Press conference with Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook and WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Energy; Hydrogen Bill Johnston

ROGER COOK: Good morning, everyone. All good. Thanks very much for coming. It's great to be here on the tail end of the Leadership Matters Breakfast, where we've just heard from the Prime Minister making a very important announcement. So, I'm joined today by Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, and also the Minister for Energy in Western Australia, Bill Johnston, for this announcement, which is around a $3 billion contribution from the Commonwealth as part of an agreement with the state government to continue to assist us to upgrade and decarbonise our electricity grids. This is about a $3 billion investment about accelerating the development of new energy transition projects to facilitate the decarbonisation of our system as we transition to net zero.

Essentially what we're doing is we are going to ensure that the region that powers the nation's economy can be powered by renewable energy, so the developments that we're looking to create around the Northwest Integrated System will connect up all our great generating capacity in the Pilbara to ensure that we can then move it together into a single integrated system which will assist us to decarbonise by tapping into the great wealth of renewable energy projects which are being developed in the northwest.

In addition to that, we know that the Southwest Integrated System continues to need to be upgraded as companies and households switch to more of an electricity-dominated energy supply. So that will be important work to do as well, particularly in the Kwinana area, where we have got significant uptake by industry in relation to electricity consumption, but also around electricity generation, but also in the Midwest around Oakajee where we've got significant projects being developed around renewable energy.

This is an exciting time to be in Western Australia, as we look to decarbonise our economy and assist the regional economies of Southeast Asia to decarbonise their economies as well, all part of us being a renewable energy powerhouse here in WA.

So, it's great to have a commonwealth government that we can work with collaboratively in cooperation to meet our joint aspirations to continue to decarbonise our economy through the upgrades and the connections of our interconnected systems. It's an exciting time, and I want to thank the federal government for their support and the great work that they are doing in collaboration with the Western Australian Government as we move to an energy transition future.

And now I hand you over to Chris Bowen.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thank you very much, Premier, and I'm delighted to be here to make this important and exciting announcement for Western Australia. Australia is, of course, on a decarbonisation journey, and Western Australia is a very important part of that. The Premier said, quite rightly, that the Pilbara has the potential to power not only Australia but to play a big role in powering our region.

But this journey comes with challenges as well as opportunities, and Western Australia objectively is the hardest state in the commonwealth to decarbonise because of the nature of Western Australian industry, because of the traditional nature of the Western Australian grid, and the Pilbara, and the NWIS is the hardest grid in the country to decarbonise, currently relying on just 2 per cent renewables.

So, this requires great partnership between the Western Australian Government and the Commonwealth, partnership with the private sector as well, and that's exactly what we're delivering today, and I want to thank my friend Bill Johnston for his engagement with me over months to make this deal a reality. And this is only possible too because of the work Bill and the Cook Government has done on a common use agreement bringing together the big energy users of the northern part of Western Australia in particular to agree to work together and to cooperate on energy transmission across that wonderful region.

There would be very little point in governments investing in this transmission if there wasn't that agreement. So, we build on the good work that the Western Australian Government has already done. This is a Western Australian deal for Western Australian purpose, for Western Australian benefits. It delivers renewable energy to where it's needed, both in the north and in Perth itself.

You know, Western Australia, while having challenges, has remarkable opportunity for renewable energy, some of the best renewable energy resources anywhere in the world. But the thing about renewable energy is you have to plug it in. No point building great renewable energy infrastructure if you're not connecting it to the grid, and if you're not connecting it to big energy users like the massive energy users we have in the Pilbara in particular.

So, this is a good deal for Western Australia, it's a good step forward for Australia's potential to be a renewable energy powerhouse. It will create jobs, in construction, of course, around 1,800 jobs in construction, but more importantly than that, it will ensure that the great Western Australian and Australian businesses that operate across the Pilbara and in Perth can say to their investors and to their consumers, "We are transitioning to renewable energy" and increasingly, investors and consumers around the world will demand that, and unless we work with private industry to make that a reality, Australians will miss out, Australian jobs will miss out, Australian businesses, Australian industry will miss out, because the world increasingly demands this decarbonisation. So, it's a good day. I again want to thank the Premier for his engagement with the Prime Minister and I. I want to particularly thank Bill for his engagement with me. It's important that national energy policy work in all the states and territories. We've worked hard to make sure it works for Western Australia. This is not the last announcement that Bill and I will make in coming months, but it is a very important and significant one on Australia's journey to net zero and Western Australia's journey to net zero as well.

I'll hand to my friend Bill, and then we'll take questions.

BILL JOHNSTON: Look, thanks very much. I want to start by thanking Chris Bowen for the hard work he's put in, making sure that he fully understands Western Australia, and it's so good that he does understand Western Australia. It's good that the commonwealth government is investing $3 billion in our decarbonisation journey. Everybody knows that the Pilbara is a very difficult area to operate for renewable energy because we've had a tradition of companies doing it by themselves.

So the first thing we had to do was get the companies that operate in the Pilbara to agree to move forward on a common use basis, and that's what we've been doing over the last 12 months with the Pilbara Industry Roundtable, culminating on 28th July with an agreement from all the large users of electricity and all the large generators of electricity, that we want to move forward on a common user basis, so that we can make the most out of renewable energy.

And now we fit   we're getting the second piece of the puzzle together, which is the commonwealth putting real money on the table to incentivise that private sector investment that will see the grid grow in the Pilbara so that we can move from 2 per cent renewables to 80 per cent or more renewables in the future. This is an important step forward on Australia's decarbonisation journey. 

It's true that the Pilbara's a major source of emissions in Australia, because it's a major centre for economic activity, and this new investment by the commonwealth government allows us to unlock the renewable energy that's needed to decarbonise the Pilbara. And at the same time the government's been working through the needs here in the southwest, in the Southwest Interconnected System, we're already making the investments needed to expand the grid, to grow the grid, to have increased use of renewable energy.

We already have a pathway way here in the SWIS to move forward, but we also know that the demand for electricity in Western Australia is going to grow exponentially. We're expecting three times more electricity to be used in 20 years' time than is used today. And the commonwealth government is going to help us expand the grid to new locations to unlock renewable energy, but also to deliver power to where it's needed, whether it's in Kwinana, with the exciting renewable energy opportunities there, or it's in the midwest or elsewhere across the southwest, including the gold fields.

So we're really excited that the commonwealth government is such a strong partner with us in our decarbonisation journey, we're so pleased that we've got a Labor Government in Canberra that understands the need to work to achieve outcomes on climate action, and this today is a major step forward and a clear demonstration that finally the West Australian Government has a government to partner within Canberra, the Albanese Labor Government, that understands Western Australia and understands the need to move forward on renewable energy infrastructure.

SPEAKER: Questions for the Minister.

JOURNALIST: Is the expectation that most of that $3 billion will be spent in the northwest, and what role, if any, will the Horizon Power play in building those transmission lines?

BILL JOHNSTON: Yes. Most of this money, the strong expectation is that most of this resource will be allocated to the northwest. Of course, there's some important work here in the SWIS as well. In respect of Horizon, you know, almost all the infrastructure in the Pilbara already belongs to the private sector, and we think there is a strong role for Horizon to play, but we know that the private sector will continue to play the key role in the northwest as it already does today.

JOURNALIST: Can you break down how much you expect   how much money will go to SWIS, how much will go to the northwest?

BILL JOHNSTON: No, not at this time. You know, the commonwealth has, properly, that the commonwealth asks the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to do its proper due diligence, and we're at the start of the process of doing that due diligence, and you would expect that taxpayers' money will be spent wisely, so there is a detailed process still for us to allocate resources to individual projects. But we know the biggest need here in the SWIS is reinforcement for Kwinana, additional infrastructure for the north   the midwest, to unlock Oakajee, strengthening of the grid around the Goldfields and unlocking additional renewable energy in the southeast, and in the Pilbara, it's a line to the Burrup, which is already in development, and a north-south line to strengthen the transmission of electricity in the Pilbara. So, we know the specific projects that we need to unlock, but we now need to do all the work that is required.

JOURNALIST: Why does the private sector in the northwest need government funds to do this?
 
BILL JOHNSTON: Okay. So the challenge is that you need to build the infrastructure for the future, and you need to be able to size the infrastructure so that as the demand for renewable energy grows over time, you've already got the infrastructure in place to move the renewable energy around, and so because you need to oversize these projects beyond what the private sector itself would fund, you, therefore, need government help. We've always understood that, working with the Pilbara industry roundtable that the government would have to be a strong partner for these projects, and we're very pleased the commonwealth government is stepping forward to help us in this regard.

JOURNALIST: One of the things that Chris Bowen's talked about in the past is possible wind power out at Bunbury. How close is that to reality?

BILL JOHNSTON: You mean offshore wind?

JOURNALIST: Yep.

CHRIS BOWEN: Probably a question better put to me. I mean I said it.

BILL JOHNSTON: I mean I'm sure that Chris Bowen will respond. However, what I point out to you is that   yeah, is the private sector developers there have quite a long timeline for those projects, so they're some way in the future, but we're, so far as I'm aware, all the developers in the southwest that are looking at offshore wind are very satisfied with the engagement they've had with the Commonwealth, and I keep in regular touch with them, and they're all telling me that they're pleased by the level of engagement they've had from the commonwealth.

JOURNALIST: Will funding the required upgrades to the Southwest Interconnected System, the transmission upgrades, fall mostly to the West Australian Governments, and are you okay with that, will you ask the Feds for more money?

BILL JOHNSTON: Look, we'll continue to engage with the Commonwealth on a range of issues here in the southwest, and we know there's other opportunities for cooperation, whether it's on transmission or other elements of the Southwest Interconnected System, we are very pleased that we've finally got a government in Canberra that's prepared to invest real money into Western Australia's energy system, and you know, I just can't thank Chris Bowen enough for his concentration on the peculiar needs we have in Western Australia.

We're not part of the national electricity market, we are physically isolated, we have a much more complex job to achieve here in Western Australia because we have a much different emissions profile. Most of our emissions here in Western Australia don't come from our electricity system. On the east coast, most emissions do. So, therefore, we've got our own pathway to net zero, and we're very pleased the commonwealth government is looking at what's happening here in Western Australia and responding to our special needs.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask, the Nationals on the east coast are running a scare campaign about farmland being taken up for, you know, building power lines, we've seen in the last couple of months here of angry farmers. What, you know, are we talking here about upgrading existing corridors, are there going to be new lines, would you anticipate that outcome in here?

BILL JOHNSTON: Oh, look, it's up to the National Party whether they want to be responsible and respond to the needs of the future, or if they're stuck in the past worrying about dividing one person from another. You know, in respect of wind farms, here in Western Australia all wind farms are built, so far been built on farmland, only with the consent of the owners. So, if the National Party wants to play games dividing one farmer against another, that's up to them, but we're not playing that game. We're here to put the interests of all West Australians first. The transmission corridors will be carefully planned, taking account of the needs of local communities as well as the broader community.

Personally, I don't think farmers are against the interests of others, and I think that there will be cooperation, because that's what we've had in the past.

JOURNALIST: The existing transmission corridors will be used though, correct, if we enforce the --

BILL JOHNSTON: Yes, exactly, for existing transmission lines, so for example, with the Neerabup to Kwinana line, that's currently in planning, it's using existing infrastructure.

In respect of new infrastructure in regional Western Australia, well, of course, it will have to run on a particular corridor, but we need to engage with communities, not the least being First Nations people. In the Pilbara, we need to engage with First Nations people, and the route for any infrastructure there will be only at the outcome of proper engagement with the First Nations people. It's one of the four key points that have come out of the Pilbara industry roundtable is making sure that Indigenous Australians are part of the decision-making process.

JOURNALIST: And just clarify on the SWIS, it will be Western Power and the WA Government that funds the majority of those upgrades, or are you expecting the private sector to fund transmission line up grades?

BILL JOHNSTON: So, look, the way the system works is that the users of infrastructure pay for the infrastructure. So, if the private sector needs infrastructure, it might be Western Power that builds it, but over time that money will be recovered from the private sector. The users of infrastructure already pay for it, it's not a new concept, and the users of electricity understand their need to be part of the funding solution.

JOURNALIST: With an expansion of the private network in the northwest, how susceptible does that make retail customers up there, or is the ERA still going to -- 

BILL JOHNSTON: So, the ERA doesn't play a role in the Northwest Interconnected System, so retail customers will continue to be sold electricity by Horizon at the regulated price. The cost of electricity right across Horizon's footprint is much higher than the price we charge. There's no impact on residential customers in remote Western Australia because the government will continue to sell electricity at the same price that we sell here in the metropolitan area. We have a uniform tariff policy so that nobody needs to pay more than anyone else for residential electricity, and that will continue to be the case. There's no impact at all on residential customers from any of these announcements.

JOURNALIST: What about the impost on Horizon itself, can we expect then they're going to charge more?

BILL JOHNSTON: No, because if the volume of electricity sold by Horizon goes up, then their loss will go down, if you like, so we don't have any expectation of a challenge for Horizon. You know, Horizon already has commercial relationships with a range of businesses in the Pilbara, and we would expect those commercial arrangements to continue, and there might be new ones in the future, but most electricity used in the Pilbara is privately generated, mostly on site of the operations. Moving to a connected system allows more renewables because you can share infrastructure, and that's an important step forward in reliability for renewable energy. But there will be no impact on residential customers anywhere in the state.

SPEAKER: Can we have two questions to Minister Bowen guys, we’re going to have to wrap up.

JOURNALIST: I just want to check just quickly the timeline. When will these priority projects actually start rolling out?

BILL JOHNSTON: The priority projects in the SWIS are already in planning and execution phase, so they'll be very soon in terms of the Northwest Interconnected System, the first project is in its final approval stage, so you know, we could see construction work starting next year.

JOURNALIST: Mr Bowen, just on the potential [indistinct] 

CHRIS BOWEN: Offshore wind. Certainly, I'll just give you a very quick update. As you know I identified six offshore wind zones for Australia, I've declared two, we've begun consultation on another two, and as it happens, I'll give you a tip, give you a little heads up, tomorrow in Melbourne I'll be addressing the Global Offshore Wind Conference, and I think it shows how important Australia is to offshore wind, and I'll be announcing the timeline to begin the process for the last two, including Bunbury, Perth.

Consultations really important. The consultation will be open 60 days at least. In the two zones that I've declared so far, I've made changes based on the consultation, so I'll be giving you that update tomorrow, but every day is another day closer.

JOURNALIST: Do you expect at the same kind of community issues as live-scale transmission lines and other renewable projects and how will that be managed?

CHRIS BOWEN: When we consult on an offshore wind zone, we get, you know, feedback about the positives, the jobs that will be created, the renewable energy that will be created, and the questions and concerns, you know, whale migration, bird life, amenity, impact on fishing, impact on sea life. We work those issues through, and as I said, for Gippsland and Hunter, the two areas I've already declared, I made changes based on community feedback. That's a process working, that's as it should be. Everybody gets a say, we weigh up the various issues. If people say, "Look, I'm against renewable energy 'cause I don't believe in climate change" that doesn't have much weight with me. When people say, "Oh, look, I've got concerns about bird life" for example, in the Hunter, I listened to the concerns about the Gould's petrel and carved out an area around an island where the Gould's petrel breeds, that's the sort of thing that we take into account. 

JOURNALIST: Just on the taxpayer funding for largely privately owned areas in the northwest.

CHRIS BOWEN: Sure.

JOURNALIST: When do you anticipate this kind of taxpayer-funded subsidies for the private sector will stop, and when will the private sector really kind of get enough momentum to go it on their own?

CHRIS BOWEN: I wouldn't, with respect, sort of see it that way, because I think this is such a big task, that it needs us all in; the private sector and the federal government and the state government all in. If we leave it all to the private sector, it won't happen, if we leave it all to the state government, it won't happen, and if it was just us it wouldn't happen. It needs all three of us working together.

The point about this $3 billion investment is that it's going to unlock expenditure much bigger than that. I mean these lines are going to cost a lot more than $3 billion. That's going to come from the private sector. This is about concessional finance, making it cheaper, making it faster to build. Each line has its own model, you know, what will follow from this agreement will be different to what we've done in the Marinus Link between Tasmania and the mainland, it's different to the HumeLink which connects Snowy 2.0, because every model's different, but this is an important investment to unlock much more private sector investment.

I mean be under no concerns, the private sector's going to be putting in serious billions to these projects. This is about making the projects cheaper so that they can occur more quickly.

JOURNALIST: Just a couple of questions from Canberra if that's okay. When are you expecting an update on the Snowy 2 review, has there been a delay?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there's been, it depends what you mean by delay, there's been no   I'm expecting an update quite soon, and as soon as I've received that update, I'll make it public.

JOURNALIST: I just have one from Canberra as well. Does the federal government stand by its decision to block extra services from Qatar, even though it has the potential to lower air fares?

CHRIS BOWEN: We certainly stand by the decision, and I don't accept the premise underpinning the question.

JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen, there's also a question about   do you expect your electorate of McMahon, and how do you expect them to vote in the Voice Referendum given it's delivered no votes or questions in the past like the same-sex marriage [indistinct]?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, my electorate hasn't voted yes in a referendum since 1977, so they certainly take some convincing. Fair enough. They take a sceptical view about constitutional change. We're campaigning hard. I believe   I couldn't call a result in my electorate just yet, but we're campaigning hard, and I have some hope that my electorate will respond. We held a forum in my electorate a couple of weeks ago with Julian Leeser, the liberal member for Berowra, we had the head of Yes23, Dean Parkin, we had Shireen Morris, and we had, you know, a good roll up of people coming and listening to the case for yes, and we're going to do a lot more of that, a lot more of that. So yes, we have a fight on our hands, in every electorate, in every State, with every voter, to make the case for change. We should make the case for change, and increasingly we will be making the case for change, particularly after tomorrow.

JOURNALIST: Premier, you just heard the PM express his confidence the referendum will be won. Do you share his confidence that WA will support this? When are we going to see you out in a "Yes" T shirt doing a street walk?

ROGER COOK: Well, I certainly acknowledge the comments from the Prime Minister Bowen now that we have to put the case, and I think Western Australians are ready for that conversation. This is an important proposition to put to the Australian people, it's about how we step forward as a country in unity, and I think it's a very sensible approach.

JOURNALIST: The $3 billion being invested [indistinct] 1,800 more jobs, [indistinct] that's more jobs.

ROGER COOK: Yep.

JOURNALIST: Have you managed to have a quiet word with the Prime Minister about cuts to the school migration scheme?

ROGER COOK: It wasn't so much quiet, it was   I obviously had the opportunity to speak with the   to address the Federal Cabinet yesterday, made it very clear that one of the key constraints in relation to industry in the Western Australian economy is getting more workers in WA. We need more construction workers, we need more engineers, we need to continue to keep powering the national economy. We can only do that if we had more workers.

JOURNALIST: Did they give you any idea that they were going to reverse that decision?

ROGER COOK: Well, I think it certainly, the message was received, the message was acknowledged, and I think it was understood, and we'll continue to have a conversation with the commonwealth about these things.

JOURNALIST: Just back to The Voice quickly, you said previously that once a date was set you expected to play a more prominent role. The date will be set tomorrow. Is this campaigning for The Voice something you expect to dedicate significant time to personally?

ROGER COOK: Well, I certainly look to be involved. This is an important question for the nation, and it's an important question for Western Australians. It's about acknowledgement, it's about recognition, it's about respect, and it's about getting results, good, positive results, and we can only do that if we have the appropriate conversation with our First Nations people about issues which affect them. It's a very sensible approach, it's a commonsense approach, and I think all fair minded people would consider it a very reasonable proposition.

JOURNALIST: Mr Cook, the Attorney General said yesterday in relation to The Voice, once it's set up, Parliament can ignore it. So why set up another parliamentary body that can be ignored?

ROGER COOK: Conversations require two sides, people speaking, people listening, and making sure that that conversation brings outcomes, and that's what The Voice is about.

JOURNALIST: What's your response to WA MP James Heywood being convicted yesterday of child sex abuse?

ROGER COOK: Well, the courts have made their decision, and I want to begin by, first of all, just acknowledging that there are victims, that there are victims who are, you know, obviously have just gone through a distressing process as well. So I want to acknowledge them, and to thank them for speaking out and for standing strong. These are never easy issues, and you know, the court has made its decision, and we thank them.

What will happen now is that the courts will inform the Parliament in relation to that decision, and the Parliament will in due course inform the governor of a casual vacancy which will need to be filled.

JOURNALIST: Is your expectation that that vacancy will be filled by whoever was second on the Nationals tickets?

ROGER COOK: Well, that's a question for the Nationals. I think it's time that they actually owned up to this issue and that they explained themselves.

JOURNALIST: What have they got to explain?

ROGER COOK: Well, clearly, they've got an important job here, to make sure that they acknowledge what's happened here, which has undermined the confidence of the community in our parliament. It's important that we pre select people in a manner which provides people with confidence.

JOURNALIST: Do you think he was not potentially eligible for parliament, James Heywood?

ROGER COOK: No. People are elected to parliament. That's a decision for the people of Western Australia.

JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee the life of other [indistinct] coal-powered generators won't be accepted?

ROGER COOK: Look, we are committed to retiring our coal-fired generating power stations by 2030. That is a transition which we are committed to, and that pathway won't be an easy one, it will be one that will require careful management. It may require the opportunity to close down some power stations before others. It may require keeping some open while we address other parts of the Southwest Interconnected System. So, Minister Johnston with his team will continue to look at all these things, but we are committed to the retirement of all our coal-generating power stations by 2030.

SPEAKER: Last question.

JOURNALIST: Will stay open longer, is that what you're saying?

ROGER COOK: Some may close earlier. And you know, it depends on the consumption, it depends on other forms of generation. This is a nuanced approach. We work with AEMO and other policy advisers to understand how we can balance the consumption and the demand for the grid with our generating capacity. But we're on a pathway now of retiring our coal fired power stations, and that's a very important one.

JOURNALIST: Just one final question. There's an inquiry into the domestic gas reservation policy currently, the report is at the end of the year, is that a space that you think requires reform, and how quickly will you look to implement changes?

ROGER COOK: Well, I want to acknowledge the work of the parliamentary committee on digging into a very complex policy area. So, I'm very much interested in hearing what observations they make and the recommendations from their report.

SPEAKER: Thanks guys.