Interview with Gavin King, 4CA Cairns

GAVIN KING, HOST: There is so much happening in the clean energy space so it's a pleasure to have my next guest in studio, a very special guest joining us all the way from, well, NSW, Canberra perhaps. It is Senator Jenny McAllister. Now, Senator McAllister is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and she joins us for a fairly brief chat. She's a very busy schedule, so we're glad we can grab a few minutes with her.

Senator, welcome to the show. Look, first of all, tell listeners, why are you visiting the beautiful far north? Picked the perfect weather for it by the way, why are you visiting us here in the far north this week?

SENATOR JENNY McALLISTER, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY: It is absolutely amazing weather today. You are perfectly correct. But there's a lot going on in the clean energy space and a lot going on in far north Queensland. And I'm really here to touch base with some of the businesses that are making investments in the energy performance in their own spaces. Some of the students who are making investments in their own future careers through their TAFE studies, and travelling up to the Torres Strait to talk to some of the people living in the Torres Strait who are really immediately affected by climate change.

KING: That is very, very true indeed. Now, look, I mean, I'm a bit of a political nerd, Senator, and yet even I hadn't heard of the Household Energy Upgrades Fund. So, can you tell me more and our listeners more about the Household Energy Upgrades Fund? What is it? But I guess more importantly, what's in it for the everyday Joe and Jill out on the street? Why do they need to know about this fund?

MCALLISTER: Well, there are millions of homes across the country that were built before energy performance standards were in place, and these homes often have quite poor energy performance. There's energy literally leaking out the doors and windows. And sometimes investments upfront can mean quite substantial savings in energy demand and therefore bills over the long term. And so, the Household Energy Upgrade Fund is designed to help households out with that problem; to provide access to lower cost upfront finance so they can make the investments, make some small changes to their home, and then reap the savings in their bills over the longer term.

KING: Nice. Okay, so what kind of stuff can I get a loan for to help with energy efficiency?

MCALLISTER: Yeah, well, we've just opened up the first of these loans through one of the businesses we're working with, a company called Plenti. And they'll be making available lower cost loans for batteries, for more efficient household appliances, like a more efficient air conditioner. And if you combine it with some of their solar packages, you can get support for that as well.

KING: And is there – what's their cap? How much can I borrow for solar panels on my roof, for example?

MCALLISTER: Well, I'm not sure how much you'd need to spend to get solar panels on your roof. And this is not financial advice, but the upper limit for the loan is $50,000.

KING: Oh, right. Okay. Wow. That's quite significant. Good. I don't need that much for solar panels, but that is good to know.

MCALLISTER: The minimum amount is just over 2000.

KING: Yeah. Okay.

MCALLISTER: And it's in recognition of the fact that different households are going to make different choices depending on what they assess they need.

KING: Yeah. Nice. Okay. All right, well, that is. And how do people find out info? Do they google Household Energy Upgrade Fund? What's the best way to find out?

MCALLISTER: They could do that. I think googling the CEFC Household Energy Upgrade Fund will get you to the place you need to be.

KING: All right, yeah. I think you said Plenti is one of the first lenders that the Commonwealth is working with. So okay, that is very cool indeed. Look, very quickly tell us about &8211; you visited the Cairns campus of TAFE this week. So, slightly different topic, but I guess kind of related because it's all about the future of clean energy. Tell us about your visit. Why did you visit Cairns TAFE this week?

MCALLISTER: Look, the clean energy changes that are coming through the system mean that we're going to have a lot of opportunities for people to participate in trades. And I got to go to the Cairns campus and meet some of the young men and women that are taking up the opportunity to become electricians. Some of them are straight out of school and they've been working hard at their apprenticeship and nearly finished. Others are just starting at a somewhat older age, looking at the opportunities in the sector and taking the decision to make a career change and get a trade. We're really keen to support people who want to take these decisions, whether they're school leavers or a bit older. And the federal budget contains a number of really important measures in the clean energy space to support trades education.

KING: To support that, because we were saying off air, was it 30,000 sparkies? We need to help with this transition?

MCALLISTER: That's right.

KING: Wow, that's a lot.

MCALLISTER: Really significant number of jobs anticipated in construction. Electricians are the most notable, we think we need 30,000 by 2030. But plenty of other jobs in the construction space, air conditioning mechanics, sheet metal workers. Lots of opportunities.

KING: Do we have enough people around to fill these jobs? I mean, maybe that's a whole other discussion. Immigration, all of that stuff. Let's leave that. But it is significant opportunities for people absolutely.

MCALLISTER: Yes, and the budget contains a couple of really important measures. The first is the Fee-free TAFE arrangements. We've had really significant success in getting people in to take up these opportunities recently and we've expanded that in the budget, an additional 300,000 places nationally over the next three years. The second one are these New Energy Apprenticeship arrangements that provide a financial incentive for people who take on an apprenticeship in a clean energy area.

KING: In a clean energy space. All right, very good. I mean you’re Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy? What about for the naysayers? Right, the climate deniers who say, we are spending all of this money, all of these millions of dollars, for something that they believe won't happen. Why is it necessary to invest such significant amounts upfront? And we talked off air about, actually, there are long-term cost of living savings for you with this clean energy transition. Can you just talk to the, talk to the climate deniers out there about why this investment, who whinge about this type of upfront investment by governments around the world of course, upfront investment by taxpayers will lead long term to cost of living relief.

MCALLISTER: Two things. The first is that our existing coal-fired power stations are old, they're increasingly unreliable, and many of them are coming to the point where they're so old they're going to exit the system. That has to be replaced one way or the other. And the most cost-effective way to replace that energy capacity and ensuring we've got an affordable and reliable grid is to invest in renewables, firmed by batteries and pumped hydro and gas. But that is the advice that we have about the most cost-effective way to secure an affordable and reliable energy system for the country. There's the jobs factor. The world is decarbonising and there will be plenty of opportunities for Australia to export products like critical minerals, green hydrogen, potentially green metals, and the Commonwealth Government is making substantial investments to bring those forward. But at a household level, whatever you think about climate change, making sensible investments in your home to make it more efficient and to reduce the amount of power you need to pull down out of the grid can yield some real benefits. And we want to make sure that every household has the chance to improve their energy performance and actually reap some of the rewards that come about when you make that investment.

KING: And here in the far north, where aircons pump about six months of the year, any reduction in power usage has to be a good thing. All right, we covered a bit of ground in a fairly short time, so we appreciate your time.

Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy in the Federal Albanese Government. Jenny McAllister, thank you for your time on the show this morning.

MCALLISTER: Thanks for having me on. It's a total pleasure.