Press conference in Portland, Victoria

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
PORTLAND, VICTORIA
WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH 2024

KAREN STEPHENS: We’ll acknowledge that we’re on the lands of the Gunditjmara people and I pay my respects to the people past, present and emerging. And, Minister, welcome to beautiful Portland and the south west region. And, of course, we work closely with our counterparts over the border, so the broader green triangle region. And thank you for being in Portland, which we believe is the jewel in the crown for the south west – of course. But, you know, we’ll certainly hand over to you now to make your announcement. Thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thank you very much, Mayor Karen. Well, it’s great to be here today back in Portland to announce the next steps in the renewable energy future and jobs future for this region. You know, offshore wind has a lot of advantages. Offshore wind is jobs rich and energy rich, and it is very constant. Renewable energy is great, but we all know that onshore wind and solar are busier at some parts of the day than others, whereas offshore wind is regarded by the International Energy Agency as dispatchable renewable energy because it is always windy. And dispatchable renewable energy is what is the key to the future of places like this wonderful smelter, which I have just toured.

So, in addition, offshore wind, because it’s so windy offshore, needs a lot of maintenance. It creates a lot of jobs to keep it running. And because it’s offshore it creates a lot of maritime jobs as well – a lot of port jobs, a lot of maritime jobs, a lot of shipping jobs.

So I was here last year where I began consultation on a proposal for an offshore wind zone in the Southern Ocean. I said at the time that consultation would be real and genuine. We had more than 3,000 submissions. We’ve been through them all. And today I’m announcing that I have declared the Southern Ocean Offshore Wind Zone but, of course, I’ve also listened to that consultation and made changes. That’s how consultation should work.

A lot of people were concerned about the impact on marine life in the Bonney upwelling. I took that on board and we have avoided the Bonney upwelling. Listened to concerns about the sacred nature of Deen Maar in particular and have moved the zone further away from Deen Maar.

So the area I’m announcing today is just over 1,000 square kilometres in size compared to the over 5,000 square kilometres in size in the zone that I consulted on, particularly also listened to the lobster fishers of South Australia and have avoided that area.

But the area I’m declaring today also will generate 2.8 gigawatts of power. That’s enough to power 2 million homes across Victoria and Australia and enough to make a big contribution to this smelter and the other industrial needs of Portland.

It also will create around 1,600 jobs during destruction and 800 ongoing jobs, and that’s just the jobs directly involved. Obviously, more workers here means workers need food, they need coffee, they need a beer at the end of the day. It’s more local jobs as well.

I’m also today beginning the process of calling for feasibility licence applications. So this is really stage 1 of the plan for offshore wind for the Southern Ocean. Feasibility licence applications will be open until July. This is where the proponents, the offshore wind companies make a submission to me on who should be able to operate within that zone. I’ll consider things like local job creation, plans of interacting with the local environment, plans of interacting with local fishing, local content requirements as to see who has the best application, including, of course, how much energy they’ll create.

Then once I’ve issued a feasibility licence to the successful applicants, then they’ll move to the commercial licence process and they’ll need, again, to go through an application for a commercial licence after further feasibility works and checking.

Separately, they’ll also need to receive environmental approvals under the EPBC Act, quite separate to our processes, from the Environment Minister, where they’ll need to show their interaction with the environment. A lot of people, quite rightly, had questions or concerns about impact on the environment and marine life and whales, in particular. Again, as I said, I’ve excluded the area of the Bonney upwelling, but I say this: whales and whale migration is important to every Australian. I’m going to make a couple of points: whales interact with offshore wind around the world. They also interact with gas rigs, oil rigs, cargo ships, cruise ships. The single biggest threat to whale life in the world is climate change. We’re already seeing malnutrition in whales because the krill and other things that they eat are being impacted by warming water.

This is one of the reasons why we’re acting. But the plan that I’m announcing today takes the impact on marine life into account and still the proposals will need to go through environmental approvals. I just wanted to run you through that process. This is not like we’re going to start constructing offshore wind tomorrow; there’s a considerable process to go.

But I want to make sure that local communities benefit. I want to make sure your council benefits, Madam Mayor, I want to make sure the other two councils benefit as well. I’m not getting into who’s the jewel in the crown – you can argue that with your fellow mayors. My job is to look after all Australians and create jobs as we go. And this is a big announcement for jobs for this region.

It helps secure the future of this wonderful smelter. Increasingly investors and consumers will ask is the aluminium powered by renewable energy. And if the answer to that is no, then they’ll go elsewhere to buy their aluminium. That is just a statement of fact around the world. So I want to help the Portland smelter be able to answer that question yes. So we can already see the wind turbines behind us. They already have, frankly, a partial answer. I want to help them get a full answer so they can say to investors and consumers round the world, yes, we are powered by renewable energy. And today is a big step forward to that.

So I want to thank everybody who made a submission. I want to thank the smelter for having us here today. I want to thank the unions for their engagement. This will be creating jobs, creating energy and securing the industrial future for this region as well as enough power for 2 million homes.

Happy to take some questions from the journalists.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, sorry, just in regards to the rock lobster down in Port Macdonnell, what’s your message to the community now?

CHRIS BOWEN: We listened. I said all along I want to create new industries and new jobs. I don’t want to destroy old industries and old jobs. And they made a case. I listened to it and I took it on board. That’s what consultation is for.

JOURNALIST: Do you think that it helped that they came up to Canberra to meet with you personally?

CHRIS BOWEN: I – you know, I read their submissions and I had a good meeting with them and they made a case. Whether they made the case in the submissions or the meeting, you know, it all helps.

JOURNALIST: Did you take into account the impact that the offshore wind turbines might have on the whale nursery where the southern right whale goes to Logans Beach to have their babies every year?

CHRIS BOWEN: As I said, we considered all the impacts on marine life, including whales. I’m confident that the area that I’m declaring takes that into account. Also as I said separately, proponents will need to go through environmental approvals where they will need to show how they are dealing with that.

JOURNALIST: And how many companies have expressed interest in having wind turbines –

CHRIS BOWEN: None. As of today, zero. I’ve only declared the zone today. I know there’s –

JOURNALIST: There had been some around –

CHRIS BOWEN: There are people interested. But until today there’s no process for them to apply to. And now they can apply and we have applications open until July.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, will there be any ongoing impact on the Port of Portland at all?

CHRIS BOWEN: There’ll be jobs created at the Port of Portland, not so much in construction, necessarily. That’s a matter for the Victorian government as to, you know – clearly the Victorian government has views about where they would like the construction ports to be, but thein going maintenance and ongoing jobs. You know, ships in and out to go and maintain the turbines is a lot of jobs for Portland. And, as I said, just for general economic activity. I mean, I would expect Portland Airport would become busier as well as people come in and out to help run and maintain the wind farms.

JOURNALIST: It’s already closed so –

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there’s still planes in and out – I flew in there this morning.

JOURNALIST: What about Warrnambool Airport and any upgrades for Warrnambool breakwater?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, again, that’s something the proponents will need to work through in conjunction with the councils. You know, they’ll need to – I know – you know, I’m not here to make announcements on behalf of the proponents, but the sorts of things proponents – ie, wind farm companies – look at is do we need to help the council upgrade the airport, do we need to help the council upgrade the port or, you know, the ports authorities, do we need to help the council upgrade the roads? They’re the sorts of things that the wind farm companies I imagine now will be engaging with the mayors and general managers on.

JOURNALIST: Do you anticipate many of those jobs going into Warrnambool and Port Fairy?

CHRIS BOWEN: I mean what I’ll be looking at is local benefit. I’m not here to play favourites. I want to see all local governments benefit, and with the right plans, I’m confident they will.

JOURNALIST: And where do you anticipate the power coming from those offshore turbines to onshore?

CHRIS BOWEN: That’s a matter for the proponents to show – in the feasibility and commercial licence they’ll make the various proposals to the government about how they’ll get the power on to onshore and into the grid. The good thing about here is there’s a very substantial existing transmission grid. So you can feed into that, which is a big benefit to the area.

JOURNALIST: Is there talk of the federal government upgrading the grid, because I know it’s pretty full right now?

CHRIS BOWEN: We are generally working with states and transmission companies upgrading across the country. But, as I said, the good thing about this area, one of the benefits – apart from the fact that the smelter is here and it’s very windy offshore – is that the existing grid is strong and proponents can look at feeding into that existing grid.

Any other questions?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, Minister, welcome to the south west.

CHRIS BOWEN: Ms Mayor. Thank you.

SPEAKER: Following on to the question of getting the energy to Melbourne, there’s a big concern because apparently this line is virtually full with [indistinct] coming in in the next couple of years. Is there a process in place looking at moving the energy to Melbourne? Because that seems to be the big problem – it’s going right across our two shires.

CHRIS BOWEN: We already have proposals and work underway. There’s the VNI West link, there’s the Hume link, there’s the Western Victoria renewables link, there’s Project Energy Connect, there’s a project called the PEC. So there’s already – the PEC’s, you know, making good progress. Energy Connect, more than 50 per cent complete. So there’s already upgrades to get the energy around the country. Obviously, a lot of energy created there into this existing grid and then, you know, a further proposal can come forward. But there’s already a lot happening.

JOURNALIST: And how soon do you think we might see the first turbines?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, there’s a long way, a long process to go yet. As I said, I outlined the feasibility licence, the commercial licence, environmental approvals, and then companies have to order supply chain, get international supply chain links. No, I would expect - again, I'm not going to rush it; it's ready when it’s ready. But you would expect that 2030 to 2032 period to be when we might see first power.

JOURNALIST: And do we know how many turbines would be two and a half kilowatts?

CHRIS BOWEN: That’s – we now probably will let the commercial feasibility licence process take its course.

JOURNALIST: Talking hundreds, though?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, it’s 1,000 – just over 1,000 square kilometres, so, yeah, you could fit quite a few turbines in there.

JOURNALIST: Our roads are already in an appalling state. This will only help, I think, to – they’ll disintegrate even further with all the heavy traffic going. So what’s going to be done about this?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, again, I think this is a good opportunity for the councils to work with the proponents to say, “If you’re going to bring, you know, trucks to our area, we want you to help upgrade the roads.” And I think you’ll find proponents are keen to have that conversation. That’s my experience elsewhere.

Anybody else? All in, all done? All right, thanks, everyone.

ENDS