RENEWABLE ENERGY
534. Mr D.R. MICHAEL to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's $750 million investment in
supporting communities to become climate resilient and set WA up for a strong
low-carbon future.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how this investment
will help create local jobs, develop new industries and ensure the state
has a secure and reliable energy supply into the future?
(2) Can the minister advise the
house whether he is aware of anyone who opposes these efforts?
Mr W.J.
JOHNSTON replied:
(1)–(2) I
am very pleased to answer that question from the member for Balcatta. I know of
his interest in creating jobs in Western Australia. As the Minister for Climate
Action has outlined, the government has this fund that will support climate action in Western Australia. She outlined a number
of projects that are being funded out of that fund. I also want to let
members know about projects in my portfolio that are being supported out of
that fund. One of those is a commitment to deploy 1 000 standalone power
systems over the next five years. All those
will be manufactured here in Western Australia, including by Boundary Power, a joint
venture with Horizon Power. We have clean energy technology trials for the
virtual power plants in schools; the net zero emissions mining challenge being
led by the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia, looking at green
steel projects; and the household energy efficiency scheme, a really innovative
scheme to help people in hardship increase the energy efficiency to their
homes, thereby reducing their household bills.
A similar project existed under the
Gallop and Carpenter governments but was cancelled by the former Liberal
government. We are continuing to implement the energy transformation strategy.
Over the first four years of the McGowan government, large-scale renewable
energy in Western Australia doubled. Compared
with the national electricity market, we have about one-third more large-scale
renewable energy projects in Western Australia
than the east coast. I also remind members that we use one-third less coal in
our system here in Western Australia.
Household solar is now the major source of energy, with 1 800 megawatts of
capacity in the south west interconnected system. Just as an example, in one interval
in March this year, 79 per cent of all the electricity used in the south
west system came from household rooftop solar.
Horizon Power has many projects
across the state that are assisting the decarbonisation effort, including the
Denham hydrogen project and, of course, the world's first microgrid
project in Onslow, which is run on 100 per cent
renewables. I note that there are some challenges. The Leader of the Liberal
Party continues to oppose our work and continues to spruik his failed
agenda of this new energy plan that was released during the election campaign,
which was opposed by the shadow Minister for Environment and the shadow Treasurer but is still supported by
the Leader of the Liberal Party.
I was interested to read the Liberal
Party's 2021 election review. This is the Liberal Party's
comments on that policy. To quote from the report, it referred to the
explanation of the project at their costings launch and states —
The
problem was that shortfalls were exposed on the costing of each and could not
be explained �
The report goes on —
It wasn't a good look for the
Liberal Party and gave every indication of ineffective presentation and the
lack of a coherent set of policies.
Anybody who reads that policy can see
it lacks coherence. Page 20 of the report states —
Perhaps
the media saw no policies worth reporting, no Shadow Ministers who had done
their jobs or who looked competent.
Indeed, the Liberal Party's
report outlines polling commissioned by the Liberal Party.
Point of Order
Dr D.J.
HONEY: Under standing order 78, an answer must be relevant to the
question.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER: A lot of other people would like to contribute here,
obviously. I am not accepting that point of order, but I will point out to the
minister that he is due to bring his answer to a close.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Absolutely.
I would have finished by now if I had not been interrupted. Thank you very
much, Madam Speaker.
I point out that in the polling
commissioned by the Liberal Party, the third-largest reason for it losing was
the lack of performance of the Liberal Party over the previous four years.