THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP

MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA

FRIDAY, 12 AUGUST 2022

SUBJECTS: ENERGY MINISTERS MEETING; GAS SUPPLIES; RENEWABLE ENERGY; COAL MINE IN CENTRAL QUEENSLAND; GREAT BARRIER REEF; CHINA AND CLIMATE CHANGE.

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Look, back to the energy meetings now and joining us live is the Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek. Minister, good morning to you. So, you’ve got that meeting on today, but from an environmental standpoint, what do you hope comes out of it?

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, of course, Chris Bowen as the Energy Minister has been working very closely with Energy Ministers from the other States and Territories. We know that we’ve got some serious energy shortages here in Australia today, gas in particular, and this comes on the back of a decade of inaction by the previous Government – 22 separate energy policies. They didn’t land a single one of them. In contrast, our Government, the Albanese Government, has been working closely with State and Territory Ministers. We’ve already made a number of changes that would make sure that we address these energy shortages, and that’s what Chris will be doing with State Energy Ministers today. He will be working out how we upgrade the national grid, in particular, get more renewables into the system because we know that’s the way our energy system is going, and how we deal with this immediate crisis that’s really putting pressure on family budgets and, of course, really undermining the ability of Australian businesses to get back on their feet after COVID‑19.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, the meeting coincides with Santos yesterday announcing that it will build a new pipeline that delivers gas from Narrabri to Sydney and southern states too. There will be environmental hurdles that that needs to clear, surely. Is it likely to get the okay here?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I never comment on prospective environmental approvals. In fact, as the decision‑maker I can’t have an opinion. I’ll assess each project, including this project, on its merits if it comes before me. I think it’s very important that we understand that any new project like this has to stack up economically. It has to stack up environmentally. And we’ve got some processes that we need to go through before we determine whether it does. Longer term, the bigger picture, the trend is that we’re going to be putting more renewables into our energy mix, and that’s not just a trend in Australia. That’s the trend globally. That means that we need to upgrade our transmission lines, for example. It’s no good having a fantastic wind farm or a solar farm that doesn’t connect into our energy grid. So, it is about bringing on the new sources of energy but it’s also about how we get them into people’s homes and businesses at the least possible – 

STEFANOVIC: Okay. One proposal that you’ve binned is Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland coal project on the grounds that it’s likely to do damage to the Barrier Reef. Why are you so certain about that?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, again, I’m not going to give you a lot of opinion about this project. It’s still in the process of a final decision. So, what I’ve said is that I propose not to allow it to go ahead and people now have a right over 10 days to give me their views on that. But I can tell you this open-cut mine is 9.7 kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef Marine National Park. The coastline around there is an important fish breeding ground. There’s seagrass meadows there that endangered dugongs rely on. The watercourses in the area are also at risk based on the scientific evidence before me if this coalmine goes ahead. So, my proposal at the moment is that it won’t go ahead. Clive Palmer’s got an ability to object to that over the course of this week, and I’ll make a final decision shortly.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Supporters of the project have pointed to a report that was published by the Australian Institute of Marine Science this week that declared record hard coral coverage from Cape York to Mackay. That’s slightly north of Rockhampton, but is that or can that be factored into any future decision or is that on your mind?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Not as it relates to this project at all. I mean, the problem with this project is it’s so close to the reef that if anything went wrong, the scientific reports that I’ve read show that the potential for pollution and damage to the reef is very real. That report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science about coral cover coming back, that is fantastic. We’ve had a good year for coral cover. We’ve had a good year for coral cover because we’ve had cooler weather, more rain. What we know about Australia is that our weather is cyclical and, you know, soon enough we’ll have another period where we see pressure on the reef. We’ve seen significant bleaching events in recent years, sort of five or six significant bleaching events in recent years and we know that one of the biggest pressures on the Great Barrier Reef is climate change, but another huge pressure on the reef is the quality of water coming off the land into the marine environment and that’s about sediment,it’s about pollutants,it’s about high levels of fertiliser runoff from farms. We need to make sure that the water going into the reef is high quality as well.

STEFANOVIC: Okay.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And crown‑of‑thorns starfish, we’re on top of it at the moment, but we’ve got to watch those outbreaks every time.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Well, back to Clive Palmer, not many people are building or are proposing to build new coal‑fired power stations. Are you opposed to this particular project or are you opposed to the construction of new coal in general?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, Labor has been really clear. The Greens are saying there should never be another coalmine, there should never be another gas project in Australia. We did not go to the last election saying, “No new coal and gas.” That’s the Greens. Equally if a project doesn’t stack up environmentally I’m not going to wave it through. This is a project that on the basis of all of the evidence that’s before me at the moment is too close to the reef and presents a risk to the Great Barrier Reef. So, I’m not going to wave it through.

We are a party of balance. You know, on the one hand, you’ve got the Greens saying, “No new coal and gas.” On the other hand, you’ve got the Liberals and the Nationals saying, “Let it rip; it doesn’t matter where it is or what damage it will do. Just let it rip.” The contrast is with a Government that is sensibly methodologically looking at project by project to make sure that it’s not going to damage our beautiful and precious natural environment and that it can go ahead based on the evidence that we’ve got before us.

I think one of the really important things to say here, though, is that the economics of our energy market has changed. You see Chris Bowen’s announcement recently that we want to make it easier to bring more wind farms into our energy mix. We know that most businesses want to invest in bringing new renewables into our energy market and that’s not just about building the wind farm, building the solar farm. It is about building our electricity network, our electricity transmission grid, so that it can cope with those new sources of energy.

STEFANOVIC: Just a final one here, Minister, on China. China has announced that its climate talks with the US are now off because of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. So, it’s in effect weaponising emissions. Is that a proof point that whatever cuts we make here will just be swallowed up by China?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I think it’s really important that large emitters like China do their share globally, but it’s also important that Australia does what’s expected of us. Per capita, we are a large emitter of carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases and, you know, this whole conversation is based on the fact that we’re somehow hurting ourselves by making this transition. In fact, this is an enormous opportunity for Australia. We can be a clean energy superpower. We know that nations in our region, you know, Singapore wants to get solar power delivered from Australia. We know that green hydrogen is going to be a huge export earner for Australia because the world wants green steel, green aluminium, green cement, green chemicals that are made with sources of renewable energy. This is an opportunity for Australia and we mustn’t waste that opportunity.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Tanya Plibersek, the Environment and Water Minister, appreciate your time.

END