Australian Greens' Additional Comments

1.1To quote from the Australian Greens 2022 election policy Powering Past Coal and Gas:

We owe coal workers a debt of thanks for powering our country. We don't need to choose between taking urgent climate action and supporting coal communities. We can do both.

No coal worker should suffer the anxiety and financial insecurity that comes from losing their job suddenly. With a planned transition, we can assure workers that they will continue in gainful employment until retirement, and that their children will have jobs in the region that they love, long after coal mines and coal plants have closed.

Coal workers know they are being lied to by Liberal and Labor politicians who say coal will stay in the system for decades. They know they are going to get screwed over by coal corporations; they just want a clear pathway that will ensure their financial security and keep their communities in place.[1]

1.2The sudden closure of Hazelwood power station in 2017 provided a lesson in what happens when there is a refusal to acknowledge there is an energy transition occurring. Federally, both the Coalition and Labor were unwilling to face up to this reality.

1.3In December 2021, the Australian Energy Market Operator said that half of the existing coal fleet will close by 2030, and coal plants are bringing forward their closure dates at a rapid rate,[2] yet still, both major parties refused to have a plan for workers and communities.

1.4At the time of the 2022 election, the Australian Greens were the only party with a policy for a legislated authority to support coal and gas communities, with funding allocated at the discretion of the Authority to support investment in the plans and aspirations of the local regions. It was also complemented with a job-for-job guarantee for coal workers.

1.5There were no election policies for coal communities from the Coalition and similarly nothing from the Labor party in their Powering Australia policy.[3]

1.6At the start of the 47th Parliament, the new Government introduced the Climate Change Act 2022. As part of those negotiations the Government and the Greens agreed to advance a transition authority to look after the interests of coal and gas communities as the world decarbonises.[4] As I said at the time:

If the government and Greens make serious progress on this issue over the next three years, Coalition climate scare campaigns will fall on deaf ears because coal and gas communities will know their future is being planned for and that their children will have a secure future.[5]

1.7Legislating an independent Net Zero Economy Authority is not only good for coal and gas communities, but it is also good for our entire body politic. Having a dedicated agency to listen to, and implement, the aspiration of local communities, insulates against future antagonistic fear campaigns that try to exploit the uncertainty lived everyday by communities who work in or financially depend on fossil fuel extraction.

1.8But the climate wars will not end until Labor and Liberal stop opening new coal and gas fields and stop the destruction of native forests. As helpful as renewable technologies are, rolling them out is not what stops the heating of our planet: stopping coal, oil and gas and protecting our natural carbon sinks are what stops the climate crisis further unravelling.

1.9If the Government genuinely wants to achieve net zero and stay below dangerous warming tipping points, then the first thing it must do is stop opening new coal and gas projects, which is just pouring more fuel on a very large fire. Currently before the Parliament is legislation that allows the Resources Minister to create regulations so that any act done by a gas company is deemed to be compliant with environmental approvals, even if that act is non-compliant. It is a bill to say that up is down and black is white in order to deliver gas companies a financial benefit.

1.10That Bill will enable gas companies to bypass environment laws and fast track approvals of massive gas projects while we are in the middle of a climate crisis. The Parliament cannot greenwash its way out of the climate emergency with legislation like the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Climate Change Act 2022 while approvals have so far been given for five new or expanded coal mines[6] and eight gas projects,[7] while also releasing 46,758 square kilometres of ocean for new oil and gas fields[8] in this term of Parliament.

1.11That the Labor Government stop opening up new coal and gas projects and that the gas approval fast track provisions in Part 2 of Schedule 2 of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2024 be removed from the Bill.

1.12To ensure stability and continuity of the NZEA, the lessons of the past are instructive. In the power-sharing parliament of 2010-13, the Greens, Labor and country independents created three new agencies, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Climate Change Authority.

1.13The two former entities had their funding protected in legislation in order to act as an "Abbott-Proof Fence". Despite Liberal and Labor working together in 2016 to amend Arena's Act to cut $500 million in funding,[9] these legislative protections ensured that the CEFC and ARENA continued to deliver their crucial programs despite multiple attempts by the Coalition Government to weaken or destroy them.

1.14With the Climate Change Authority (CCA), no funding protections were in legislation. Again, the Coalition Government could not secure parliamentary support to abolish them, however in the absence of legislative protections they were able to strip their operational funding down so that it was a hollowed out skeleton of an organisation. As a result the CCA provided no meaningful analysis or advice after the 2014 Targets and Progress review.

1.15In 2012-14 the CCA received $8.7 million in funding,[10] which was whittled down to just $1.5 million in funding during the years 2017 to 2019.[11] Since the change of Government in 2022, their funding has been restored, but still remains subject to the whims of future executive governments.

1.16The long-term work that the NZEA will do requires consistent, reliable funding and should not be subject to the whims of future hostile climate denying governments seeking to cultivate fear and hostility in coal and gas dependent communities.

1.17After the initial establishment costs, the NZEA is forecast to have departmental funding of $52 million a year from 2026-27.[12] Using the government's own expenditure estimates, this funding should be set into law to ensure no future government can impede the work of the Authority.

1.18The Bill be amended to state that operational funding of the Authority be set at $52.035m in 2026-27 and indexed in line with CPI in each following year. Annual funding must be 'at least' at this level, but can go higher at the Government's discretion.

1.19The Bill as drafted only supports coal and gas workers working in domestic generation plants or in the mines that service those power plants. According to calculations from the Office of Impact Analysis, around 3,000 workers will be affected by the closure of coal generators over the next twelve years.[13] Whereas coal mining jobs total 34,300 (down from a peak of 46,400 in 2013).[14]

1.20The bill as drafted makes no allowance through the Fair Work system to support 90% of the fossil fuel workforce affected by the shift to zero emissions. While jobs in thermal coal export, coking coal export and LNG export all face different time horizons compared to domestic fossil fuel generators, the upheaval of these workforces is not a distant threat that the Parliament can afford to worry about later.

1.21During the time that this Bill was before the committee, Japan—Australia's biggest customer of coal[15]—committed to end the use of unabated coal generation by 2035.[16] Japan received 127Mt of Australian thermal coal in 2023, which represents almost a third of our entire exports.[17]

1.22The Bill cannot remain powerless to support workers in fossil fuel exports. If Japan honours its international commitment, there is going to be tumultuous change occurring in the coal mining workforce over the next decade. The Net Zero Economy Authority will only be able to watch on helplessly unless the Bill is amended by the Parliament.

1.23Hunter Jobs Alliance raised at the hearing the prospect of this Authority excluding approximately 2,600 workers in the Hunter who work in export oriented coal mines due to close.

We support the strong protections provided to power station workers and workers in the mines and businesses that supply these power stations in the bill, but the exclusion of export oriented coal mines threatens to leave the majority of Hunter mine workers without the protections enjoyed by their comrades in mines that supply the closing power stations. Such a situation would be unfair and would lay the groundwork for community conflict and the social and economic disadvantage that frequently occurs in the wake of mining downturns.

The impact analysis… estimates that over 3,000 coal-fired power station workers will experience disruption to their employment due to the announcement of closure over the next 12 years. What I've just outlined there for the Hunter Valley alone with these coal mines not covered by the bill is that in five years there are 2,600 potential workers that are affected and not covered by the bill…[18]

1.24The Bill should be expanded so the Fair Work provisions cover the 90% of the Australian workforce in the fossil fuel sector currently abandoned by the Government. This could be achieved either through regulation making power that can be used at a later date, or through the primary legislation.

1.25While the Greens acknowledge there are complexities with expanding the industrial rights sections within Part 5 to coal and gas export workers, at a minimum the NZEA needs the power and adaptiveness to facilitate support for workers in the thermal coal, metallurgical coal and LNG industries as global demand for their products recedes.

1.26To ensure coal and gas workers aren't left behind due to political hostility or political cowardice of a future government, the Board should be able to instigate a Government review of the coverage and operation of Part 5 of the Bill when they form the view that global demand for that sector's exports are reducing to a level that threatens an affected region and its economic stability.

1.27While section 68 of the Bill already instructs the CEO to instigate a review of Part 5 of the Act within 12 months of the Act receiving royal assent, this time frame is both too short to properly evaluate the Act's operation and also isn't based on contingent events that are targeted at protecting the prosperity and cohesiveness of fossil fuel exporting regions.

1.28If the Government fails to adopt recommendation 3, the Bill should be amended to empower the Board to independently cause a government review of coverage of "communities of interest" and Fair Work Coverage in Part 5 of the Bill to also include thermal coal mining, metallurgical coal mining or LNG —where they form the view that global demand for that sector's exports are reducing to a level that threatens an affected region and its economic stability.

1.29Given the Government's 43% climate target is aligned to more than 2 degrees of warming,[19] and its unwavering enthusiasm to approve new coal and gas projects, most of Australia's economic dislocation will occur through the physical impacts of the climate breakdown, more so than the impacts of the transition.

1.30Alongside facilitating investment in communities affected by the transition, the NZEA should also have a clear statutory function of facilitating investment in jobs and infrastructure that keeps communities safe from the harm of natural disasters caused by coal and gas companies.

1.31Amend the bill to include 'adaptation' as an additional function in section 16(1)(b) and include the National Emergency Management Agency and their Disaster Ready Fund Grants as another agency the NZEA can work with to facilitate targeted public investment in 16(3).

Senator Penny Allman-Payne

Greens Spokesperson for Transition and Regional Development

Senator for Queensland

Footnotes

[1]Australian Greens, Powering Past Coal and Gas, 2022, p. 22.

[2]Australian Energy Market Operator, Draft 2022 Integrated System Plan, December 2021.

[3]Australian Labor Party, Powering Australia.

[4]Sarah Martin, 'Greens Push for authority to help coal and gas workers through energy transition', The Guardian, 29 August 2022.

[5]Australian Greens, Greens to move for energy transition authority in Parliament, 29 August 2022.

[6]See: Lake Vermont, Isaac River, Star coal mine, Ensham coal mine and Gregory Crinum.

[7]See: Spartan Gas Project, Wheatstone and Lago gas field, Beach Energy's Otway gas, Towrie Arcadia CSG project, Dorado, Scarborough, Crux and Barossa Pipeline.

[8]The Hon Madeleine King MP, Speech to NT Resources Week conference, 24 August 2022.

[9]Michael Slezak, 'Labor accused of being "clean energy charlatans'' after deal to cut $500m from Arena', The Guardian, 13 September 2014.

[10]Commonwealth of Australia, Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education Portfolio Budget Statements 2013–14: Budget Related Paper No. 1.12, p. 328.

[11]Commonwealth of Australia, Environment and Energy Portfolio Budget Statements 2017–18: Budget Related Paper No. 1.7, p. 195; and Commonwealth of Australia, Environment and Energy Portfolio Budget Statements 2018–19: Budget Related Paper No. 1.6, p. 196.

[12]Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Net Zero Economy Agency, answer to written question on notice from Senator Penny Allman-Payne, 3 May 2024 (received 7 May 2024).

[13]Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Net Zero Economy Agency, Impact Analysis OIA23-04803: Support for workers during the net zero transition, p. 12.

[14]Parliamentary Library, Employment trends in coal mining and the renewable energy sector, 20January2023.

[15]Department of Industry, Science, and Resources, Office of the Chief Economist, Resources and Energy Quarterly: March 2024, p. 58.

[16]Jillian Ambrose, 'G7 agree to end use of unabated coal power plants by 2035', The Guardian, 1May2024.

[17]Department of Industry, Science, and Resources, Office of the Chief Economist, Resources and Energy Quarterly: March 2024, p. 61.

[18]Mr Justin Page, Coordinator, Hunter Jobs Alliance, Committee Hansard, 23 April 2024, p. 59–60.

[19]Climate Change Authority, Reducing Australia's Greenhouse Gas Emissions—Targets and Progress Review Final Report, February 2014.