Press conference in Newcastle, NSW

CHRIS BOWEN: What a great day to be here with Sharon, with the Lord Mayor, with my friend Ambassador Suzuki, with the Austrian Trade Commissioner, good to see you. Australia and Austria are also doing very important work together on industrial decarbonisation with my friend Leonore Gewessler, the Austrian Minister for Climate Change.

But we’re here today, as Sharon said, to celebrate the next big step for – not only for MCi but for the Hunter. This is, we worked out last night, my seventh visit to the Hunter since we came into office, and there’s a reason why I’ve been so often – probably more than any other region in Australia – because, as I always say, the regions that have powered Australia for so long will be the regions that are central to our energy future for many, many decades and generations to come, and none more so than the Hunter. And not just powering Australia, but driving the industrial powerhouse that Australia has been and will be again under our government.

And today we’re beginning – or celebrating the beginning of construction here for a very Newcastle story. I first met MCi or saw MCi at the University of Newcastle – the vice chancellor is here with us today – and it’s fair to say a small operation in the University of Newcastle where Sharon took me with the vice chancellor to see the opportunities that could come. And, of course, I think my next interaction was giving you an award at COP28 in Dubai as a great Australian innovation. And the next stage in that journey is to be here today to celebrate MCi’s journey and the next stage in that journey. Working with Orica – we have Sanjeev here, the Chief Executive of Orica – again, another great company, and it’s employed many thousands of Australians here and will employ many thousands of Australians for many years to come in a decarbonised future, particularly here in the Hunter, but to celebrate this day.

And to get to 43 per cent emissions reduction in our country we need to make every post a winner. It is not easy. We have now 68 months left to do it. That’s not long. We’re starting very late. We started in 2022 on this journey with a 2030 target. That’s pretty late to be starting. But that means we need to make every post a winner. It means we need to reduce emissions at source. We need to reduce emissions in production. And that’s what these bricks do – the low carbon brick which will be important. We need to reduce embedded carbon in our buildings and that work – and where we can’t do that for whatever reason we need to find ways of storing that carbon in ways that aren’t in our atmosphere. And then you have the low carbon plasterboard as well, the carbon – stored plasterboard where we can store that carbon in those building products and strengthen them and get wins as well.

So this is a good day for the Hunter, employing Hunter people for years to come, and MCi in innovative Australian technology. Australian technology has in many senses led the world. You know, the modern solar panel was invented in Australia. More than 90 per cent of solar panels that are in place around the world were invented in Australia, that technology, that [indistinct] technology. The flow battery was in many senses invented in Australia. This technology, our friends down at MGA, carbon in the Hunter electorate, the Paterson electorate, great Australian technologies.

These are technologies that will play a role in decarbonising here and around the world. And what we want to do is ensure that that technology, that Australian-invented technology, translates to Australian jobs. It’s one thing to invent things in Australia, that makes us proud, but we need to see more Australian production and manufacturing of not just renewable energy but the things that make renewable energy.

So I was here a couple of weeks ago at the Liddell power station where we announced our Solar Sunshot program – a billion dollar investment in a solar manufacturing future for Australia. We’ve put 60 million solar panels on our roofs in the last 10 years, and 1 per cent of them have been made in Australia. And as a result of that Solar Sunshot announcement on that day, another Australian company, SunDrive, announced that they would open their factory on the Liddell site and employ more people than were employed making energy at the coal-fired power station making solar panels. That’s just one factory, and there’s many, many more announcements to come for the Liddell site.

And I say that because that’s just a different part of the same story that we’re telling today. MCi’s future here on this island, a great future in manufacturing, working in partnership with Orica, as your government does working in partnership with Orica, doing good things for the future, good things for our planet, good things for decarbonisation and creating not just thousands of jobs but thousands of good paying jobs, thousands of highly skilled jobs, thousands of jobs that people will be – young people and people right throughout the labour force will be wanting to get because they’re good Australian companies doing good things that they can be proud of.

So it’s great to join you today to share this special milestone. I understand we’ve got – well, I’ve seen, Sharon and I have seen the bricks with our names on them. Memorial bricks I call them. You know, they’ll be here forever regardless, so we’ll be able to remember this day. And so we should remember it because it’s a good day for the Hunter, a good day for MCi, a good day for Orica and a good day for Australia. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] July last year [indistinct].

CHRIS BOWEN: The question is about the safeguard reforms that we’ve put in place, and we’re very pleased we’ve put them in place. We’re very pleased with how it’s going. You know, the safeguard reforms were informed by in-depth consultation with industry, with Synergy, with Orica, BlueScope and others. And I welcome the big investment from Orica since we announced the safeguard reforms, and I welcome the statement of Sanjeev that those reforms were necessary to provide the certainty for business to make those big investments to create jobs in the future while we’re also reducing emissions.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

CHRIS BOWEN: We’re focusing our efforts on carbon capture use and storage in those hard-to-abate sectors. That’s appropriate, and we’ll continue to do so.

JOURNALIST: When you hear of innovations like this coming from what has historically been the coal heartland, that must be encouraging for the goals you’re trying to set as a government.

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely. This is a good day for the Hunter, a good day for Australia. Jobs for the future being created right here. You know, I’ve said many, many times, regions like the Hunter which have powered Australia for so long will power us into the future. And Hunter-based technology will create jobs here as well. So couple of weeks ago where we announced more jobs at the site of the Liddell power station than used to be employed at the coal-fired power station making solar panels, these are great opportunities and great examples of the opportunity for the Hunter and for regions like it.

JOURNALIST: And when we talk about these plants, of course, one of the big questions is scale in terms of capacity. Are you – do you think this is, you know, I guess, one brick in what is going to be a particularly tough transition?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes, but you’ve got to start somewhere. I mean, you start and you build and you grow. And there’ll be obstacles all the way. You don’t engineer a massive economic transition without the odd obstacle to overcome. But, you know, I was here I think last year announcing initiatives. Here today announcing initiatives here on this island, which will see jobs created, see emissions come down and see the Hunter at the centre of our transition. It’s a wonderful time.

JOURNALIST: Innovations like this are going to take quite a lot of financial backing to scale up on a national scale to be able to slowly replace fossil fuels. Is the government, do you believe, doing enough at this stage?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes, and you look at everything we’re doing – we are spending money on innovations like Solar Sunshot, a couple of weeks ago Hydrogen Headstart, you know, is important for the future of regions like this as well. We have Arena and CEFC investments. We have the capacity investment schemes supporting 33 gigawatts of renewable energy across our country. And, of course, we going to have more to say in a few weeks in the federal budget.

JOURNALIST: Do you think there could be scope, though, to, say, increase taxation on the fossil fuels industry to fund more projects like this?

CHRIS BOWEN: We are making investments necessary without doing that. And, of course, the Treasurer has reforms on PRRT, which we would like to see pass through the parliament. But separate to that we believe in investing in the future and we believe in communities make the investments necessary, and we believe in unlocking the private sector investment. I mean, there’s government investment here today. There’s private sector investment, there’s Australian investment, there’s overseas investment, and we’ll need it all.

JOURNALIST: Do you think reaching that scale won’t be possible without foreign investment?

CHRIS BOWEN: I’ve been very clear: we have in Australia we have room, we have renewable energy, we have skills, we have labour; one thing that we need more of is capital. We welcome Australian capital; we’d welcome foreign capital through all the necessary checks and balances, as you’d expect from the Foreign Investment Review Board. But I’ve been very, very clear on multiple occasions – yes, we do need overseas capital to support our transition.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] comments on natural gas today. Do you see natural gas as still being a path forward for this town?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, gas has got a role to play across the board. It’s got a role to play for the heavy industry while we’re waiting for green hydrogen to come forward. Australia has a very – a great green hydrogen future, but it’s not here yet. Gas also has a very important role to play in underpinning our transition to renewable energy. I mean, we get to 82 per cent renewable energy; that leaves 18 per cent fossil fuels. And the advantage of gas is it’s so flexible – it can turn on and off. That’s very important when you are moving to a very heavily renewable energy system, to have that flexibility of gas-fired power to come in and be turned on at very short notice. Coal fired can’t be turned on and off; it burns through the day, even when they’re losing money, even when we don’t need the power because we have so much renewables, but gas has different advantages. We’re moving to 82 per cent renewables, but gas will still have a role to play in the system.

JOURNALIST: I might ask you some questions about the Hunter Community Alliance opportunity tonight. They’re pushing for funding at the Tighes Hill Renewable Centre. Where do you stand on that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I’m not here to make funding announcements tonight. I am here to talk to the community about the great opportunities that Sharon’s [indistinct] for the Hunter. I welcome the establishment of the Hunter Community Alliance. That’s why I was, you know, very pleased to spend the night with them. I think it’s a good initiative. I’ll be talking about the sorts of things that we’ve been doing in the Hunter and my several visits to the Hunter so far, the sorts of things that we’ll be talking about in the budget and the great opportunities in the Hunter. But I’m not making any specific money announcements. But I’ll be hearing their case.

JOURNALIST: But they’re also calling for additional community educators to assist with the planning of the offshore wind zone, particularly in the Hunter. Would you be supportive of that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, again, I’m happy to work with communities and people in communities of good faith who want to see jobs created and deal with this information. Now, again, I’ll hear their specific proposal, but I’m not going to agree or disagree this evening. But I am keen to work with people like the Hunter Community Alliance to ensure a couple of things: to ensure that the community gets benefit out of the offshore wind zones, and that is built in and that will be the case. I want to see jobs created here. You know, up to 3,000 construction jobs, up to 1,500 ongoing jobs and energy for up to 4 million homes out of the Hunter offshore wind zone. I’ll be making further announcements about the Hunter offshore wind zone in the not-too-distant future, and I believe the information that will come from those announcements will help allay a lot of those concerns and some of the misinformation that’s been spread by people. There are genuine concerns in communities about offshore wind which we listen to and work with, and then there’s misinformation, which we have to counter and work with people to counter. And we’ll do all of those. We’ll do all the above.

Okay, all in, all done. Thank you.