Press conference, Haberfield, Sydney

CHRIS KING: Okay, thanks everyone for being here. I'd like to welcome Minister Bowen and Ian Learmonth to Splend Haberfield. This is our Sydney hub, and this is where the first tranche of funding, we were able to get a number of EVs on, 500. And the second tranche we’ll be able to get another 500 EVs. So, thank you to the Minister and Ian for being here today. I might hand over to the Minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks very much, Chris. It's great to be here at Splend today. Last year we announced funding through the CEFC for Splend. And that funding has been extraordinarily successful in opening up more EV options for rideshare drivers around Australia. That funding that we announced in June last year has resulted in Splend increasing their EV fleet by 500 vehicles.

Now, that's a good thing, because not only does it mean more EVs on our roads, it also means that people who participate in ridesharing get the experience of using an EV, of being in an EV, and increases their comfort level with maybe getting their own EV into the future. We also know that, unsurprisingly, rideshare drivers spend around four times, on average, more time on the road, more kilometres, than the normal driver. That means getting rideshare drivers into EVs reduces emissions even more substantially than an EV, getting someone to and from work and doing a normal day's work.

Also, I was chatting with some of the rideshare drivers earlier. They tell me how much money they've saved in petrol and in servicing. And it means more money in their pocket. Not in the pockets of petrol companies or anybody else that's necessary for a normal vehicle. More money in their pocket. They think that's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. We think it's a good thing.

So, today we're announcing the next round of funding, $20 million for Splend, through finance, through a loan which will be paid back to CEFC in a normal course of events. But that will enable Splend to go to the next level, which is repeating what they've done over the last twelve months. 500 more EVs, electric vehicles, for rideshare drivers that reduce emissions, reduce their bills and are good across the board. And eventually, of course, when those vehicles are unsold, it means more EVs on the secondhand market as well, which is the key, in our view, to lifting even more the burden of buying an EV; opening the door to more affordable EVs in the secondhand market, which our fleet policies do as well.

So, this is a good day for EVs, it's a good day for rideshare drivers, it's a good day for emissions, it's a good day for bills. And I'm pleased that, having announced this last year, we were able to come back and say, that worked. It worked well, and now we're doing it again.

So, I'm going to hand to Ian to make any further comments, then I'll make other comments on matters of the day. If we do have any questions, we can take those.

IAN LEARMONTH: Thank you, Minister. On behalf of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, really pleased to be out here in Haberfield at Splend's headquarters. As mentioned, the CEFC has now committed $40 million to Splend to acquire new electric vehicles. And by the end of this round of financing, Splend will have 2000 EVs with rideshare drivers on the roads here in Australia.

Now, 2000 cars of that nature will displace something like 15,000 tonnes of carbon per annum compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. So, reducing emissions in a difficult to abate transport sector, really, really important that we get more EVs out on the road. We displace more carbon through this sector as we help get to net zero. So, really pleased to be here with Chris, the CEO of Splend, and the Minister to announce a further $20 million to Splend to increase the number of EVs on the road here. Thank you very much.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Ian. I'll just deal with other matters of the day.

Today, the Opposition has announced that they will develop a Uranium Enrichment Industry for Australia. This is an Opposition that makes things up as they go. Every time they make an announcement about their nuclear fallacy and their nuclear fraud, it raises more questions than it answers. So, they finally admitted today that we don't enrich uranium in Australia, after having, for two years, said we should make nuclear power in Australia because we have lots of uranium. When the fact is, even when that happened, if that happened in the future, we would need to export our uranium overseas, have it enriched and then import it back, which is a pretty silly way of doing things.

Today, the Opposition has fessed up about that and said that they want to see nuclear enrichment, uranium enrichment in Australia. As I said, this raises more questions than answers. And I heard the Shadow Treasurer on radio this morning with no answers. Now it's up to the Opposition to explain how this is consistent with the AUKUS pact in which Australia said we would not enrich uranium as part of that deal. They need to explain, the Shadow Treasurer was asked this morning whether it was complying with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and he couldn't answer.

Now, if they can't make basic answers on day one of an announcement, it's just a reminder that every time they say something about nuclear, every time it gets exposed to the light, exposed to factual analysis, it falls apart. It crumbles like a Sao in a blender.

This is an Opposition making things up as they go in the important matter of energy that doesn't have basic facts has not released a costing. Two months after they released their policy, they are still yet to release and fess up to the Australian people about how much it costs. All they've done is seven sites. Seven sites, five of which are in states where there is a nuclear power ban, and they just say they're going to override the states; six of which are on sites where the owner of the site has explicitly said they will not have nuclear on their sites, on their facilities. They're just going to compulsorily acquire the land. They have no details, no costings, no clue when it comes to energy policy. And I look forward to continuing this debate very much right up into the election.

Thank you. No questions, all good? All good. Thank you.