Dissenting Report from the Australian Greens
1.1
The Australian Greens agree with the near consensus position from public
submissions made to this inquiry and oppose the Australian Renewable Energy
Agency (Repeal) Bill 2014.
1.2
The abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), like
many of the government's budget measures was a broken election promise with
very little public and parliamentary support. Of the 131 public submissions
received,
only two were supportive of the government's position: the Australian Chamber
of Commerce and Industry and Gas Energy Australia. It was these two submissions
alone that the government members have relied on to argue in support of the
Bill.
1.3
The decision of the committee to not hold public hearings was evidently guided
by the fact that the overwhelming support of industry, market participants and
the research community would have further demonstrated the extent to how
ill-conceived this broken election promise actually was. Public hearings would
have also displayed how ideologically isolated the government is. Even the
government's associates in the Business Council of Australia as well as their
fellow conservatives
in the New South Wales Government support the retention of ARENA.
1.4
ARENA was established as part of the Clean Energy Future package and was
created at the insistence of the Greens in the Multi Party Climate Change
Committee. We recognised the ongoing failure of flagship programs that were
being managed within the Department and the need to have a specialised,
independent body
to progress projects from the research stage up to the commercialisation stage.
The Greens are very proud of this institution that will serve Australia
strongly into
the future.
1.5
ARENA is responsible for ensuring that Australia remains at the global
forefront of clean technology development and deployment. Its abolition
provides
no public policy benefit and would leave Australia incapable of taking
advantage of future economic opportunities.
1.6
In a period of deep transition in global energy markets and Australia's
vulnerable over-reliance on fossil fuel resource exports, ARENA acts both as
our country's insurance and as a driver of abundant export potential as our
trading partners increasingly adopt affordable energy technologies that do not
generate greenhouse gas emissions.
1.7
ARENA is part of the chain of innovation, along with the CSIRO and the
Clean Energy Finance Corporation that will produce and demonstrate those very
low cost energy technologies that Australia can export to the world. Exporting
affordable emissions-free technology will hasten the already declining
prospects of thermal coal and LNG exports—that is the precise reason why the
government is seeking to abolish or diminish these institutions.
1.8
In its very short time, ARENA has achieved far more success than was
ever possible when the nine previous programs were run within departments where
competing demands for time and resources meant that projects progressed very
slowly—if at all. Returning ARENA's projects within the Department of Industry
will reincarnate the exact problems that ARENA was designed to avoid.
1.9
ARENA has professionally and in a timely, cost-effective manner achieved
a suite of Australian and world first projects leveraging private sector
investment.
Rio Tinto in partnership with ARENA has contracted for Australia's first mine
powered by solar in Weipa. If fossil fuel subsidies under the Fuel Tax Credit
were removed for mining companies we would see Rio Tinto's decision replicated
right across the country without ARENA's assistance.
1.10
Similarly, BlueScope steel are integrating the world's first solar PV
and thermal rooftop system. Carnegie have embarked on the world's first
commercial-scale wave energy project that desalinates water as it creates
electrons. They are now collaborating with European developers and
manufacturers to progress the technology for deployment in overseas markets.[1]
1.11
Not only is ARENA helping to push these types of technologies to
commercial stage, but they are also making leaps and bounds in research and
development.
1.12
In collaboration with the CSIRO, Australia has set the world record
for the highest temperature steam ever produced using solar thermal heat.
This supercritical steam pilot project could soon lead to the replacement of
coal generators with solar thermal radiators to drive steam turbines. It was
described by
the CSIRO's Energy Director Dr Alex Wonhas as a game-changer for the industry
and said 'it's like breaking the sound barrier.'[2]
1.13
There are more than 190 projects like those above that would generate
$5.3 billion of private sector investment for a total $7.7 billion
that would be lost
to Australia if this Bill proceeded through the Parliament. There are a further
177 projects already contracted, but many are still at risk if this Bill
proceeds because of the requirement for milestones to be achieved to qualify
for payment. Without the support that ARENA can provide for proponents, many
more projects would fall over if a despondent department that has a directive
to find budget savings is responsible for overseeing the advancement of
projects.
1.14
The ability for ARENA to deliver these transformative changes has
already been dealt a severe blow because of the decisions of the Palmer United
Party,
Senator Muir, Senator Day, Senator Leyonhjelm, Senator Madigan and government
senators to reduce ARENA's funding over the next three years from just over
$1 billion down to $341 million. This reduction of $717 million means that over
the next three years, ARENA will be incapable of working through their pipeline
of projects until 2017. Our global competitors will have shot past us while
Australia will be flailing in an innovation backlog. The government and listed
crossbench senators have done our economy a great disservice and the original
funding schedule should be immediately restored.
1.15
Australia is a country adorned with a great wealth of natural renewable
resources—a sunburnt, windswept continent, surrounded by oceans and stores of
geothermal heat. We are a clever country that has up until now invested heavily
in our ground-breaking researchers and academics. We have a huge capacity to be
applying our threatened manufacturing skills on high-end, smart manufacturing
products that our global competitors are less equipped to do. All these assets
and opportunities will be lost if the government's legislative program of
destruction continues.
1.16
ARENA is essential to ensuring that all these physical and human
resources are harnessed in the pursuit of limiting global warming to less than
two degrees while ensuring Australia's economic prosperity continues well into
the 21st century.
Recommendation 1
1.17
That the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal) Bill 2014 be
opposed.
Recommendation 2
1.18
That the original funding schedule that existed prior to the passage of
the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014 be reinstated.
Senator Christine
Milne
Senator for Tasmania
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