Interview with Lara Stimpson, Mornings ABC Darwin

LARA STIMPSON (HOST): Have you installed a solar battery system at your place? The Federal Government says the uptake of them here in the NT is double that in Melbourne, about 20 a week, or about 700 in fact in the past seven and a half months. And a report from the Clean Energy Council this month found Australian households installed as many batteries in the final six months of last year as they did in the previous four years. So, they're certainly popular and in increasing fashion as well. Are you using one and is it saving you cash? 

In town for a couple of days is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, also Assistant Minister for Emergency Management, Josh Wilson. He's here to spruik them and throw support behind a community battery proposal by the Labor candidate for the by-election in Nightcliff. He joins you in the studio. A very good morning to you.

WILSON: Good morning, Lara. Good to be with you.

STIMPSON: Now, of course, we're going to talk about these home batteries and these community batteries, but I want to start with a conversation that we've been having on the radio over the past couple of days that is in alignment with what you're focused on in your portfolio. We've been discussing the cost of home insurance. It has, it's soaring across Australia, but especially here in the Territory. 

I was at a family friend's place last night that opened their insurance, two grand more than last year. New data has found that we pay twice as much here in Darwin and Palmerston than other capital cities, and it's jumped up as a result of that. How concerning is that to you, in terms of the way that a changing climate is impacting, perhaps generating more of those natural disasters, and jacking up the price of home insurance?

WILSON: Well, it's a significant concern because of the pressure it puts on households, both in terms of costs and sometimes in terms of access to insurance. You know, in the worst circumstances, people end up choosing to be uninsured or underinsured, and that obviously puts households and communities at risk. We see that very clearly. The starting point is recognising the reality of climate change, and unfortunately, for a decade under the previous government, that reality wasn't acknowledged, and nothing was done to address it. 

So, the underlying cause of those cost pressures is the reality of climate change, and you have to be serious about tackling that. And we are, both in reducing emissions and being part of global cooperative action, but also in increasing risk reduction and resilience In Australia.

We've got a billion dollars in the Disaster Ready Fund. The Northern Territory has benefited under that the first couple of rounds, I think, 13 projects and $20 million of funding, in the third round of the DRF, all of the five applications put forward by the NT have been supported. So, we're focused on reducing risk and improving resilience. That's not something that you can snap your fingers and deliver overnight. It's going to take a long-range, sustained and stable effort. We are committed to that. 

But we're also working on the insurance side, particularly through the Hazards Insurance Partnership, which is a new initiative under the government. We want to work with insurers so we can understand the risks that are causing those price rises, address them, but do so in a way that guarantees the flow on benefits in terms of downward pressure on premiums and greater expansion of insurance availability.

STIMPSON: So, I imagine it would be a great concern to the government if we end up in a society where people are just priced out of insurance, which is, you know, it's a major part of how we support families and communities that do go through periods of disaster.

WILSON: Yeah, it's a core feature of our shared wellbeing, the ability for people to get affordable insurance to guard against those worst circumstances. We're very focused on that. We've begun that work. It is pressure that's built up over a long period of time. If you spend a decade, as we did under the coalition, essentially denying the reality of climate change – the more intense and more frequent hazard events that we're seeing in parts of Australia – then you are essentially denying the reality of the challenge, and you're keeping yourself and all of our communities around Australia separate from the necessary response and solution. 

We made it clear that we won't allow that to occur, and we've begun that work in a concerted fashion in all of the areas. The risk reduction and resilience, obviously, is important. The specific work we're doing with all the major insurers, some of the downward pressure that has been achieved through the cyclone reinsurance pool, which is being reviewed at the moment by Treasury. All of those things are designed to help deal with the problem that you identify. We absolutely recognize that issue.

STIMPSON: You've been in government for a few years now. What levers have you pulled to actually put that downward pressure? Because at the same time, we're continuing to see exploration and oil and gas. There's part of that is the interim transition into a more into the renewable future that you'd have to see. But have you pulled enough levers to put that downward pressure on things like emissions and then, in turn, the flow on effects of that, which does include insurance?

WILSON: In terms of climate action, the most recent reported period shows a 2 per cent decline in Australia's emissions. It's actually the largest annual decline that we have ever achieved outside of the COVID lockdown period. So I think the Australian community should take heart from the fact that the concerted effort the government has made since 2022 – we increased our emissions reduction target for 2030 by more than 65%, the new 2035 target that Australia has adopted is an ambitious but practical one that sits in the top handful of targets that have been settled worldwide. 

More importantly, because targets are fantastic, what's more important is achieving those targets. We've seen record investment in renewables. We saw the national grid achieve 50 per cent plus renewables last year. Renewables out-generated coal for the month of September and then again in the month of October. All that progress is going to help us tackle climate change in a meaningful way, show leadership and responsibility as part of an effort that has to be a global cooperative effort, but also has broader benefits. 

Those investments in our energy system will bring down energy prices, just as our efforts in other areas to drop the maximum price of medicines on the PBS to $25, that makes a difference to the household budget. We recognise the cost pressures, insurance is one of them, but we are trying to alleviate that pressure for Australian households in all of the ways that we can.

STIMPSON: On that reduction 1.9% yesterday, revealed in greenhouse emissions in comparison to the previous 12 months. There are two elephants in the room when it comes to that figure in the Northern Territory. One of them is that the NT government had opened an investigation into oil and gas giant Inpex last year after they admitted to under reporting potentially toxic emissions from their flagship plant in Darwin Harbour. Also last year, it was revealed the Darwin liquefied natural gas plant set to be transferred to Santos had a design vault, resulting in a major methane leak set to continue for decades to come. 

So, with those two things in mind that are live and playing out in the Territory right now, how much trust can we actually have in that 1.9% reduction when there's some speculation, some evidence here, that there's more emissions being released into our atmosphere than it's actually being reported?

WILSON: Well, there are a couple of things you mentioned there, and the second one, the methane one, obviously has an emissions impact. I mean, Australians can 100 per cent have confidence in that emissions data, because it takes account of all of the things that contribute to our [interrupted]

STIMPSON: Does it take into account even the potential under-reported emissions that we have here? Because otherwise there might be an issue of trusting that?

WILSON: Australia wide, it does, and inevitably, if you think about what makes up an emissions profile, there are literally millions and millions and millions of things that contribute to that. But our ability, through our inventory process to have confidence about the emission trajectory and outcomes is strong. 

That doesn't take away from the legitimate concern about the incidents that you've mentioned, and of course, that's why we have robust regulatory frameworks that bring these things to light, and then strong compliance and enforcement responses to those things. Some of them have an emissions element. Others have a workplace safety element. I know that there have been incidents in relation to Inpex, I believe that NT WorkSafe is looking into as it should in the interests of the safety of workers. 

Similarly, there are incidents that, rather than being emissions based, are environmental and I'm glad to be part of a government that has only last year, delivered the long-awaited major reform of our National environmental protection framework. One of the things that we will get out of that is much stronger enforcement of compliance measures.

STIMPSON: Nearly a quarter to nine, the time has flown. This morning on ABC Radio Darwin, Josh Wilson is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, also the Assistant Minister for Emergency Management. On the text line Di in Karama says, ‘I've had 16 solar panels for nine years now. I've always have at least one aircon on and all fans on 24/7 though, I have no battery, as I can't see how it would be of benefit, and I've never had an electricity bill’. So why would a battery be of benefit to die in Di in Karama?

WILSON: Well, good on Di for leading the household energy transition herself, and for reaping those benefits. I mean, that's a great example of what happens when, when people take on distributed energy resources, either solar or batteries, it first and foremost means that their prices come down. It actually does also have a systemic benefit for all of us. 

What Di has chosen to do obviously brought her bill virtually to zero, but it has made a contribution to the health and stability and cost profile of the system as a whole. So that's a good thing. Everyone's circumstances will be different. And so, it's a case of people thinking about their energy use and their household makeup in terms of how many people and what kind of energy use profile they have. Across the board, the evidence is that if you have neither solar nor batteries, and you put them both on, you can probably reduce your bill by something in the order of $2,000, $2,200, $2,300 per annum. If you've already got solar and you add a battery, it can deliver an additional $1,000 in cost savings depending on how much energy use you use and when you use it. 

But people can consider their circumstances as they make that decision with expert advice from installers. What we've done, obviously, is follow up Australia's world-leading position when it comes to rooftop solar. We have more rooftop solar than anywhere else on a per capita basis in the world by delivering a 30% [cost] reduction in batteries, and that is making them cheaper by themselves, but the volume of the program is bringing the cost of batteries down even further, and we are seeing now a battery storage revolution, which is great for households and great for small and medium enterprises, but, as AEMO recognised last year, it’s actually making a systemic difference in terms of downward cost pressures, because we've added nearly six gigawatt hours of storage to the to the national system through more than 250,000 home batteries.

STIMPSON: Now I've got to let you go. You're going to be heading along to the Savanna Fire Forum today delivering a keynote speech. Got any from cash in hand, anything shiny that you can deliver at this keynote?

WILSON: Well, I don't want to get ahead of the speech, Lara, but, look it's an absolute privilege to be up here and to be part of the Savanna Fire Forum for the second year in a row. It's a really important gathering around a fantastic Australian pioneering success. We are seeing First Nations knowledge and science applied to manage savanna landscapes with cool season burning that prevents large-scale hot season fires and the benefits from that activity are many. 

Fundamentally it reduces emissions and also helps sequester carbon in the landscape but of course creates environmental and biodiversity benefits and generates income and economic participation opportunities for First Nations Australians. I mean, ICIN, the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network, estimate that that ACCU method, that Australian Carbon Credit Union method, generates $59 million worth of value a year, which is fantastic, and its proper value for a wonderful Australian innovative success.

STIMPSON: Well, good luck today. Thanks for joining us.

WILSON: Thank you.