Address to the Smart Energy Queensland Conference, Brisbane

Firstly, can I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet the Jagera and Turrbal people and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

Traditional owners have cared for the lands and waterways of our country for tens of thousands of years and deserve our ongoing respect.

I’d like to acknowledge Opposition Leader Steven Miles who is here today as well as other elected representatives in the audience.

Can I also acknowledge John Grimes and David McElrea from the Smart Energy Council for helping to put together this event here in beautiful Brisbane.

It is certainly wonderful to be back speaking to a hometown audience - a lot has happened over the past few months.

Our government went to the May election promising cost of living relief for Australians and now we’re delivering.

The election campaign gave Australians a choice about the kind of energy future we want and I recognise the Smart Energy Council’s role in informing Australians about that choice.

In the end, Australians resoundingly rejected expensive, slow and risky nuclear power, in favour of a cleaner, cheaper, renewable energy future.

While some haven’t taken the hint and want to continue debating whether climate change is real, our government is getting on with the energy transition. As are thousands of businesses around Australia, including all of you.

Today I’d like to update you on the Albanese Government’s plans to rollout out more renewable energy generation and storage, including through our efforts to reform our national environmental laws.

All of which is designed to seize the environmental benefits of renewable energy and provide policy certainty to businesses looking to invest in the sector both here in Queensland and around Australia.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

All Australians are getting behind climate action - from the more than 50,000 homes and businesses who've signed up for a Cheaper Home Battery, to the household and solar small businesses and installers who are leading the way and supercharging our solar and battery revolution.

The Albanese Government’s commitment to a clean energy future is matching community sentiment.

We are on track to achieve our 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, new investment in renewables remains strong - just look at the Capacity Investment Scheme which is always oversubscribed - and the rollout of our home battery schemes exceeds expectations.

But we’re not stopping there.

Later this month my colleague Chris Bowen will announce a new, ambitious and achievable 2035 emissions reduction target - building on our significant work of the first term.

And we’re considering where next on the recycling of solar panels, something the Smart Energy Council has championed.

Of course, achieving our emissions targets relies heavily on the delivery of new renewable generation and storage projects.

It’s something I play a part in, through the assessment and approval of those projects.

Recently I announced the approval of our 99th renewable energy project since the Albanese Government came to office in May 2022.

One of the projects I approved recently was the Robbins Island wind farm off the coast of Northwest Tasmania.

The project is expected to generate enough energy to power 422,000 homes, supporting Australia’s renewable energy transition.

It has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.4 million tonnes per annum, equivalent to taking more than 1 million cars off the road each year.

This was a complex project, with serious environmental considerations, and took seven years to gain Federal, State and local government approvals.

The approval of this project is an example of what we need to do as a Federal Government to ensure we reach our ambitious climate and renewable energy targets, while avoiding and mitigating environmental impacts.

Despite the fact the project would deliver 900MW of clean energy – enough to power 422,000 homes - it was vehemently opposed by groups such as the Bob Brown Foundation.

Too often, the debate over renewables is dominated by naysayers, who say the choice we have is binary.

You can either have the project and the jobs and clean energy that come with it, or you can protect nature.

While others say you can have renewables or community support, but not both.

But I believe there is a middle ground, one that has been the hallmark of all my decisions to date.

For Robbins Island, we were able to apply workable conditions that allowed the project to maintain its feasibility while also ensuring the environment, including some threatened species, were protected.

Because acting on climate change is an opportunity to protect our environment for future generations.

Just as it is an economic opportunity for a country that has bountiful sunshine and wind.

There are tens of thousands of jobs waiting to be snapped up as part of the transition.

And most of them are in regional areas, including right here in Queensland.

Which is why it’s so baffling when politicians who claim to represent the regions are the loudest in seeking to block these opportunities.

Like senior members of the Federal Coalition, including Queensland Senator Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce, who have introduced bills in the national parliament to try to abandon our country’s path to net zero emissions by 2050.

Backed by resolutions of Liberal Party conventions around the country.

Not only are they saying they don’t care about the impacts of climate change on rural agriculture and through natural disasters.

They’re also saying no to good, well paid regional jobs and to cheaper energy for regional households and businesses.

Here in Queensland, we have seen the Crisafulli Government cancel renewable energy projects, listening to the local opponents and ignoring the local supporters.

Like Tracey Richards, a fifth-generation cattle farmer in Central Queensland, who was set to build a wind farm on her family property which would have given her a steady income, to balance the volatility and rising costs of the cattle trade.

Until the project was cancelled by the Queensland Government, despite there being no other homes near it, and the project having the strong support of most of her neighbours.

Little wonder Tracey said her family feels like “collateral damage of politics over project merit”.

Of course, short-sighted decisions like this only make it harder for the Queensland Government to reduce power bills or achieve their own emission reduction targets.

It also endangers the jobs of Queenslanders working in heavy industry that relies on cleaner energy to power its future.

And all the while, sending a message to investors that Queensland doesn’t want their business.

While we clearly have more to do to reach our energy and environmental goals, it is also clear that the Labor Party is the only party ready to face the challenges head on to achieve them.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REFORM

The challenge that is at the top of my pile right now as Minister for the Environment is Environmental Law reform.

The blueprint for these reforms is the review and recommendations that were provided by Professor Graeme Samuel to the then Environment Minister and now Opposition Leader Sussan Ley nearly five years ago.

And what Graeme found in his report was that our current national environmental laws are fundamentally broken.

They're not working for the environment, which experiences ongoing decline and they're not working for business through cumbersome processes to get projects assessed and approved.

And so, what we want to do is put in place environmental laws that are contemporary, that are better for the environment and better for business.

Just as we can achieve those outcomes for projects like Robbins Island, we can achieve them in our national environmental laws.

To do that we are building these reforms on three pillars.

Firstly, stronger environmental protections.

Secondly, quicker and more efficient approvals processes.

And thirdly, more transparency when it comes to environmental decisions.

This broader approach allows us to deal with a broader range of Professor Samuel’s recommendations.

Of course, we will need support from either or both of the Coalition or the Greens, to pass these laws, which I will introduce to Parliament before the end of this year.

I am having constructive conversations with both sides and I have reminded them that all participants in this debate will need to give ground.

Because if we are to reach our ambitious climate and renewable goals, we need to ensure our environmental laws are working and unnecessary duplication is removed.

For the renewable energy sector that means faster yes’s and faster no’s, while still ensuring that community and environmental concerns about potential projects are being managed carefully.

In order to do that we are looking at specific measures to build more homes and speed up the rollout of renewables projects.

REGIONAL PLANNING

One such measure is the increased use of regional planning.

In his report, Professor Samuel observed that a failing of our current environment laws is that they allow for project-by-project assessments and approvals, without considering the cumulative impacts of those projects on the environment.

Individually, developments may have minimal impact on the national environment, but their combined impact can result in significant long-term damage.

Equally, the need for individual projects to be assessed in a particular region, with all the environmental information that entails, adds to the cost and delay in obtaining approvals.

As Professor Samuel noted, planning for and managing development impacts at a landscape or regional scale delivers a better outcome for the environment and for business.

Regional planning improves environmental outcomes by better managing threats to nature, identifying areas of high environmental sensitivity that should not be developed and guiding restoration activities in areas that have been degraded.

Regional planning also benefits business by providing better information on local environmental values, to enable informed planning and decision-making, identifying areas where development will simply not be allowed, and areas where individual project assessment and approval would not be required.

This approach – identifying “go” and “no go” zones in various regions upfront – would shift the focus from project-by-project development, to effective planning for our environment and for sustainable development.

While it would assist development across a range of industries, it would be of particular value to the renewable energy sector, as you all attempt to build at large scale with speed and efficiency.

A regional plan can de-risk your projects up front, providing better environmental outcomes and more certainty for investors.

Today I am pleased to announce that as part of the reforms to the EPBC Act, the Albanese Government will include legislative changes to allow for greater use of regional planning, in partnership with states and territories.

We know that the current regional planning framework does not give us the tools we need to deliver proper regulatory regional plans.

That does not provide the certainty community and industry has been crying out for over the past 15 years.

The Australian Government has been trialling regional planning through pilot programs in partnership with the Queensland, South Australian, New South Wales and Victorian governments.

Now is the time to take this to the next level, to not only provide certainty for communities and industry, but to also better protect the environment and ensure we reach our renewable energy targets.

CONCLUSION

We know we have so much more to do as a government and a country to meet our climate goals.

Part of that is having an open an honest conversation with the Australian public about how we go about achieving this, and taking them on the journey with us.

Another key part is having stakeholders like the Smart Energy Council and others to really support this work.

So I want to thank you all for the role you are playing to support the transition.

I notice it, other Ministers at the Cabinet table notice it and the Prime Minister notices it.

Because fundamentally it is our responsibility to get this right, so that our children and their children can continue to enjoy the natural wonders of the world we live in and embrace the way of life we have been so fortunate to have during our time on this planet.

So thank you very much for having me and I look forward to working together in the coming years.