Press conference in Giralang, ACT

ALICIA PAYNE: Good morning, everyone, I'm Alicia Payne, the Member for Canberra, and it's my great pleasure to be here this morning with Ministers Chris Bowen, Katy Gallagher, my colleague the Member for Bean David Smith, and Senator for the ACT David Pocock, here in Giralang, where Kathryn has very generously welcomed us into her home this morning to talk about the fantastic changes she's made to improve the energy efficiency of her beautiful home, and these changes that have been made that have saved her a lot of money and of course saving the energy, which is of course what we need for the environment.

I'm really pleased to be here and hear about these changes that we could all be making in our homes to make them more energy efficient, and very proud that our Government is getting behind this.

I will hand over to Minister Bowen.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks very much, Alicia. It's great to be here with Kathryn and of course with my Cabinet colleague Katy Gallagher and the ACT Labor team and Senator Dave Pocock.

In the Albanese Government we believe in choice, in giving Australians more choices so that they are in charge of their own energy resources, and they can choose how to reduce their bills and emissions. This is very important because families around Australia want to do both things, of course, reduce their bills and reduce their emissions. But the upfront cost can be a little bit off putting for some people.

So we're working with communities across Australia to give Australians better choices and more choices. Last year in the Illawarra, I announced ARENA would support Electrify 2515, which is a project, a pilot, to help decarbonise that community and again give people of that community choices as to how they reduce their bills and emissions.

The early signs from that project, that pilot, have been so encouraging that we are making further announcements today. But just to give you an indication, 10 per cent of the residents of 2515 have applied to be part of that project, 10 per cent of an entire community says, "We're in. We want to electrify". If they want to, get rid of their gas cook top, move to renewables, do the sorts of things that households around Australia are embracing more and more.

So today we're confirming and announcing that I've used my ministerial direction powers with ARENA to ask ARENA to expand the projects they undertake across Australia with more communities to electrify.

Now, so what we're really doing today is saying to communities here in the ACT, and indeed elsewhere, whether it's Electrify Canberra or other really passionate groups, "Okay, come and give us your best shot, give us your proposal, tell ARENA". It will go through ARENA's very rigorous processes. We spend taxpayers' money very wisely, there'll be very strong rigour, as is applied to every dollar that ARENA spends. But unless communities know that ARENA is interested in these sorts of projects, they're not going to be able to apply.

So today we're saying to communities and to groups you will find very listening ears at ARENA who have been very impressed with the progress so far in electrify 2515 and we want to see more projects in Canberra, and we want to see more projects elsewhere.

I want to thank the Senate crossbench, particularly Senator Dave Pocock for working on this with me, and of course Senator Gallagher who is obviously as Finance Minister a very passionate advocate and supporter of our decarbonisation efforts.

This is the Parliament working together, as it should, to get good things done for our country. There is an alternative of course, which is to stop all this and to go down a nuclear fantasy, but we're not going to be distracted by that. Our process is all about choices for Australians, giving Australians more options and opportunities, so we're saying to communities, "Come and talk to us about electrify, come and talk to us about your projects", and through the Albanese Government's funding mechanism, which is ARENA, we're very excited about the opportunities available for communities here in Canberra and across the board.

I'm going to ask Senator Pocock to add a few remarks and then we'll take questions, suggestions and accusations. Okay.

DAVID POCOCK: Thank you Minister Bowen. I just really wanted to thank you for your good faith engagement on this and so many other really important measures and legislation on climate over this term. Also, to Minister Gallagher and my ACT colleagues, thank you for your work on pushing your party and the Parliament when it comes to climate, something that is so important to people in the ACT.

I want to thank Saul Griffith and Rewiring Australia for their leadership on this and to Electrify Canberra, an incredible group of Canberrans who are pushing for solutions here now. We have the technology to unlock thousands of dollars of savings every year for households across the country.

Electrification is something that we need to be accelerating, and these accelerators will provide a pathway and solve some of the problems that will come up as this is, I guess, adopted at scale across the country.

So thank you so much to everyone involved and to my colleagues on the Senate crossbench for pushing to stand up for the communities that we represent, for bringing solutions that are there now to unlock savings in the cost of living crisis is what the Parliament should be doing.

CHRIS BOWEN: Okay, I might steer the questions. Over to you.

JOURNALIST: Just I guess electrification and household upgrades is usually something people think of as an individual, you know, household taking that on. How would this work in a community wide setting?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well of course it still is an individual decision to participate, but these things can be hard to navigate. You know, I've done it myself, heat pumps and putting hot induction cook top, and you're looking for expert advice and there are community groups and organisations that can help with that journey, Electrify Canberra and Saul's groups across the country and others, and indeed the My Efficient Electric Home Facebook group which is very active and which I look at closely.

But also, there's funding available to help families with the upfront costs and to help them steer through the decisions that are made.

Now there won't be a one size fits all. Every community is different. Communities should put in the bids that they think works for them. We've done that in the Illawarra, we're doing it here in Canberra and across the board and asking for community ideas. ARENA will put them through their paces, and they'll have to be shown to be good value for money. If it's not good value for money it won't be funded.

But where it is great value for money for Australia and reducing emissions and households to help them reduce their bills, they'll have very strong ears from ARENA.

SAUL GRIFFITH: I'd love to pick up on the community piece too. Saul Griffith, Rewiring Australia.

It is a whole bunch of individual choices around the house and they're fantastic, but there are real and genuine ways that the community plays into it. So, developing ways to use our public buildings and our commercial buildings to provide solar that can help lower the cost of living for renters who don't have the space on their own roofs, developing public vehicle charging infrastructure.

The beauty of Australia, courtesy of the roof top solar miracle we have, is most communities can actually generate nearly all the energy they need for all the driving and all the households in their community. That will mean the savings, instead of buying petrol and having that money leave your community, driving an electric car that money will stay in your community.

So developing the new charging models, the new finance models, hugely important. And also really critically one of the original goals to do these pilots is to complete the whole technology stack to make it work at community level.

So, with all of that extra generation people say, "Oh, it's going to stress our distribution grids", it doesn't have to. This can be the relief that makes our electricity system both cheaper and stronger and more reliable. And hopefully the – actually, we're already seeing it in Electrify 2515, I think these projects across the nation will really accelerate in a global first precedent kind of way building the electrical grids of the future that are going to lower our costs, increase the reliability and be our future energy system.

JOURNALIST: Saul, just one question. In Wollongong, I'm sure with any kind of first-time project, there would be teething issues. What have been the biggest challenges in getting that up? Is there anything of concern?

SAUL GRIFFITH: A lot of it's just psychology and communications, like bringing people along. I think we're all a little bit reluctant to change. You know, learning to talk to seven year olds, people from different ethnic groups, like, you know, everyone's at a different stage on this journey of – you know, and so learning to communicate to all of the wonderful diversity of Australia and develop trust, because I think so many people get, you know, yet another ad for roof top solar and they're like, "Oh, I'm over it, I don't know who to trust any more".

So I think one of the other things that we're really seeing happen with these community projects is developing trust. Which of the tradies who are going to do the grid job? Which car should I get? Which stove top should I get? Just, it makes it enormously easier. I think the high adoption rate we're seeing and it just keeps going up is a lot because we're just creating sort of a level of trust and a level of social acceptance, this is a good thing to do, this will save you money, like $2,000 a year for electrifying a house, another $3,000 a year if you electrify your cars.

But just the trust that that message gets out there and that it's being delivered by local community groups is a huge factor in getting the job done.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask, and this might be one for the Minister as well, but, Saul, what is elevator pitch for communities, like what could it look like, what could it deliver for people who don't really know what we're talking about today?

SAUL GRIFFITH: So the elevator pitch is this is our pathway to saving every Australian household $4,000 or $5,000 a year. This is our pathway for getting our emissions to zero. This will improve the respiratory health of every Australian because the chief – one of the things that kills us the most is respiratory illness borne of burning fossil fuels inside your home or in your community via cars. So our air quality improves, our economics improve.

And then the really great pitch for a community, so I'll just speak in terms of our community, we're very average in terms of size. Our post code is six suburbs, it's 4,000 households. We will save about $20 million a year.

So think about a community that now has $20 million a year to spend within the community instead of sending it to Victoria to buy gas or sending it overseas to buy oil. And that's going to gold plate the surf club, the churches are going to get better, the local cafes are going to get better, there'll be more art, and the schools will get an extra teacher.

So I think the real pitch to the community is if we do this right it really is an economic renewable – renewal opportunity and renewable opportunity.

JOURNALIST: Just jumping in there, just a question for the Minister regarding Illawarra. Why is the number of applicants for the Illawarra offshore wind project such a secret and how many developers have applied?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, firstly, can I just add to the elevator pitch. What's good for your pocket is good for the planet. That's the elevator pitch. And people want things which are good for their pocket and good for the planet and electrifying your house is very high on that list.

On the Illawarra wind zone, there's been a lot of misinformation out there over recent days saying that a proponent has withdrawn. It is not true, has not been true. It's still on their website. Some journalists have just [indistinct] ignored that.

Now, there's a very rigorous process in place for offshore wind. I don't rush it. Some people want it done quicker, I understand that, I understand the passion. We get this right and we get it carefully right.

Now, every zone's a bit different. It's very clear, I've had 32 applications for the Gippsland zone. I've awarded 12 licences. I've issued a first stage preliminary licence in The Hunter and Illawarra is behind that in terms of process. All the six zones are at different points.

JOURNALIST: Do you know how many [indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: I'll make announcements as I go when I'm ready, when I'm satisfied about communities' best interests, about the right wind developments in the right place at the right time with community benefits. And I'm not going to make that announcement today.

JOURNALIST: Have you had any correspondence with Matt Kean from the Climate Change Authority about how they're progressing with advice to government for 2035 targets?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Mr Kean and the Climate Change Authority Board will advise me of their proposed way forward when they're ready. They've made clear to me they need a little bit of time to consider international developments.

As you know, under the Climate Change Act, which is world's best practice, which was negotiated by me and the Government and the Senate crossbench, it's world's best practice that decisions like that are made with Climate Change Authority advice. It's unlawful to make them without Climate Change Authority advice.

The previous Government went off to Glasgow and didn't bother to tell the Climate Change Authority what they were doing. That's not the approach I take.

SPEAKER: Last question.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned –

JOURNALIST: Minister, can I just clarify – 

JOURNALIST: – how the grid will handle –

CHRIS BOWEN: You haven't had a go. You haven't had a go.

JOURNALIST: – today's heatwave in Sydney, I think Ausgrid are monitoring for blackouts.

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: Do you have any advice for –

CHRIS BOWEN: Well Ausgrid's not monitoring for blackouts. But what we do is we work very closely, AEMO, across the board on hot days. We haven't had any blackouts caused by lack of energy over the last few years. Of course when a transmission tower goes down or something like that, that has implications. It doesn't matter who's in government, when a transmission tower gets knocked over in a storm there's a blackout. And it doesn't matter where the energy comes from, whether it's renewable, coal, nuclear, that doesn't happen.

I'm very pleased that AEMO works so closely across the board with all our energy providers to put our energy grid in a good system, in a good position to deal with challenges. That has worked and of course there'll always be challenges.

And I say this: The biggest threat that AEMO and everyone is looking out for today and every day is the breakdown of a coal fired power station. There hasn't been a day in the last 18 months where we haven't been dealing with a breakdown of a coal fired power station. Not one. Not one single day over the last 18 months in our energy system have we had a day where a coal fired power station hasn't broken down.

Now, we have planned maintenance, that's one thing. Sometimes we have a lot of – we had that late year; we had a lot of the fleet down in New South Wales with planned maintenance as they were getting ready for summer. You can deal with that.

In addition to planned maintenance we have coal fired power stations just breaking down one day, and that does provide challenges. That's why we need to move to a new energy system which isn't so reliant on ageing coal fired power stations which are breaking down on a daily basis. That's the biggest threat to reliability. Peter Dutton wants them to operate for longer.

I'll tell you this: As they get older, they don't get better. A bit like our knees. My knees certainly. As they get older, they don't get better. Dave's probably a bit different; his knees get better.

But Peter Dutton wants to rely on them for longer. That's a recipe for blackouts and unreliability in our system. He is the biggest threat to the reliability of our energy system.

Minister Gallagher and I have a very important meeting to get to. Thanks guys.

JOURNALIST: Could you just start with your full name for us?

KATHRYN, HOMEOWNER: Kathryn.

JOURNALIST: Kathryn, can you explain what upgrades you've made and how much that's cost you and why you were motivated to do so?

KATHRYN: Okay. So we wanted to renovate the house, um, and one of the things that was important for us was to make sure that it was suitable for the climate and that we were energy efficient.

So, we went from having potentially fully gas, so cook top, ducted gas heating which, you know, this is a 1980s Canberra house, very common, and gas hot water. Lots of insulation, lots of design in the house but also went electric. So all of those things are now electric. We've got two split cycle air conditioning systems which are both heating and cooling, induction cook top and hot water and so on. And the comfort level is much better. Like we actually run the systems, like the heating system in winter. We run it much less often than we would with the gas ducted system. That's an important thing for Canberrans.

Yeah, so it's been a good change, and it's saved us money.

JOURNALIST: How much money?

KATHRYN: So is it in that region of $2,000 or so a year. In the first two years our bills went down 70 per cent.

JOURNALIST: How much, if it's not too rude, how much did it cost to install everything?

KATHRYN: So, I was talking with the firm that actually did some of this work, it was sort of around $20,000 for the total, but it was part of our whole renovation. There are some things we haven't done. We haven't put solar on the roof but that's on the plan, and we haven't got an electric vehicle but that's probably the next thing.

So, you know, we wanted to make sure that we're as low footprint as we can be.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the size of the projects individually that you've done to make it more energy efficient, has this included some of the bigger ticket items like double glazing the windows, or is that – 

KATHRYN: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: – okay. And – 'cause that's something that seems to put people off.

SPEAKER: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: Was that easy for you to cover financially, was that a stress before you undertook this process?

KATHRYN: So we did it as a whole house renovation. So the things that – and of course in those projects there are some things that, you know, you decide, "Oh, we're not going to do that, we'll do this". We thought double glazing and insulation were really really important, and they have absolutely paid off.

If you walk inside the house now, I have had the air conditioning on for about an hour at about 24 degrees, which sounds quite high but, you know, because people will have their cooling really on a low temperature, and that has just taken the edge of the heat off. But the house is cool. We had a pretty hot night last night but generally in Canberra if you can open the house overnight, close it up if you're having a really hot day, it stays stable because of the double glazing and because of the insulation.

JENNY: Can I stress there though, the double glazing is actually well down the list. We've done this many times without double glazing and still get savings of 50, 60 per cent on energy. So double glazing, don't be distracted by the shiny stuff you can see, it's well down the list.

SPEAKER: Thanks everyone.

JOURNALIST: Senator Pocock, can I just ask –

CHRIS BOWEN: We've got a Cabinet meeting to get to.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, Katy, can I just ask a couple of questions just to you if possible.

KATY GALLAGHER: Maybe.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, I promise I'll be quick. So, what's in it for Canberra that these are old promises right now?

KATY GALLAGHER: In terms of?

JOURNALIST: In terms of energy efficiency. What do you think is in it for Canberra?

KATY GALLAGHER: Well, the opportunity to electrify and to support households to electrify is in it, which we think is an important piece of the puzzle. As you know, the ACT was the first jurisdiction to set a target of 100 per cent renewable energy, which we achieved when I was in the ACT Parliament. So Canberra has always led the way on adopting an embracing approach of renewable energy. And I think we have to support Canberrans to make that shift. And for some it is a big shift if your house is completely gas dependent. And more many households we were told to go on to gas years ago when it was seen as the responsible thing to do.

So the opportunity that a commitment like this has is to support Canberrans with that choice. I know many will do it. Some are concerned about the upfront cost, but I think if we take time and communicate, as Saul said, about the benefits over the long term, you'll see many Canberrans want to make the shift from gas to electric heating, cooking and water.

I'd just like to also acknowledge Electrify Canberra; they've lobbied every local ACT politician over the last year and a half or so to make sure that we are a part of this discussion and today's announcement is really a credit to them.

JOURNALIST: Also just on the upcoming election, you described yourself as an underdog to Pocock. What do you see yourself now as?

KATY GALLAGHER: Well, we'll see in the election campaign but, you know, it's no doubt that Senator Pocock's very popular and sometimes it's harder to be in government, you know. That's the reality. And so, where people are either unhappy with government or don't think we've done enough or want to see more, that puts me in a unique position here in the ACT. And the Senate seat, as shown at the last election, is a marginal seat essentially. People know their senator, unlike other States where you wouldn't know them if you fell over most of them. You know, here we are local members of Parliament and, you know, people know how to vote, they know how to vote above the line here in the ACT, they're used to it with Hare Clark campaigning, so that's why I made those comments and I stand by them.

JOURNALIST: Will the Cabinet be updated on who might be behind these antisemitic attacks that are being funded overseas

KATY GALLAGHER: Well, the Prime Minister will obviously Chair Cabinet and he provides information to Cabinet as required. Some, you know, obviously the National Security Committee members and others have other additional responsibilities, but I can assure you that all members of the government that should be briefed about what's happening are being briefed.