Press Conference with Linda Burney, Minister for Indigenous Australians and Member for Barton at Bexley North, Sydney

LINDA BURNEY: Well, good morning everyone, and thank you all for coming today to see this exciting project and to hear some announcements that are going to be made. My name is Linda Burney and I'm the local member and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and this is the electorate of Barton. Minister Bowen will speak and so will Minister Sharpe and then we'll have a chance for questions.

But can I just say that this is part of addressing what is probably the most important issue facing humanity today, and that, of course, is the environment and climate change. And this community battery and what will be spoken about today is part of addressing that issue. It is also part of the Albanese Labor Government's commitment to addressing the issue that I've articulated. So, without any further ado, can I invite Minister Bowen to come forward and make some comments in relation to today's announcement and some other issues as well. Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks very much, Linda. It's great to be here at Bexley North to open the latest in our community batteries that we're rolling out right across Australia. And of course, as part of that today I'm making an announcement about the broader package. We went to the election promising 400 community batteries across Australia. We announced 58 locations and we said we would have a process to determine the rollout of the others. Last year, I asked ARENA, our national renewable energy agency, to run a process to choose the other providers of those batteries. I asked them to provide 342 batteries and they have advised me that for $120 million they can do better than that and we can fund 370 batteries.

Now, this means that we will exceed our election promise of 400 batteries across Australia. Sometimes projects run over budget. This is a project running under budget, providing better resources for Australians for the same investment and I'm very, very pleased about that because community batteries will have a key role. Alongside household batteries, alongside grid scale batteries, alongside pumped hydro, in due course, alongside green hydrogen. But they're a key role that we can get on with today.

So, this is a practical plan being implemented today, not a fantasy plan to be introduced in 20 years time for the most expensive form of energy available, the cheapest form of energy available, being delivered today and being stored today. Private sector and government working together with communities so very pleased to make that announcement. Penny Sharpe will add some remarks from the NSW Government's point of view. NSW Government, Minns Government's doing a fantastic job in supporting household batteries with their recent announcement. Of course, as I said, we need them all complementing each other, so this is a good step forward today.

PENNY SHARPE: The battery behind us is just one. We're literally under this programme and we welcome and I thank the Federal Government and ARENA for the 95 that will be coming across New South Wales. Community batteries have such an important role to play, both in the transition to renewable energy, it helps us work with the one million households who already have got rooftop solar, it helps us for those that are putting in batteries in their houses, but this also helps us share the benefits for those who can actually get access to solar energy when they aren't able to put it on their roofs. It's a little, but important part of why these projects are so important. In New South Wales, we are well underway with the energy transition. 35 per cent of our energy is already sourced from renewable energy. That is a big task and it's going forward really, very well. The important part about this is the partnerships that we have. The Commonwealth Government has been able to provide the support so that we can accelerate this transition. We can build renewables, we can build the firming and the storage and they all work together, which really is about setting New South Wales and Australia up for a very bright and prosperous future based on cheap renewable energy as the basis of our energy system. It's well underway, we want to keep on with it. And today, community batteries like this show the community that it's there. they also can tap into the benefits. they can plug their EV in behind the battery. It's an exciting day for the community, but it's another really important demonstration of how far the transition is going and how well it's going in Australia, and we just need to keep doing it.

JOURNALIST: If the government's needing to address electricity prices by giving people that $300 energy rebate, does that show that the plan to reduce electricity prices isn't working?

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely not. It shows that we are providing real cost-of-living relief from Monday for every Australian with an energy bill in the face of the biggest energy crisis the world's seen since the early 1970s around the world. This is practical support now. Now we know that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. We also know that it takes some time to roll it out and time for it to be setting the energy prices more often. But this is practical support now to support and complement our rollout of the cheapest form of energy, which is renewables.

JOURNALIST: Just on that rebate, isn't there a risk that giving this relief to every Australian, including wealthier Australians who might not need it, is going to fuel inflation?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, not at all, and every policy that we implement has a view to making sure that we're working hand in glove with the efforts of the Reserve Bank. Budget surplus is the first element of that. If you have a budget surplus, you're putting downward pressure on inflation. And then, of course, by providing the energy bill relief direct through energy companies to reduce bills at source, that also puts downward pressure on inflation.

JOURNALIST: And when do you expect power prices will start coming down to a point where the government won't need to be providing any -

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I'm encouraged by the default market offer that was released a couple of, well a month or so ago, which showed energy prices coming down for the first time in quite a while. Long way to go, but that we have now turned the corner and are seeing energy prices come down. And of course, that's as a result of our coal and gas caps. It's a result of getting more renewables into the system, it's a result of the international crisis easing a little. All these lead to lower energy prices. I'll tell you what won't lead to lower energy prices, the most expensive form of energy which will slow down the rollout of renewables by providing investor uncertainty and will cruel our transition for a fantasy of a nuclear plan which will take at least two decades to build, but will cruel the rollout of renewables in the meantime.

JOURNALIST: According to AEMO, we have to increase our storage capacity pretty substantially before 2030 and even more by 2050. Are you confident we can do that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes, and the integrated system plan is a detailed, concrete, modelled analysis of what we need to do. And we're getting on with that job. We're getting on with the job in household batteries, state and federal governments working together closely, getting on with the community batteries, getting on with the grid scale batteries. We've seen a big increase in storage investment over the last twelve months. Just over the last twelve months, a big increase in the amount that companies are investing in storing renewable energy. That's what investor certainty provides. That's what support for ARENA provides. ARENA is supporting the rollout of grid scale batteries right across Australia. This is part of it as well.

JOURNALIST: How much do you expect these community batteries to bring down power prices and when will they be up and running?

DARREN MILLER, ARENA: Look, this is a substantial programme of 370 batteries that are being rolled out starting today with this first battery that we're announcing. The objectives of this programme are to increase the hosting capacity of solar in the grid, to provide an economic benefit to households and lower bills for consumers. We're delighted to start the programme. We've got 21 different applications, different organisations rolling out these batteries and we're going to learn a lot from this programme and see what's possible for the future.

JOURNALIST: Can you tell us where the process of building a Makarrata is up to and should any substantial movement on this be expected before the election?

LINDA BURNEY: There are a number of points there. The funding for truth telling in Makarrata is still in budget. The government has been very clear and I have been very clear, that we will take our time to make sure we get this right. We're working very collaboratively with states and territories in terms of treaty and truth telling processes. And the important point to make, particularly on a day like today, is that I travel the country. I have been to remote places, I've been to city places. In fact, the week before last I was in Broome. And what First Nations people are saying to me is that we need time to think about the next steps. But the Albanese government and myself are busily getting on with billions of dollars of investment into housing, into education and into jobs. So, we are making sure that we are changing the lives of First Nations people in this country.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned there a couple of times about wanting to take your time with it. What do you say to Indigenous leaders who argued that last year's referendum defeat has made truth telling and that process more urgent?

LINDA BURNEY: Well, I speak to the very people you're referring to on an incredibly regular basis. And the issue of truth telling is something that has, that has, over the last twelve months and before that, been taken up by community groups, by local government, by schools, by land councils, by various institutions like The Healing Foundation. So, in my view, the process of truth telling in this country is well and truly underway and it has been underway for a very long time.

JOURNALIST: Do you think maybe more needs to be done by the government in terms of its messaging? Because it felt like there was a lot of momentum building up to that referendum and there hasn't been much discussion since then publicly.

LINDA BURNEY: Well, I would probably disagree with you. When you have a look at the fact that the Prime Minister and I went up to the Northern Territory a couple of months and announced a $4 billion investment into Aboriginal housing, substantial. Minister Clare has announced a $40 million commitment to education in central Australia. We've got a $250 million commitment to Central Australia. I fund women's safe houses right across the country and $1.2 billion to community organisations to make sure that legal services, medical services, youth programmes, women's safe houses, they're all taking place right now in this country. And I can tell you that the positivity and the view that the community has is that we are very much moving in a direction that's incredibly appreciated.

CHRIS BOWEN: Any other questions? Great. Thanks, guys.