Press conference, Lane Cove, Sydney

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Australia needs an energy transition to make our energy system more reliable. And today I'm announcing the Albanese Government's policy to bring on 32 gigawatts of dispatchable and variable renewable energy as we transition our energy system.

You know, the biggest threat to our energy system at the moment is ageing coal fire power stations, which break down, sometimes unexpectedly, putting too much pressure on our energy grid. So, we need to get new energy on, not after the coal fire power stations have closed, but before they close, so that our system is as reliable as possible. We know that after the last ten years, we saw four gigawatts of dispatchable energy leave the grid under the Liberal party and only 1 gigawatt come on, and that situation needs to change.

So, today, I'm announcing that we are expanding the, so far successful, Capacity Investment Scheme to cover 32 gigawatts of new energy, bringing forward investment in energy, in renewable energy, which we know is the cheapest form of energy and is also very important to reducing our emissions across Australia.

This will see Australia get to our target of 82 per cent renewable energy, but we'll see our transition become more reliable. It'll see us getting the investment, the job creating investment on time. It'll see more reliable energy for our country. So, this is an important announcement, a big announcement. It ticks the boxes. It means that our energy transition will be on track after ten years of denial, ten years of delay.