Press conference – Brisbane, Queensland

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks everyone. Everyone knows that the Brisbane Lions are a winning team. And today of course, they are on the winning side of the climate journey with this significant announcement of new infrastructure here at the Lions home stadium, which will see the Lions reduce their energy bills and their emissions at the same time. We all love footy, and we all love a night game, but I think we all understand that those lights suck a lot of energy. 

And if we're going to get this transformation right, we need to all reduce our carbon footprint and the Lions are putting their money where their mouth is. So, I'm delighted today to be partnering with the Lions in this investment. ARENA on behalf of the Albanese government, co-investing in the batteries which will be installed in this facility which will complement the solar panels that are on the roof and going on the roof and the EV charging facility which will be available here at this stadium.

So, to get this transformation right, we need to be all in, whole of government, whole of society effort to reduce our carbon footprint. And sport is such an important part of Australian culture, such an important part of Australian life. And AFL is a very important part of Australian life. And so, it's vital that the codes and the clubs are part of this transformation. And I want to – [indistinct]. There’s a train, I’ll let it go past.

It's vital that sporting clubs and codes are part of this transformation. Not just for the emissions that get reduced, but also the message it sends to their supporters, to members of community that the club understands the opportunities that go with renewable energy. 

And so, I want to congratulate Brisbane Lions for this initiative. This will be up and running by September in time for the finals. I confidently predict a Lions-Giants Grand Final this year. Greg and I will be matching until grand final day, then we'll be on different sides. But it's a very good thing for the Brisbane Lions, it's a very good thing for Australia and our AFL today. And I'm delighted to be partnering with the Brisbane Lions on this important initiative. Greg.

GREG SWANN: Thank you. Thanks Minister, welcome. I'd also like to welcome our partners, Momentum Energy, Energy Decarb, obviously ARENA. So, yeah, it is an important announcement for us today. We've got a lot of roof space at this facility and anything that's not nailed down has now got a solar panel on it. So, we've got 1700 solar panels coming on. We'll be able to draw on that energy to put into our battery which will then be able to obviously run our facilities. 

We have, you know, we had over 300,000 people through here last year, so we've got a lot of activity, we use a lot of power, and you know, our estimates are that will reduce our cost by half. And not only that, we're obviously making a great contribution to the environment and everything else with the facility. So, we're really proud to be able to do this. I think we're, from what I understand, the first AFL club to do that.

So, we've made a massive investment. The government has partnered with us, and we just think this is going to be great for the future. We've got a game here on Thursday night, which that'll be probably a good example of the lights and the people will sell this place out and it's going to be great going forward that we'll be able to reduce costs, reduce our carbon footprint and make a great contribution to the area and to our footy club. So, we're really happy about that.

CHRIS BOWEN: Good stuff. I don’t believe we have any questions. Very good… I'll just deal with some other matters of the day.

GREG SWANN: Yeah, you go. I’ll get out of your way.

CHRIS BOWEN: Just some other matters of the day. Well, of course, overnight we saw the Liberal candidate for Gilmore say that the Liberal Party will leave the Paris Accord. This is just the latest in the rolling disaster of Liberal Party climate policy. They were for the Paris Accord. They were against the Paris Accord. 

Their candidates are engaging in climate change denial. Andrew Constance in particular said after the 2019 bushfires that he would devote his life to dealing with climate change. Now I think I speak for many Australians when I say I had a lot of respect for Andrew Constance during that period. But now as he joins Peter Dutton's climate denying team, he is ripping up any climate credentials he had. 

The fact of the matter is that those 2019 bushfires, which devastated and ravaged our country will be the average year by the 2060s unless we arrest climate change. Now that might be okay for Andrew Constance and Peter Dutton. It is not okay for Anthony Albanese and I. We'll continue dealing with climate change. Reducing our emissions which is in the best interest of our country. Seizing the opportunities of being a global renewable energy superpower is in the best economic interest of our country. Peter Dutton will rip all that up. He has a team of climate deniers led by Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan and Alex Antic and now Andrew Constance as well.

On other matters today, the Parliamentary Inquiry into Nuclear Energy has reported. It shows yet again that nuclear energy would be a disaster for Australia. Too slow, too expensive. We have the opportunity to seize in Australia renewable energy which is cheap and fast to build and roll out. 

Peter Dutton ignores the experts time after time. He ignores AEMO, he ignores the CSIRO. As of yesterday, he is ignoring and bullying the Climate Change Authority, saying that they will sack the Independent Chair of the Climate Change Authority, whom, by the way, is a former deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, appointed by me and the government as Climate Change Authority Chair because we want a Government of all the talents dealing with the big issue of climate change. And when I see ability, I don't care what political party it's from, we will harness it in the national best interest. And that's why we appointed Matt Kean as Chair of the Climate Change Authority.

The Liberals are showing their petty arrogance in saying that they will sack Matt Kean. They are showing that they cannot handle the truth, they cannot handle facts, they cannot handle science, they cannot handle criticism because their policy is a mess, and they don't like being told. Thanks very much.