Q&A session at The Australian Business Council in Japan

QUESTION: We have lots of business opportunity in Australia. And we also are talking to many Japanese companies here and these companies have a lot to offer in terms of capital and capacity to buy energy from Australia, we are seeing a lot Australia can offer in terms of learning by Japanese companies as well. And certainly in government, for example, Australia has already installed many batteries projects, already operating and running. And also Australia is upgrading their grid capacity in a really robotic way in the private sector, as well. So that kind of advanced Australian knowledge, how can we increase knowledge sharing between Australia and Japan, therefore increasing investing opportunities for Japanese companies in those areas?

BOWEN: Well, thank you for the question. And if there are ways that you think we can better share the information available, please let us know whether it is through my visits and meeting with very important Ministers and officials and businesses today, or through the embassy or through the important -- one opportunity I would to point to is the upcoming conference in Melbourne run by the Japan-Australia Business Council marking the 60th anniversary of that Council. But you're right about the opportunities, not all of which I referred to in my brief remarks. We already had the world's largest, longest energy grid, we're building much more, because renewable energy needs a grid to support it, there’s no transition without transmission.

And that requires public sector investment. $20 billion dollars is no small amount. But more importantly, it requires private sector investment. And you refer to storage and batteries, this is a really big opportunity for our countries. We know how to make renewable energy in Australia, we don’t store enough of it. This is the key to getting reliable transmission right. People say the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. But the rain doesn't always fall either but we drink water every day because we store water, we build dams, we can build storage.

One in three houses in Australia has solar panels on the roofs but one in 60 has a battery. So that's not enough. We need to increase storage, whether it's household batteries, community batteries or grid scale batteries. So these are opportunities that we want to be talking about today, because government investment will get us so far. Australian domestic investment will get us so far, but foreign investment will be key to making these opportunities a reality. Thank you for highlighting those opportunities, and more information. If you need information, you'll find through the embassy or directly, plenty of sources of (inaudible).

QUESTION: I believe Japan’s Minister Nishimura has expressed concerns about the various gas projects which regarding to the new law that came the safeguard mechanism that came in this month. How are you thinking to address this issue? And do you plan to exempt the gas projects?

BOWEN: Thank you for your questions. Of course any big reform has a lot of interest. That is a big reform. It reduces emissions in Australia by the equivalent of taking two thirds of the cars off Australia’s roads by 2070. It’s a policy we sought a mandate from the Australian people and we received, so very important points. But it's one that we've collaborated and consulted on as I mentioned very strongly. In relation to exemptions, the law has passed, it is the law of the land. In relation to Barossa, which is a very high carbon field. So it needs to be dealt with. And everybody has acknowledged that. Yes, there's a lot of carbon emissions, in fact, more carbon emissions from that one field than the entire pacific islands, unless they’re dealt with. People understand that, in my experience. That project is reliant on CCUS to meet its objectives through Bayu-Undan in East Timor. We have introduced the legislation to enable that to occur because we think it's fair if we're requiring apart from the generality of CCUS, if we're requiring companies to meet ambitious emissions reductions targets and they have a way to do it, we can help them achieve it. So that legislation is making its way through the parliament. So that's how we're best interacting. In my experience, the companies and governments have responded well, to that dialogue, explaining that.

QUESTION: Firstly, I'd like to commend what you've done in Australia, you've moved to renewable very, very quickly. And in particular, the offshore wind area you've really taken that and moved very, very quickly. So I'd like to commend that.

BOWEN: You can stop there if you like?

(Laughter)

QUESTION: In your discussions with Nishimuru, I'd like you to reinforce the message that you can move quickly, Japan has been very, very slow in their movements to renewables. And there's a lot of barriers of moving quickly. So I think Australia can show Japan and the world, how quickly if you have an interest to move to renewables, you can do it. So it's a request and the question is, how have you been able to move so quickly? And how can you help Japan go on a similar path? Because we're all committed to the 2050 zero target?

BOWEN: Thank you for the question. I might do with the last bit first; to be very clear and frank I'm not here to tell Japan what to do. Australia doesn't tell Japan what to do and Japan likewise respects our sovereign policies. I am here to discuss how we can help each other. That is they key, and there is a huge opportunity, I think, and your company is very important in our transition, I’ve met with your global chief executive in Berlin, I think it was, to discuss and they see Australia as a key market for them because of this transition that's rapidly underway in Australia. You mentioned offshore wind, yes, we are racing ahead at a rapid speed because we need to, we're catching up. We’re several years behind, we should have started five years ago, maybe 10. The second-best time to start is today. And so I’ve already designated two offshore wind zones, and consulting now on our third, and we'll soon be in consultation on our fourth. This will be very, very important. We're making very fast progress. And it's an important part of our transition to 82% renewables. I will say this; this is a hard task. It's a little fashionable in Australia to say it’s too hard, that we won’t lift from 35% renewable energy today to 82% by 2030. I completely acknowledge it's a big job with many road bumps on the way. Of course it is. If it was easy, someone else would have done it. Thanks for getting on with it. But it is not only ambitious, but very, very achievable for Australia, as I said with our abundant renewables, I'm not here to tell any other country, how they get to their targets. I'm here to say, how can we help you get to your targets? Because we're here to help.

QUESTION: So just on the back of kind of the previous question, I can help you spread the message of what Australia is doing. And we have fantastic relationships here with corporations. We have a very diverse sector of membership, that are all very, very interested in what Australia and Japan are doing together regarding climate change and renewable energy export.

And my other part is a bit of a request to as we are on the ground talking with corporates, and the message coming back is that perhaps Australia is being a little bit too complacent and not recognizing that we have Vietnam, South America and Middle East really as our competitors. And how do we show to Japan that we're not in park? That we're ready to go?

BOWEN: Thank you and thank you to your government, the Malinauskas Government is really a leader when it comes to renewable energy, that’s recognized by Australia and here, and for those of you who haven't met South Australian Government, I'm sure you'd be very happy to interact on the opportunities. South Australia is leading on green hydrogen in particular, which I very much endorse and welcome.

But to your question, of course there is going to be competition to be a global, renewable energy superpower but Australia is right up there. We're not complacent at all. I know we have to compete. That's why we're moving so fast, because if I thought it would happen naturally, we just be in cruise. We're not, we're proceeding at a rapid pace. We need to build domestic industries which then can grow to export industries. At the moment, we don't have a green hydrogen industry. No one does. No one does. Not one country in the world currently has a substantial commercial green hydrogen industry, we're all on the same journey. And yes, it's a bit of a race.

I will say the world's renewable energy needs are big enough to have more than one renewable energy superpower. There's so much demand that Australia doesn't need to have a monopoly on every market, that we will very much be competing and offering a very competitive product on that journey. I'm here talking about these opportunities in Japan. But let me give you another example. Germany recognizes that they can only produce around 50 per cent of their green hydrogen needs, they're going to need to import 50 per cent. I’ll tell you who's their number one choice; Australia. That's why they’re investing. I was in Berlin and I announced joint German Australian funding, government funding of Australian green hydrogen projects by the German government. That's how keen they are. These are the opportunities that are abundant that Australia will work with any government and country on, including and especially Japan. But that's the size of it. That's an example of the sorts of opportunities we have. Yes, it's not easy. You don't become a superpower in anything by accident. You become a renewable energy global superpower by working very hard.

QUESTION: (inaudible) you've any clear target in Australia in the form of battery or storage?

BOWEN: We don't have an exclusive number storage target. But what we do have is policies to support storage, including most particularly, our capacity investment scheme. And to qualify for support in the capacity investment scheme you need to meet two criteria; be renewable and be dispatchable. 

So just renewable is not enough. Just dispatchable is not enough. You need to be both, and to be dispatchable, there’s a number of ways you can be dispatchable, batteries is an obvious one, you can be dispatchable. I launched the first auction with New South Wales. I will soon launch the second auction with Victoria and South Australia. There'll be slightly different criteria in each state depending on the state's needs. But the New South Wales auction is well underway that supports renewable dispatchable energy, almost a gigawatt of dispatchable renewable energy for New South Wales, in partnership with the New South Wales government including their portion of the scheme. So we recognise, as I’ve said before, the need to build storage is really an important part of the key. We've been building renewables for a long time. Storage hasn't kept up. So we need to get on with that. That's the policy.