Press conference, Canberra

ANDREW LEIGH: My name is Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner. I’d like to welcome you all on Ngunnawal land to the suburb of Fraser where we’ve just had the pleasure of having Ros show us around this new energy-efficient home. As Ros was saying to me earlier, this energy upgrade has taken this home from an energy rating of 2.5 stars up to 5 stars. What does that mean for a family? Well, it means that you can play on the floor with your kids without feeling the cold. It means that households are saving money and feeling more comfortable at the same time. It’s a real pleasure to be here today alongside my ACT Labor colleagues, Dave Smith and Alicia Payne, with Minister Suzanne Orr and, of course, with the Federal Minister, Chris Bowen. I’ll hand over now to Chris to explain more about today’s announcement.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks very much, Andrew. Well, what’s good for the planet is good for your pocket and that is true of public and social housing tenants as well. And under our government, we’re absolutely determined to ensure that people who live in public and social housing don’t miss out on the benefits of renewable energy. And, of course, last year we made a very big investment, half a billion dollars, in what we call SHEPI, the social housing program, the Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative, to ensure that people who live in public housing get the benefits, the savings, that go with renewable energy. And today we’re announcing the first of the bilateral agreements with the states and territories.

The Commonwealth allocated the money in the budget last year but then we’ve sat down and negotiated the details with each state and territory and today we’re announcing that the ACT will be the first jurisdiction to have the program rolled out. Seven and a half thousand tenants of public housing here in the ACT will benefit from this $13 million contribution from the Albanese Government, with a focus on solar panels and batteries, particularly virtual power plants. And this is excellent news for not only tenants but also for the broader grid because a virtual power plant is a very fancy battery which is able to be called upon at a time one when the grid needs energy the most and, two, when the owner, the tenant, will get the most benefit from putting the energy into the grid and get best returns. So, this will see substantial savings for social housing tenants.

Now, across Australia, and the ACT is no different, a lot of our housing stock, our public housing stock, was built in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, in the 1970s and ‘80s, growing up in the ‘70s in particular, I can tell you energy efficiency and renewable energy was not the focus of construction in that time. So, houses that are good houses aren’t really fit for purpose when it comes to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The house we’ve just been in, for example, is very comfortable now because it’s had an upgrade in the first round of the social housing program. It’s had its insulation improved. It’s had its services electrified. But it doesn’t yet have solar panels or a battery, so it’s eligible for round two, which, as I said, will have the focus of solar panels and batteries across the ACT, reducing emissions and reducing bills.

And if you live in public housing or social housing, you should not miss out on the benefits of renewable energy. You won’t miss out under the Albanese and Barr Governments, and I’m delighted that Suzanne and I have been able to strike this agreement and that the ACT Government will deliver this program on behalf of the Albanese Government. It’s fully funded by the Albanese Government but will be administered and delivered by the Barr Government, which is a best practice partnership because the Barr Government knows its public housing stock better than we do. It knows where the best bang for buck will be, but we believe this is the appropriate thing for the federal government to fund. This is just part of our journey, our way to 82 percent renewable. We’ve come this far. We now have 46 percent of our grid is renewable. We’re more than halfway there, but there’s still a long way to go and public housing is an important part of the rest of the journey.

I’m going to ask Suzanne to add to my comments. I want to thank Andrew, Alicia and Dave for their very strong leadership locally and ensuring that they reminded me that the ACT should be first. We did that and, accordingly, here we are today, with the ACT being the first jurisdiction to have agreed to run this program on behalf of the Albanese government. Suzanne.

SUZANNE ORR: Thank you, Chris. I think it’s fair to say that the ACT is always very happy to go first and lead the way on these innovations. We’re very excited to be signing the deal with the Commonwealth for the $13 million to put solar panels on rooftops and batteries in our housing stock across our public housing network. We’ll also be adding to that a virtual power plant, which will open up a new world of opportunities for how we start to realise the full potential of our renewables and take some pressure off people’s wallets as we go forward on that. So, the ACT Government is committed to net zero. We want to make sure that everyone as we transition through is included in that, working with the Commonwealth and taking these opportunities is a critical way that we can deliver on that commitment and that intent.

So, it’s very exciting to be here today. Looking forward to working with the Commonwealth, with Minister Berry, who is here today, who will be looking after the implementation across our housing stock along with myself, and making sure that we get the solar panels, the batteries and the virtual power plant out to residents in the ACT. So, thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: All right. Does Minister Berry want to join us? Feel free to join us, Yvette. You can take the hard questions.

SUZANNE ORR: We also have ACTCOSS.

CHRIS BOWEN: Ah yes, do you want to say a few words on behalf of ACTCOSS?

DEVIN BOWLES: Australia’s best future is powered by renewables. This initiative brings that future faster and more fairly. We know people in low-income situations spend a higher proportion of their income on electricity. This initiative really helps see people on lower incomes realise the benefits of the energy transition. This is good news for a sustainable future and it’s good news for equity. It’s one of the most important steps governments can take to ensure greater equity of resources across the population. Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: Okay, folks. Over to you.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, Chris, question on – you had a few announcements last week about offshore wind.

CHRIS BOWEN: I certainly did.

JOURNALIST: One of them in the Illawarra, you had the only remaining bidder for that licence essentially ask you to delay the licence until after the election and you cited the Coalition’s threat to abandon that zone as a key reason. In the Southern Ocean, you’ve awarded a licence at the same time despite the Coalition also threatening to abandon that zone. Are you sending mixed messages on this?

CHRIS BOWEN: You forgot Hunter. The same applies in the Hunter.

No, well, the proponents have asked for different things. In the Southern Ocean and the Hunter, the proponents are happy to proceed. In the Illawarra, such has been the extreme campaign against the zone by the Liberal and National Party, that the proponent and their investors have been so concerned about that that they’ve asked me to pause the consideration of their licence application, and I’ve done that. That’s a reasonable thing for them to request and a reasonable thing for me to agree to. The reason for the difference is that the proponents in the Southern Ocean and the Hunter haven’t asked me – indeed they’ve asked me to proceed because they are keen. Now, they know the risk they take with a change of government – potential. They’ve made a different calculus.

I say this, you know, I saw David Littleproud celebrating the fact that this job-creating initiative in the Illawarra had been paused. You’ve got the National Party luxuriating in their creation of sovereign risk. Now, oppositions should be careful about sovereign risk. We’ve always been careful about that when we were in opposition and there’s been things we said we would honour even if we did not agree with them because when you’re sending the message to investors, domestic and international, that a change of government will mean that investment decisions will backfire and that contracts will be ripped up, that’s not the way traditional conservative – and I say small “C” conservative – sensible rational oppositions behave. But here you have an opposition so dedicated to climate denial that you’ve got the alternative Deputy Prime Minister luxuriating and celebrating in what he would call his success in having this project paused.

Well, David Littleproud has got to be able to look in the mirror and sleep at night, but I’m not sure how he can, because we’ve got these thousands of jobs ready to be created, these gigawatts of clean energy ready to go and they say they’re against it now. It was David Littleproud who said – and I pretty much quote, maybe not word for word, but this is what he said: “We believe renewable energy should be off our – in our oceans, but not near the Barrier Reef.” Well, the Illawarra is not near the Barrier Reef. So, he’s massively backflipped and changed his position and celebrated the fact that he has created so much investment uncertainty that a proponent has requested me to pause the consideration of their advanced licence application. Well, that’s a matter for them. It just shows that Peter Dutton will be a worse Prime Minister for climate than Scott Morrison or Tony Abbott.

JOURNALIST: Should we be expecting announcements for other jurisdictions, other states, just in time for the election campaign?

CHRIS BOWEN: On offshore wind?

JOURNALIST: No, sorry, back to what we’re announcing today –

CHRIS BOWEN: Oh, sorry. Our agenda is so full that I wasn’t sure which particular element you were referring to.

Look, I’m in other discussions with other energy ministers across the country, you know, that’s good work. Just last week, last Friday, I announced, with the Prime Minister, the apartments program for New South Wales has been agreed with Minister Penny Sharpe. We’ll roll them out when they’re ready. Some will be before the election, like this. Others may be afterwards, but the work is well advanced.

JOURNALIST: Apologies if this has been asked already – 

CHRIS BOWEN: Well timed! Take a breath.

JOURNALIST: Thank you, thank you. A lot of renewable programs recently – wind turbines, solar panel farms – have come under scrutiny from local communities. Another one in Central West New South Wales in Bathurst has now gotten quite a lot of backlash. The local MP for state level is now also joining that call. How are you overcoming these barriers? Do you think there’s some sort of gap in the consultation process?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there was. There was. There were gaps in the consultation process and the community benefit process. We fixed that. We’ve changed the rules about community consultation. We’re working hard with proponents on community benefit.

There is a myth, though, that somehow renewable energy is popular in the cities and unpopular in the regions. That’s not true. Poll after poll, research after research, shows strong support for renewables in the regions – strong support, very strong support – including from farmers. You know, one of the most active groups in the country is Farmers for Climate Action. So, there’s strong support. But there’s also, obviously, legitimate issues to be worked through around consultation to ensure that communities have their say.

You know, I spend a lot of time in the regions and often people say to me they know that renewable energy is necessary and indeed a great opportunity for the regions, but they want to be consulted about where and how, and that’s very legitimate. So, hence we’ve worked hard on that. I commissioned the Dyer Review and implementation of that is well advanced. There’s more to go on the developer rating scheme in particular, which we will finalise post-election. But the idea that somehow all the people in regional Australia are against renewable energy is a myth perpetuated by David Littleproud and Barnaby Joyce. Barnaby Joyce revels in climate change denial in his community, despite the fact – again I’ve been all through his community – it’s got the largest solar farm in Australia, with 6,000 sheep running on that solar farm, improving the productivity of the sheep farm. You’ve got farmers drought-proofing their income by hosting renewable energy and saying, “Look, the drought might impact on my other farm income, but I know that the income from the wind or the solar will remain”, making their farms more profitable, investment going into regional areas.

The Liberal Party and the National Party would stop all that. They would cap renewable energy at 54 percent. We’re at 46 now. They would cap at 54. That means putting up a big stop sign just in the next 12 months because they don’t want to seize the opportunities for renewable energy across our country, including in regional areas.

JOURNALIST: Can everyday Aussies expect any energy bill relief from you guys in the coming election?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we’ve had two rounds of energy bill relief delivered by the Albanese Government, opposed by the Dutton opposition. As the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and I have made clear on multiple occasions, we’ll always be considering our options about how we can further assist, but our track record is clear, and we will continue to make sure that our policies are calibrated accordingly.

JOURNALIST: Just another one on offshore wind, another one of our announcements last week was that a major internationally backed bidder, Flotation Energy, were no longer – they wouldn’t be able to get their licence they applied for in Gippsland. They say – they’ve come out in the last couple of days and said that was essentially because of a minor overlap between their bid and a larger bid. Why can’t that bid just – why can’t you adjust that bid and will decisions like this basically result in less renewables in the grid?

CHRIS BOWEN: I think your question underlines somehow the strength of the process we’re running here. Yes, we’ve had the proponent in the Illawarra request a pause. I’ve had one proponent in Gippsland express disappointment they didn’t get a licence. So, that shows the strength of the interest. Of course, in Gippsland, we had – I’ve issued 12 licences with more than 30 bids. So, very, very strong interest. Pretty much every bid overlapped. Seadragon was disappointed that they missed out. I understand that disappointment. Good on them for bidding, but they missed out after a very thorough assessment that their bid was inferior compared to other bids that they overlapped with. It was my view that it was not workable to have a situation where the minister was obliged to issue licences to proponents who the minister, me at this point, thinks were inferior to other bids. So, I issued a regulation and the Parliament agreed to change the legislation to remove that because it would have been unworkable to go forward.

So, you know, I understand Seadragon’s disappointment, but I will administer the law and the law has been changed to ensure that I am not obliged to issue a licence to a proponent whom I regard as inferior.

JOURNALIST: What do you say to corporate boards who may be thinking about rolling back, pulling back their net zero targets after the election of President Trump? We’re seeing a lot of the DEI space, some global companies, Australian arms, reacting to that. Some are holding firm in that space, but climate change is also something that boards are considering perhaps. Is this something that you’re monitoring? What would you say?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, boards will make decisions ultimately in what they regard as the best interests of their companies. But I’ll say this. You know the old saying – Andrew knows it – the world’s greatest economist: when the facts change, I change my mind, well, I say this: when the facts don’t change, I don’t change my mind. And the following facts have not changed: the world is warming, and temperature records are tumbling. That fact has not changed. I’ll tell you what else hasn’t changed. Renewables are the cheapest form of energy. That hasn’t changed. So, when you’ve got the fundamental facts that the world continues to warm and renewables are the cheapest, that means we stay the course. That’s certainly the government’s approach. We will be staying the course. There is an alternative option available that Mr Dutton and others propose: to stop, to wait for nuclear energy, which won’t happen, and to keep coal in the system for longer, which is terrible for emissions and terrible for reliability. That’s not our course. We will be staying our course.

JOURNALIST: Minister, very quickly, on another matter, is the government any closer to an outcome for Brindabella Christian College and what’s been your latest briefing on that matter?

YVETTE BERRY: So, we’re still in the process of waiting for Brindabella Christian College to respond to our show-cause letter. That will be at the end of this week, and I’ll make a decision after I’ve received that letter and from advice from the Registration Standards Advisory Board. Then we might have some more information for the community. There’s a lot happening in this space. I know people have been talking about it a lot and I am concerned and my thoughts are with the families and students at that school during what is a really difficult time, but we want to make sure we get it right, so we’ll go through this process, as the other regulatory authorities are, and take whatever appropriate action is necessary.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of allegations that you want to create a super-school out of it and that is why this is all happening?

YVETTE BERRY: That’s not true.

JOURNALIST: And with Genius, we’ve just seen another centre close due to owing $30,000 of unpaid rent. Have you had any extra input into that ongoing?

YVETTE BERRY: So the last time I spoke about Genius, we had talked about that I’d written to my federal and state and territory colleagues about the challenges that we were all having with Genius Childcare and that we needed to come together and have a conversation about what was missing in our regulations, in our national law, that we were missing these terrible situations where families are being left to sort of blunder around looking for early childhood education provided by a quality service. So, those conversations are happening. It needs a national response. States and territories aren’t going to be able to resolve this on their own. So, those conversations are happening and I’m hoping to have an outcome that means that we can’t allow these kinds of systems to operate in our communities and put our families and young people at risk.

I think the main thing that we want in our early childhood sector is places where children learn and evolve, provided by quality early childhood educators. In this case, there doesn’t seem to be any care or concern about early childhood education, and that’s where the focus needs to be – front and centre, the children first.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: All in, all done? That’s a wrap. Thanks, guys.