Press conference with Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon MP at Port of Newcastle

LUCAS COLEMAN: Thank you all for coming to the Port of Newcastle today. I'd like to welcome the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, and the Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon. The Minister's announcement today is wonderful news for the clean energy ecosystem that is developing in the Hunter region with the inland renewable energy zones, the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub, our own clean energy precinct, and now a step forward towards offshore wind. We are definitely becoming one of those significant regions with clean energy development in the nation. I'd like now to hand over to Sharon Claydon to say a few words.

SHARON CLAYDON: Thank you, Lucas. An enormous thanks to the Port of Newcastle for hosting us here this morning. I also want to acknowledge Kumarah Kelly who is joining us today, because we meet on the extraordinary lands and waters of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples in our region and I want to pay respects to their 65,000 plus years of fabulous custodianship so that we get to live, work and play on this amazing country, too.

Also deep gratitude to representatives from local government, Deputy Lord Mayor Declan Clausen, members of the mighty trade union movement in Newcastle, members from the Hunter Environment Community Centre, all of whom have a really deep – and the Hunter Job Alliance, sorry – all of whom have a really deep interest in the success of an emerging new industry for Newcastle in offshore wind.

I am so excited to welcome Minister Chris Bowen back to Newcastle for the eighth time. Let that be noted how many times he visits Newcastle, because I think it is demonstrative of just how serious the Albanese Labor Government takes the skills, expertise, and knowledge that this region has to give, and indeed, we play a lead role in the transformation to a net zero economy.

Newcastle, of course, is well poised to play this role. We have a highly skilled workforce. We have an excellent deep-water port with enough land around to accommodate an offshore wind industry. We've got great pathways for training and education through our TAFE and university systems. A highly skilled workforce and today's announcement is great news for a region that wants to create new jobs for electricians, engineers, people who are all involved at all different aspects of the offshore wind industry. So today's announcement takes us one step closer and on that note, I'm going to hand across to Minister Chris Bowen to take us through the details of that today. Over to you, Minister Bowen.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks very much, Sharon. It's great to be back in Newcastle and great to be back in the Hunter, as Sharon says, for the eighth time as Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Here at the Port of Newcastle, I launched the Hunter Offshore Wind Zone and it's great to be back today in the Port of Newcastle to announce the next steps because the Port of Newcastle is undergoing a transformation, like so much of our economy.

Port of Newcastle, historically the world's largest coal port, now becoming a renewable energy powerhouse in and of itself. And offshore wind is already playing a big role in jobs in the port of Newcastle. Played an even bigger role in the future. Today, I'm announcing the next step in the development of an offshore wind industry for the Hunter.

Today I'm announcing my intention to issue a feasibility licence to Oceanex, a joint venture proposal, one of the eight proposals we had for the Hunter Offshore Wind Zone, but my intention is to issue a feasibility licence to them based on the quality of their bid. There is now a process of 60 days where other proponents can make their cases, consultation with First Nations peoples before I make a final decision. With the interest of transparency, I'm announcing today my intention to do so. 

This is good news. Oceanex, a well-regarded and credible bidder for this licence, and they will be able to do a good job not only for our energy system but for the people of the Hunter.

There will be 3,000 construction jobs, 300 ongoing jobs directly and they, by definition, are Hunter jobs, they can’t go anywhere else. They are here, right here in Newcastle. Can't export those jobs anywhere else. They will be occurring right here and, of course, many more jobs created by the economic activity that those workers will undertake – buying food here, living here, creating economic activity as they go.

And I want to make this point very, very clear. As far as I'm concerned, the Hunter is hosting renewable energy, the Hunter will benefit from renewable energy. There will be more to say about community benefits from Oceanex in the current period as their licence moves through to the next stage. But one of the criteria we apply is not only the amount of energy created and the financials of the proposals, but the community benefit and I am very, very confident that this decision will lead to real community benefits, real benefits for workers, real benefits for communities and that's very much the case that drives what we do when it comes to regional development of offshore wind, and regional development of our renewable energy transformation.

Now this is a concrete, practical, clear step forward. In contrast with other events yesterday of a fantasy many decades off with no costings, no modelling, and no consultation, no consultation with the people of the Hunter about putting a nuclear reactor here in the Hunter region. No consultation whatsoever. And the reason the Opposition didn't release any costings is because they know that it will drive bills up. It's the most expensive form of energy. If they were up-front with the Australian people, they would have released the whole package yesterday. They're not being up-front with the Australian people because they have a lot to hide. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: The licence seems to be at the southern end of the zone, about as far away as possible [indistinct].

CHRIS BOWEN: I have applied the national interest, what I regard to the national interests in regards to making that decision. I consider all sorts of matters. I'm very confident the people of Newcastle will support offshore wind very strongly based on all my visits here. I think it's good news for the people of Newcastle.

JOURNALIST: When you initially came to Newcastle last year, the project was slated as 8 gigawatts, the declared project was 5 gigawatts, now we've got 2 gigawatts here. Assuming that you don't add another licence, how is that going to affect the overall economics of the viability project?

CHRIS BOWEN: When we put those figures out, we were saying up to because it's a maximum, as you will recall, but 2 gigawatts is not a small number of gigawatts when it comes to capacity. It's enough for well over a million homes or two Tomagos. Tomago's the largest electricity user in New South Wales. This one wind farm can power two Tomagos. That's not nothing. That's a substantial addition to our national energy market and it will happen right here in Hunter.

JOURNALIST: What's the timeline with the feasibility process and then seeing turbines off the coast?

CHRIS BOWEN: So there's a short-term timeline where other proponents have 60 days to make a case to me and some consultation with First Nations people, which is only enlivened at this point of the process. Then I consider any cases put to me over the next 60 days and then make a final decision. And then that moves to commercial licence – sorry, then that feasibility licence then is enlivened, and they do the further feasibility work and then it moves to an application for commercial licence and then separate environmental approvals.

We're not going to see power much before 2030. That's because it takes time to get this right. But that's appropriate. You don't build an industry overnight. You get it right and that will be an important addition to our national energy market from that 2030 period onwards.

JOURNALIST: What about the cost? Is there a total figure?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, it's up to the proponents. This is not – this is not a government-funded project, unlike nuclear energy where there's going to be a government-owned bureaucracy making those decisions. This is a private sector bid to me.

JOURNALIST: What are the guarantees that are in place to ensure as much of the materials [indistinct]?

CHRIS BOWEN: We continue to work across the board to make sure that's the case. The workforce will be based here in the Hunter, there's no choice about that, and, of course, it's in everyone's interests that there are jobs available, in the first instance for young Hunter workers, apprentices, etc. One of the things, again, we consider, that I consider, is those plans that are put to me, Oceanex will put more of those plans out in coming weeks and months for people. This is in everyone's best interests.

I'll give you an example of this process which is further advanced elsewhere in Gippsland where they're slightly ahead of the Hunter. If you go to a cafe in Morwell, you will find a Star of the South jobs guide that's distributed through the community where people can apply for jobs or see what jobs will be becoming available. There's a lot of jobs to be created. It's everyone's best interest that locals benefit from those jobs. I'll be holding Oceanex to that standard as part of our ongoing discussions.

Now, we are not – we have never said we're going to make every element of wind turbine in Australia. We don't have that capability. I want to see as much Australian content as possible, Australian steel going forward, for example, and we continue to work with steel providers and with proponents and other workers, to ensure that as much local content goes into this as possible. I make no apologies for that. This is Australian renewable energy, I want as much Australian content, as many Australian jobs in it as possible.

JOURNALIST: Like we saw yesterday, you know, the support for nuclear, there's also rejection of that technology, see what will happen [indistinct]. What do you say to people who are concerned about this project?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there's a bit of a difference, though. Here I've come to Newcastle on multiple occasions, begun consultation for a zone, declared a zone, you know, consulted the community. Sharon and I were at a big public meeting a little more than a month ago with 600 people asking for more new renewable energy at the University of Newcastle. You know, here talking to people hearing concerns. I'm not sure if Mr Dutton's going to Liddell today to talk to people at Muswellbrook. I'm sure they will welcome him.

Our colleague, Patrick Gorman, from Western Australia, that's a long way away but it's an important point. Yesterday Mr Dutton announced a nuclear reactor for Collie. He's never been there. Not once in his more than 20 years of Parliament. Can you imagine the arrogance that goes with doing that? Now I know that some, know, projects are controversial, but we go around and community consult, hear different views, strike a balanced decision. I began consultation on the zone, reduced that zone, quite rightly you point out, reduced that zone after consultation, listening to community concerns. Now issuing the next licence.

I'll give you this other example. I hear concerns in the community about fishing. There's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about fishing, which I will just take a moment to clear some of that up. I'm putting out today that people see this and they think I can't fish in that area. That's not right. Once it's constructed, you have a small exclusion zone around each turbine of about 50 metres and they're two kilometres apart from each other. So there's plenty of room for fishermen and rec fishers to continue what they love doing. So it takes time to break down some of these myths and misinformation and part of what we're doing today is doing that as well.

JOURNALIST: What's the status of the remaining 60 per cent, are companies bidding for the area?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, my decision is the decision I'm indicating an intention to make today for this licence, and that will be it.

JOURNALIST: How much more community consultation form a part of the next stages?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the feasibility stage does have an element where the community is consulted by Oceanex about different things. We require them to have fishing management plan and environmental management plan, for example. So there are multiple stages of community consultation right through, including the environmental approvals when that goes out for comment, for example. So several more stages of community consultation to go yet.

JOURNALIST: Are you able to put a ballpark figure on what you say is as much as possible local material –

CHRIS BOWEN: What we're not doing is saying you will have X per cent or Y per cent because you can get that wrong and you can underdo it. You can have requirements and proponents say I might have been able to do better but that's all you're asking us to do. What we do is we work with proponents. Everything's different, you know? The amount of steel is different to some of the components in it, for example, and some of this will develop over time. You know, some things that Australia can't provide for offshore wind right now, but we might be able to provide in a few years' time when we've built up industry. That's why you've got to work with the industry to make it happen.

JOURNALIST: Will this take away from more discussions about onshore wind options?

CHRIS BOWEN: They're quite separate, to be fair. I don't have onshore wind zones, that's a different process. You know, there's 25 per cent more renewable energy in the energy system today than there was when we came to office. 7.8 gigawatts more renewable energy today than when we came to office. We're getting on with the job.

JOURNALIST: Is there any truth in the story that Oceanex has told you that it's going to pull out of the Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone because you moved it 20 kilometres offshore?

CHRIS BOWEN: They haven't told me; they've told the public. They've announced that. And proponents can – it's not compulsory to bid. They can bid or not bid. There will be other proponents looking at the Illawarra. Not everyone bids for every project.

JOURNALIST: Is the Government any closer to making a call on PEP11 and if it is approved will that have any impact on this project?

CHRIS BOWEN: PEP11, as you know, was royally stuffed by Scott Morrison who made a decision which was then overturned in the courts. Accordingly, so as to not repeat his mistake, this Government is proceeding with extreme caution. Minister Husic is the decision-maker. It would be improper for me to comment while Minister Husic is making that decision. It must be done at arm's length. He will make a proper decision but there's no link between the two.

JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton and your Government, too, the Prime Minister has said that nuclear is quite likely to be a part of Australia's energy mix somewhere down the future.

CHRIS BOWEN: Sorry, who said that?

JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: I don't think you will find he said that.

JOURNALIST: He did at Liddell. He referred to –

CHRIS BOWEN: I was there.

JOURNALIST: I was there, too.

CHRIS BOWEN: The Prime Minister has not said nuclear will be part of Australian energy.

JOURNALIST: He said it could be. But the question is there's obviously some support in the community for nuclear energy. Why won't your government lift the ban?

CHRIS BOWEN: Because it doesn't make economic sense and it's a massive distraction from this renewable energy transformation. You know, nuclear is the most expensive form of energy and if Mr Dutton wants to defend it, he can, but I tell you what he should do first – release his costs. He's got costings, they've been boasting "We've got costings." Well, tell us what they are, Mr Dutton. I tell you why yesterday's announcement raised more questions than answers because the answers are no good. That's why. Any more questions? All in, all done.