Press Conference, Brisbane

RENEE COFFEY, MEMBER FOR GRIFFITH: Good morning and welcome to Coorparoo. We're standing in front of one the many community batteries that is one of many hundreds of community batteries that the Federal Government has installed. This one in Coorparoo has a kilowatt hours of 180 kilowatt hours, which takes pressure off household energy bills. It also takes pressure off our grid and it helps with our transition to renewables which we know is so important. This example here of the community battery here in Coorparoo is an example of what real action on climate change looks like. So while we have an opposition that's tearing themselves apart about whether climate change is real, about whether we should have a net zero target and how we should work towards that, wanting to undo our work, we actually have a Government that's getting on with the business of transitioning our economy, transitioning our energy to renewables and I'm so proud to have this battery here in my community in Coorparoo. I will now hand over to the Minister, Murray Watt.

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well thanks very much Renee, terrific to join you in your electorate and I know that you're a very big supporter of action on climate change and building more renewables. The renewable power sources that the Albanese Government is backing range from small examples like this in suburban Brisbane right through to big wind farms across the country as well. And I'm very pleased today to be able to announce that we've hit the century when it comes to approval of renewable energy projects in Australia. We know we're coming up to cricket season before long, so it's appropriate that the Albanese Government is bringing up the ton, approving 100 renewable energy projects right across Australia. These projects take all sorts of forms across all kind of states. And to give you a few details, we've approved 43 solar farms, 22 onshore wind farms, 13 energy storage systems, 13 infrastructure and exploration projects such as offshore wind, nine transmission projects as well, and right here in Queensland we've approved 28 projects just in this state alone.

Now it is vital that we continue to see these renewable energy projects roll out right across the country. You will have seen just this week we've announced more ambitious and achievable emissions reduction targets which are important, of course, for bringing down emissions and contributing towards global action on climate change. But it's also important that we take these steps to continue putting that downward pressure on power prices, which we know only renewable power can provide. And that's why it is so important that we brought up the ton of 100 renewable energy projects being approved. That's faster than one every fortnight being approved right across the country. Now the 100th project which Adam from Edify Energy can talk to you about a little bit further is a solar farm in Mildura in Victoria, just outside Mildura, that will provide 360 megawatts of power and also provide a long-term battery storage option as well. So we're seeing increasingly not just solar farms and wind farms get built around the country, but also large batteries. A bit bigger than the one we're standing in front of here today, but the batteries of course allow for excess power to be stored for when the wind isn't blowing or when the sun isn't shining, so we're getting that benefit as well. Just to put it in perspective, these 100 projects that we've approved across the country provide enough power to power every single home in Australia. Over 11 million homes in Australia can be powered through this renewable energy that we've approved across the country. And in terms of the emissions being reduced from this clean power, it amounts to taking nearly 17 million cars off the road in terms of reduced emissions. So a great outcome for more power and cheaper power, a great outcome for reducing emissions and I'll hand over to Adam Smith from Edify Energy to talk to you a little bit more about the 100th project that we've now approved.

ADAM SMITH, EDIFY ENERGY: Thank you, Minister. As the Minister said, Edify are proud that this is the 100th renewable energy project approved under the EPBC Act. Additionally, it was also Edify's 14th approval and now 8th under the current government. So I think this speaks volumes to Edify's process of assessment and due diligence in selecting our sites and also the Minister's team's process in pushing forward with the renewable energy transition. Additionally, this project only took us 52 days to get approved from start to finish, which again, I thank the Government for in their process for helping this energy transition. Thank you.

MURRAY WATT: Thanks, Adam. Any questions on this project before we take other things?

JOURNALIST: In order to reach the Government's ambitious 2035 emissions target, there will need to be a quadrupling of Australia's wind capacity and there's already so much pushback from regional communities now when it comes to wind. How will you achieve the targets without alienating rural and regional Australia?

MURRAY WATT: We've done a lot of work since coming to office to improve the consultation processes that get undertaken with regional communities. Adam might like to add a little bit more about what's happened on this particular case, but my understanding is that despite a large public consultation process for the project we're talking about today near Mildura, only two objections were raised and they were managed through that consultation process. But we recognise that we need to continue building public acceptance of renewable power and as I say, one of the strongest arguments for these projects being built is that this is the gateway to the cheaper power prices that Australians want to see provided, as well as of course reducing our emissions and the environmental benefits that come from that. So that's why we're so keen as a Government to continue supporting these renewable projects going forward. And as Renee said, it stands in great contrast to what we see from the Coalition, who are still debating whether climate change is even real. I don't know whether you saw it, but this morning, Barnaby Joyce was on Sky making the statement that net zero won't change the weather. I mean, how out of touch is this bloke? Achieving net zero is the key to reducing temperature rise, reducing the natural disasters that impact on Barnaby Joyce's constituents amongst more than anywhere else in the country. So while they want to continue squabbling about where the climate change is real, we're getting on with the job of transitioning the economy towards cheaper, cleaner energy.

JOURNALIST: Chris Bowen said there's no 2035 renewables target. Why are you not committing to the 2035 target as strongly as the 2030 target when you legislated and set a renewables target?

MURRAY WATT: So as you're aware, we've got a very strong and ambitious 82 per cent renewable energy target to be reached by 2030 and we're on track to achieve that as a result of the approval of these kinds of projects. We've already outlined a range of measures that we will take as a Government including some new measures that we announced this week towards achieving the new ambitious and achievable targets. We'll of course consider future policy in the future but what we've done for the moment is outline exactly the measures that we think are required to achieve these targets.

JOURNALIST: Optus copped a huge fine the last time they had an outage yet it's happened again. In your view what penalty will be enough to ensure this doesn't reoccur or happen again?

MURRAY WATT: I can completely understand how distressing the families of these Australians who lost their lives when this outage occurred, how serious that distress and I think all Australians' hearts go out to the families who are suffering with that loss. Frankly, I think Optus has let Australians down in this situation. There will now be an investigation into what occurred here, what needs to be done and of course any fines will be determined as a result of that investigation. It's a little premature for me to be speculating on what those fines might be.

JOURNALIST: Should the Optus CEO be sacked for this outage?

MURRAY WATT: That's a matter for Optus. What we're doing as a Federal Government is responding and trying to get answers out of Optus about how this occurred, how their systems failed and what needs to be changed for the future.

JOURNALIST: Does the Government have plans to review any of its contracts with Optus following the failures?

MURRAY WATT: I'm not aware of that myself. That's probably a question best put to the Communications Minister.

JOURNALIST: Anika Wells said she was staggered by the way Optus handled the situation. Can Optus be trusted to handle contracts such as with Services Australia?

MURRAY WATT: I think that this incident has undermined all Australians' confidence in Optus, whether we're talking about governments or the average person on the street. And as I say, I think Optus has really let Australians down in this incident. They've got a lot of explaining to do. We still haven't seen answers to basic questions like how these failures arose, why they didn't notify emergency services more quickly, and these are all the matters that this investigation will try to clarify.

JOURNALIST: Senior Republicans and allies of Donald Trump [inaudible] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's impending recognition of the Palestinian statehood, warning it could prompt punitive measures against Australia. Is this how allies are meant to treat one of their closest partners?

MURRAY WATT: Look, it's a matter for those Republican politicians what they choose to do. What we're focused on is Australia's national interest. We believe it is in Australia's national interest that we recognise Palestine along with like-minded countries like the UK, Canada, others as well. We think the time has come for Palestine to be recognised and I'll leave it for Republican politicians to express their view.

JOURNALIST: If Anthony Albanese can't secure a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump this week, what does that say about the state of the relationship?

MURRAY WATT: I think that all the evidence demonstrates that the state of the relationship with the US is very good at the moment. I know there's a lot being made about meetings and whether they'll occur or whether they won't occur. You're aware that the Prime Minister has already secured four phone conversations with the President of the US and as a result we've got the lowest tariff rate of any country across the world and that's been achieved without a face-to-face meeting. So I'm sure the Prime Minister will meet with President Trump in due course, but in the meantime we're actually achieving really strong results for Australia. Okay, thanks everyone, thanks for coming out today.