1 August 2024
Adelaide, South Australia
I’ve been very excited about being here and maybe I can start by probably responding to where Stephen finished. So let me say very positively, I am proud, to be an Australian, I believe we live in the greatest Liberal democracy on the planet, and I believe Australians can do anything we set our minds to, if we are prepared to go after it, we can do it. I think the comments from Stephen and the comments from Dan earlier are spot on. There are too many in our nation, including I believe the current government, who have become apologists. They apologise for who we are as a nation, they apologise for our strengths as a nation, at a time when we really should be internationally brimming with pride, we should have absolute self-confidence, in who we are and where we can take this nation.
I want to thank the IPA, first up, if you think of what the IPA’s purpose of existence is, which is to preserve, to strengthen the foundation of freedom in Australia. And I don’t think there’s any more noble cause than that. If you think of that which does define us as a country, if you think of that which has the capacity to unite us despite those who want to divide us. It is that we have a common set of values and the value that is supreme reigns supreme is that of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise, freedom of association, freedom to pursue whatever it is you want to pursue in life. Freedom, together with other values such as, equality the fair go, define who we are as a people, and it defines our way of life.
When Peter Dutton asked me to take on the role of the Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, my first series of discussions with people, the number one thing that kept coming up was 2050, net zero by 2050. And can I tell you that then and still today if we think of the challenge of decarbonising this country, we think about 2050. Personally, my mind does not go to emissions reduction, my mind does not go to the energy system, my mind goes to what sort of country we want to be in 2050, mid-century. I have small kids at home, when they’re adults, what sort of nation will they live in, will their peers live in? Will they enjoy the freedoms that we have been so blessed to enjoy ourselves? What will be their way of life? Now the opportunities that face future generations, whether it be 2050 or beyond, does that have anything to do with the energy system? Climate change what’s that got to do with it? As far as I’m concerned, everything because how we take on this challenge will determine our future as a nation. So serious is it if we continue to venture down the path that Australia is now venturing down under the leadership of Anthony Albanese, come mid-century we will be a poor nation. Will be a weak nation and we will be dependent on foreign powers, whose interests and values in many cases are not our own. That is the path we are currently going down. How we manage energy is what that path delivers under the current trajectory and that is because we are putting all our eggs in one basket. We are basically turning off our existing system and saying that, wind and solar in particular can do the lot. Sometimes on, intermittent technologies.
Now I think the average Australian, regardless of how much they talk or think energy. The average Australian knows something is not going right here because the government did promise Australians a $275 reduction in household power bills, $275 off your house bill, it’s coming off, that electricity retail bill that comes in. In parts of Australia, Australians are now paying up to $1000 more two years later. $1000 more. Over the last two years, every single week, we have had over 600 families, every week, 600 families signing up for hardship arrangements with their electricity retailer. Every week more and more and more. Never before have Australians been signed up to hardship arrangements like they are today. Prior to the going up, households feel it, so too do businesses, which is why we have seen insolvencies triple over the last two years, it is why we are seeing major manufacturers close their doors. Shedding workers, closing down our manufacturing capability that once gone from our shores will not return and I know this because I’m sitting there and I’m visiting these businesses. I’m talking to major manufacturers who are basically looking me in the eye and saying, well, we’re just waiting for the decision to be made, ultimately the board will make the call, but we can’t keep it up because energy prices, we can’t keep this up here. And if you ask Labor, let alone the wacky Greens, why are we even doing this? They would say, well, we need to have these punitive measures in place to ensure that we get emissions down. But of course when you talk to these major manufacturers, where will your business or your operation go to? The number one answer you get is China, the second is India and that’s not a criticism of them, by the way.
Emissions are three to four times higher in the manufacturing sector in India and China. Three to four. So, hang on why are we doing this again? You’re multiplying the very problem you’re trying to solve. You’re collapsing industry, shedding jobs, regional parts of Australia are under demise. Let alone then, when it comes to reliability and I think the average Australian knows this too, because they listen to the radio, they listen to the news. Some of them have experienced blackouts but we had the market operator, the ACCC talking about the fact we’re just running out of energy. Again, big businesses are shedding energy. You know. A cute word to basically say down your tools, folks.
I mean, I found it really strange because I’m from a business background walking into major manufacturing companies and they’ve got like a mini, AEMO office with all the computers following the grid, working out when to shut down their operations, when to close shifts. I mean think about that, we are asking our companies to be less productive because we can’t manage our energy system and that’s part of the grand plan, apparently. As it stands today, we are forcing 90% of our base load power our 24/7 always on base load power, 90% will be forced out of the grid in 10 years, 90%. Meanwhile, we’re suffocating the supply of gas. Investment is going everywhere now but Australia. Why are we doing this, because we can put all our eggs in one bask So, they say. But even on the rollout of renewables, well, that’s stalled too. In order for Labor to achieve its 82% renewables target by 20-30, they need to install nearly seven gigawatts of new renewable generation every single year, seven gigawatts. The financial close last year 1.3, 1.3. They’re not going to get there. So they’re closing down one system before having another system ready to go.
And don’t get me started about what’s happening in regional communities, which have been completely steamrolled over because apparently government knows best on this and they just want to make sure they’ve got at least 22,000 solar panels installed every single month, 40 wind turbines. Sorry, every single day I should say, 40 wind turbines every month. Up to 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines if you believe Labor’s green hydrogen superpower vision. Which of course will be a super flop, I think we know that.
So, with all of this, then why is Australia going down this pathway? Because according to Albanese and Bowen, it’s going to reduce emissions but since they’ve come to government, emissions haven’t even gone down, they’ve flatlined. They were 29% down on 2005 levels when they inherited government, today, they’re 29%. Why are they doing this? I mean, Stephen Wilson rightly talks about that trilemma. So, prices fail, reliability fail, emissions fail. Often there’s a tension between these three things. I mean, got to give Labor credit, for one thing, they’ve aligned the whole lot of them, it just so happens to be they’ve failed at all three. And so, we have a serious issue with energy security in this country. And like many of you, I’m sure in this room, I’ve had international experience much of my business life ahead of entering politics was living and working overseas and I used to be on the.. across the table as a deal guy. M&A’s JV’s all these sorts of things right, international deals. The amount of times you talk about sovereign risk. Never in the context of Australia, though. I used to be proud that you know, I’d be doing a deal, it’s between different countries, Australia often wouldn’t even come into it and I’d be thinking, when we talk about sovereign risk, Australia is never referred to in that context, we’re not a risk and that’s why so many of our trading partners rely on us. They pay a premium for what we have because we’re reliable, we’re safe. Well, no more.
And we know that’s the case when of all people, the Japanese, who are so respectful, so polite, to have the Japanese Ambassador come out and explain that Australia and sovereign risk are used in the same sentence in boardrooms now in Tokyo. Why? Because of what we’re doing with our interventions, especially on gas. When I was there in Japan, I was explaining to a group of energy experts. That, yes, we’re going be shutting down 90% of our base load power, in 10 years. I spoke no Japanese, they spoke no English, they refused to believe the translator was getting it accurate. The translator wrote on a piece of paper, 19% it showed it up to me. I said no, no, no, no, no, no, 90%. Which of course, the Japanese could not understand and I couldn’t explain because I can’t understand it. But you can see from their perspective, if we’re so foolish as to weaken our own energy security, why on earth would we look after theirs? I mean, the Japanese rely on Australia for about 25% of their energy, a mix of coal and LNG, 25% and they are the ones saying we have an issue with Australian supply.
So, we have an obligation as a nation to guarantee our own energy security and also that of our friends and allies. As a nation with abundant resources and capability, we have an obligation to do so and that means as we look to the future and we take on the challenges ahead. Number one, we should not close our base load power stations prematurely. Number two, we need to pour more gas into the system and a lot of it. Number three, we need to be far smarter with higher quality renewables because you don’t need the maximum amount, you need to work out what the optimum level is required for your total system cost. And then over the medium term, when coal does retire from the system, it needs to be replaced with zero emissions nuclear energy.
And so much as you may have heard the Coalition speak about establishing a civil nuclear programme in Australia, often the debate is about the seven locations, what sort of power stations are we talking about. But again, if we are being true to next generations and we are thinking about what sort of country we want to be in 2050 and beyond, we need to think more holistically and long term about the potential for nuclear technology in this country, we already are a nuclear nation. We know that nuclear technology saves lives because of the medical isotopes coming out of ANSTO. We know that nuclear technology can protect lives because of our investment in nuclear propelled submarines and we know that nuclear technology can underpin livelihoods because we have the largest reserves of uranium in the world.
This state here alone has around 23% of the uranium in the world. So, when we think about our future as a nation, and we think about building on our nuclear capabilities with civil plants, power plants. We also must focus on unlocking our reserves of uranium. We must look at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle, there’s far more we can do with value added processing. So, the final fuel that goes into power plants, we can have the sovereign capability to deliver.
Now, now this is not some short term goal, no, this is a long term national endeavour, but one that absolutely as a nation, we are capable of doing and we must do it because, as is often said by the IPA, by Stephen, following a meeting he and I actually attended together, in North America. Energy security is national security they are one of the same. And as a nation, and therefore as a government, we have an obligation to ensure we are doing the right thing to secure our nation and to secure, therefore, our energy. There is no reason why Australia cannot develop the sovereign capability at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle for civil plants and that is precisely what we should be looking at doing again over the long term.
And it’s not just for us, it’s also for the rest of the world. I’m just checking my timing here so I don’t go too much over. It is also for the rest of the world. We know that the 32 economies today that are using nuclear energy are looking at expanding their use. There are another 50 nations in the world, 50, considering introducing nuclear energy into their electricity systems for the very first time, another 50. If you look at our own region, we already know the big players we know, you know, Japan, China, South Korea, India, all have nuclear energy, but I mean right now, well the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, all of these countries are actively looking at introducing nuclear energy into a balanced energy mix in their countries, this is in our region.
So, what do we do as a nation when we have such resources, such capability? We’ve got a problem to solve ourselves on energy security. As our own region adopts nuclear energy, what is Australia just going to be some weak passive bystander?
One of the most embarrassing moments for me in this position was turning up to the COP Climate Summit in Dubai last year and hearing Chris Bowen apologise effectively to the world because we have so much gas. He committed that we bring an end to fossil fuels in our energy systems. Apologising that Australia is one of the biggest users of fossil fuels. I mean when, when did Australia become apologetic about who we are? We sign up to deals, sure, we deliver, we’ve delivered them before, that’s not the issue here. The issue is a matter of self-confidence, it’s a matter of self-belief. Come 2050, Australia need not be a poor, weak, independent nation. If Australia is prepared to fix its energy system, openly embrace an ‘all of the above’ approach. Establish a balanced energy mix by putting the consumer at the centre, taking a total system cost approach. Then we can build industry, we can build sovereign capability and come 2050 and beyond we can be rich and not poor, strong and not weak and fiercely independent, rather than captured by other powers. We are at a fork in the road now at having this debate as a nation and those who believe in our capacity as a country to drive forward and advance our nation and not retreat. I believe they’ll be on our side, which is based on economics engineering, with a little dash of moral courage and self-confidence. Thanks very much.