; it's not the law here to do it. Other countries have it as the law, 85 per cent of the world have these standards as the law. We don't. So, therefore, they send the cleaner, cheaper vehicles to the countries that require it, and so we're announcing today, Catherine King and I, that we will be developing fuel efficiency standards, and we'll have consultation about the detail of design.

On charging, yes, it is an issue. We're way behind the rest of the world again, and I do understand a lot of Australians would look at buying an EV, but think, you know, "I'd like to go for a long drive to the coast, will there be enough charging?" Or "I live in the bush, will there be enough charging?" At the moment there isn't. But we are fixing that. We've got a policy of putting in a fast charger once every 150 kilometres on the highway. I'll be saying more about that pretty soon. We've got other announcements coming about charging. The private sector is stepping up; NRMA is doing a great job on charging. So you're going to see more chargers starting to get across the system, and of course, as we all get more electric vehicles, as Australians make that choice, and this is about choice, Shirvo; we want Australians to have this choice. At the moment people in other countries have better choices of EVs. You'll find the private sector putting in more in service stations, in restaurants, in hotels as well to attract customers who drive EVs.

MATT SHIRVINGTON: It's moving so fast. We've got to try and keep up, don't we?  Just on the fuel efficiency standard, on new cars, will that restrict vehicles Aussies can buy in the future though?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, not at all. It will require the manufacturers to send us a range of vehicles. They'll have to send us some fuel-efficient vehicles, more fuel-efficient vehicles, more EVs. As you know, for people who want to buy an EV, they get on the website at the moment, and they're looking in many cases at a 12 to 18 month wait, because we're just not getting the vehicles we need. We're not going to ban any vehicles, we're not going to stop companies sending us any particular vehicles, but across the fleet, which they send us, they're going to need to send us a good proportion of fuel-efficient vehicles, whether they're electric or hybrids or very fuel-efficient vehicles, they are going to have to step up. And Australian Chief Executives of manufacturing companies, of car companies, have said to me, "Look, we can't convince the boards in Detroit, in Tokyo, in Berlin to send us the good cars when other countries require it as law, and you don't."

MATT SHIRVINGTON: Well, let's hope it brings prices down as well. Minister, thanks for your time.

CHRIS BOWEN: Always a pleasure, Shirvo, thanks mate.