Australia politics live: ‘We’ve got sufficient gas’, Plibersek says as energy debate due to dominate parliament winter session

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The former ACCC cheif Rod Sims, who now chairs the renewables thinktank the Superpower Institute, has told ABC radio that nuclear power will increase household power bills:

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I think at best it would probably increase household energy costs by well over $200 per annum. That’s at best.

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And let me just unpick that if I could.

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So at the moment, if you want to use wind and solar, that’s about $60 to $80 per megawatt hour. If you want to firm that up, which we do because we want it completely reliable, that would cost about $110 a megawatt hour give or take a bit, and you’d be using solar wind up, using hydro pumped hydro gas batteries, so a whole mix of things. And it would be 100% reliable at a cost of give or take $110 a megawatt hour.

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If you use nuclear, and you look at the most recent new-build plants around Europe, the UK the US, you are talking at least between 2 and $300 per megawatt hour.

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I would just urge people to have a look at the new bills that are occurring in comparable western countries, and they are two to three times the cost of completely reliable, renewable energy-based electricity.

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Tony Burke has announced a review of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act – the legislation that forms the foundation of the Comcare scheme.

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Burke says the legislation has not been reviewed since 2012-13 and there have been no major reforms since 1988.

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An independent panel chaired by Justine Ross, with Prof Robin Creyke AO and Gregory Isolani as panel members will start work on the review, today.

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Burke:

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The nature of workplace injuries and illnesses have changed a lot over the last 35 years. This review will tell us what we can do to future proof the scheme and make sure we’re getting the best outcomes for injured workers.

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The panel will engage with a range of stakeholders to seek their insights and feedback, ensuring that the review reflects the experiences and needs of those directly impacted by the scheme.

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While the review is underway, applications to join the scheme will only be considered from companies that are members of a corporate group in which most employees are already covered by the scheme.

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Before considering further growth of the scheme, we need to ensure the underpinning legislation is fit for purpose and provides effective support for people who are injured at work.

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Earlier on ABC News Breakfast, Jim Chalmers made clear where the government was taking the nuclear lines this week (see if you can pick the line of the day):

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You know, this is a very dangerous approach from Peter Dutton and the Liberals to a very serious issue.

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His nuclear shambles is economic insanity for Australia, and every time they speak about this nuclear shambles it raises more questions than it answers.

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We already know that the economics of nuclear power for Australia is absolute madness. It takes longer, it costs more to build, it will push up energy prices for Australians, it will create extreme investor uncertainty and it will squander Australia’s unique combination of advantages when it comes to becoming a renewable energy superpower and nailing this net zero energy transformation in our economy.

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So from beginning to end, this is a complete and utter nuclear shambles, it is economic insanity to go down the path that Peter Dutton is proposing.

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He can’t even provide the most basic details. So he’s gone for the most divisive option, he’s divided his party, he can’t provide key details, and he wants Australians to believe that somehow by building nuclear reactors in the second half of the 2030s will have an impact on power prices in the middle of the 2020s, and that’s why it’s all falling in a heap around him.

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… And that’s why this has turned into a complete and utter nuclear shambles.

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David Pocock also spoke to the ABC about his private member’s bill that would see housing treated as a human right. He said it was needed because:

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There’s no overarching national plan and this would legislate that these are the objectives, we want to see housing affordable, we want to reduce homelessness and then it would be up to the government to actually work out – how are we going to do that?

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What are the policies that we think will address this?

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At the moment, you know, the government comes up with a plan, there’s no accountability after an election, things, you know – a new government comes in, they turf out the old work.

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We need a long-term commitment to turning this around. There are no silver bullets. We need every sort of policy lever but importantly for that to come from, yes, the government public servants, but also experts and people experiencing the housing crisis, whether it’s people coming into the budget to buy or renters dealing with a tight rental market and frankly awful renters’ right in this country.

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Q: There are major concerns of a gas shortage on the east coast reports are saying it’s in part due to a slump in the output from wind power. Is that your understanding?

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Tanya Plibersek:

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Oh, look, that’s really a question for Chris Bowen, the energy minister. But as we’ve said, we know we have a future gas strategy. It says that gas will be an important part of our energy mix.

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Through the time to come and of course we still need gas for industrial uses as well.

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We want to be able to manufacture steel and cement and industrial chemicals and so on here in Australia and that gas is a really important part of those industrial processes/

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Q: A consulting group says the yield from major windfarms across the national electricity market is the worst in the last five years. Is that your understanding?

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Plibersek:

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Well, like I say, I’m the environment minister, not the energy minister. So that’s a question for Chris Bowen.

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Q: Is Victoria at risk of running out of gas this winter?

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Plibersek:

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Again, that’s a Chris Bowen question, not an environment approvals question. But we are very confident that with the gas reservations we’ve put in place, that we’ve got sufficient gas.

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Welcome back to politics live where we will cover the last sitting fortnight before all the MPs abandon Canberra for the winter break.

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The winter session is usually a little chaotic for that very reason – lots to get through before the spring – but this one will be even more messy than usual as the major parties go toe-to-toe over the Coalition’s nuclear “plan”.

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We say “plan” because other than identifying seven privately owned sites, there’s not a lot of other information. We still don’t know the cost, where the technology will come from, how the Coalition proposes to overcome state objections, how it would acquire the sites given the lack of interest in selling, whether any geographical surveys have been completed ensuring the sites are suitable for nuclear or how any of it would happen before 2035. (And that’s just the start of the questions).

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To win the next election, the Coalition needs to win 18 seats. Eighteen. That’s assuming it doesn’t lose any. Which then raises the question of why it’s going all out on a policy that won’t win it back seats it lost on climate issues at the last election.

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The former prime minister Paul Keating thinks he knows the answer:

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Dutton, like Abbott, will do everything he can to de-legitimise renewables and stand in the way of their use as the remedy nature has given us to underwrite our life on Earth.

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Only the most wicked and cynical of individuals would foist such a blight on an earnest community like Australia.

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A community which fundamentally believes in truth and decency and which relies on its political system to advance those ideals.

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The issue is expected to dominate the sitting.

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Meanwhile, in the Senate, the upper chamber will be pushed to get through a raft of legislation as it returns after Senate estimates.

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The independent senator David Pocock will be introducing another bill into the mix to “require adequate housing to be treated as a human right for every Australian by mandating that the Federal Government make a long-term plan to transform Australia’s dysfunctional housing system”.

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It’s a one-two from the independents on the crossbench – Pocock will introduce it in the Senate while Kylea Tink (with Helen Haines as seconder) introduces it in the lower house. It’s another attempt to put housing front and centre on the agenda given that the cost-of-living crisis is sending more people into insecure housing with no immediate answers on how to address the problem.

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You’ll have Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Basford Canales, Josh Butler and Karen Middleton covering all the Canberra happenings for you, with the entire Guardian brains trust at your disposal.

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Amy Remeikis is with you on the blog for most of the day. It’s already second coffee time.

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Ready? Let’s get into it.

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Key events

Anthony Albanese has started his press conference to remind everyone the new financial year starts in a week’s time.

And with it, the government’s cost of living budget measures:

[It’s seven days] until every Australian counts a tax cut, not just some, seven days until our energy bill relief kicks in $300 off everyone’s energy bills. Seven days until 2.6 million low-paid workers get their third consecutive pay rise, backed by this government.

It is also seven days until we continue to provide cheaper medicines and seven days until an additional two weeks of Paid Parental Leave kicks in. In addition to that, today we have made important announcements about further cost-of-living relief to have cheaper groceries with our crackdown on supermarkets, making sure that there is a mandated responsibility, not just voluntary.

A cockatoo screams above him. Albanese says he’s pleased the news has been welcomed “by those above”.

Labor has welcomed its newest senator – Lisa Darmanin has been sworn in as a senator for Victoria.

Darmanin was chosen after Linda White passed away in March.

While in the senate, Mike Bowers also caught this moment:

You may remember Peter Dutton’s ‘15 questions about the voice’ campaign, which ran through the referendum campaign.

Labor has now started running ‘24 questions about the Coalition’s nuclear policy’ which senator Tim Ayres gave a run through at a doorstop a little earlier this morning.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about it, so here is the short version:

What is the plan to deliver the reactors in the time frame, what happens if the technology isn’t ready, what if communities don’t want it, where is the enriched uranium coming from, how will it be paid for, where is the waste going, how will the Coalition deal with state opposition (they have said money), what about local government rules, what happens to the existing renewable facilities on the proposed sites, where is the geological surveys, what happens to all the renewable power already on the grid, what proportion of the energy mix will be nuclear by 2050, and what will it cost both in terms of to the taxpayer given the Coalition wants the federal government to own and operate the sites, and individual households in energy costs.

The prime minister has called a press conference for 10.30am in the most fancy of press conference locations – the prime ministers’ courtyard.

Expect more nuclear talk.

Paul Karp

Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have appeared at a press conference spruiking Pocock and MP Kylea Tink’s call for housing to be recognised as a human right. Both were also asked about nuclear energy.

Lambie said:

I would love to see nuclear energy, but quite frankly I watched the Liberal National parties argue for nine years about low level waste and they couldn’t get their shit together then. So, let’s be honest, good luck to them.”

Pocock said:

Let’s debate energy policy on its merits. I’m failing to see the merit of what they are proposing. You hear from experts that this is going to make energy more expensive at a time when we’re in a cost of living crisis, and one of the key drivers of that is energy prices going through the roof.

You can see some of the cracks in the Coalition’s thinking when they say we need nuclear but we also need household solar. Because they know that is where cost of living can be helped – having solar on more households … looking at batteries on households … That’s the future for Australia.

We need to call out the nuclear play for what it is. We’ve heard Liberal Matt Kean talk about this: they brought the nuclear stuff … below it is the fossil fuel industry delaying the transition, and that would be disastrous for all of us. We’ll pay the price when it comes to energy bills, and increased insurance premiums, and we’ll saddle future generations with the climate in much worse shape.”

On shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien’s claims that the CSIRO report into nuclear costs didn’t take into account the longer life of nuclear reactors and its reputation as a more reliable power source, Rod Sims says if anything, the CSIRO report was maybe too optimistic when it came to the costs of nuclear:

There’s a couple of issues. The CSIRO report was incredibly optimistic on capital costs. Its capital costs that it used in its report, were probably about half the capital costs being incurred for generation in the UK, the US and Europe, about half of the new build cost that actually put nuclear in a very favourable light, frankly, more favourable than it should have been.

Now the criticisms of the CSIRO report were that it was not running the nuclear all the time.

That if you’re going to run the nuclear all the time, you know 90 95% of the time, you’re going to close off renewables –that is because new renewables will always get onto the grid because they come in at a zero price.

And unless you block them, they will be on [the grid] at various times during the day.

So the CSIRO was naturally saying, when you allow for that, you might have roughly 60% capacity from those nuclear plants. And you’ll only get 90% if you find a way of blocking the renewable energy, which seems like a really silly thing to do.

Rod Sims says nuclear power will cost households $200 more per year ‘at best’

The former ACCC cheif Rod Sims, who now chairs the renewables thinktank the Superpower Institute, has told ABC radio that nuclear power will increase household power bills:

I think at best it would probably increase household energy costs by well over $200 per annum. That’s at best.

And let me just unpick that if I could.

So at the moment, if you want to use wind and solar, that’s about $60 to $80 per megawatt hour. If you want to firm that up, which we do because we want it completely reliable, that would cost about $110 a megawatt hour give or take a bit, and you’d be using solar wind up, using hydro pumped hydro gas batteries, so a whole mix of things. And it would be 100% reliable at a cost of give or take $110 a megawatt hour.

If you use nuclear, and you look at the most recent new-build plants around Europe, the UK the US, you are talking at least between 2 and $300 per megawatt hour.

I would just urge people to have a look at the new bills that are occurring in comparable western countries, and they are two to three times the cost of completely reliable, renewable energy-based electricity.

Let’s go through a few of the things we do know.

One: under the Coalition’s plan to boost gas use until nuclear is ready, power bills will most likely increase:

Two: The ‘28,000 km of new transmission lines’ the Coalition has been using is misleading. The Australian Energy Market Operator calls for just over 5,000km by 2030 and Chris Bowen recently told parliament that one-third of that has already been built. The 28,000km number is for 2050 and the Coalition is not taking into account existing infrastructure that would be upgraded.

Three: The transmission lines are already at capacity, because of the renewables already on the grid, including at the sites Dutton and co want to build nuclear reactors (forcibly if necessary, as they sites are privately owned, and have either existing battery projects, or plans for battery projects) which would mean to make nuclear power work (which can not be turned off easily) then new transmission lines would have to be built to carry the nuclear power.

Because politicians like to have so many of these debates on breakfast television, Jim Chalmers is now having to answer questions like this:

Nine network host: All right, well, if you are going to focus on costs, as you are, the reality is the cost, the actual cost, is unknown. Isn’t that the same case with renewables?

Chalmers:

No, we’ve made it clear in our budgets. We’ve budgeted for the investments that we’re making to attract more private investment in our future as a renewable energy …

Host: Well, what’s the cost of rolling out renewables, then, treasurer?

Chalmers:

Well, if you look at the AEMO report which talks about $121bn from now until 2050, which is less than a tenth of the figures that Peter Dutton is bandying about. We know what AEMO says, the energy market operator says, about our investment needs. We know the kinds of investment we’ll need from the private sector to make the most of this global net zero energy transformation. We don’t know from Peter Dutton how much his nuclear fantasy will cost but we do know nuclear takes longer, costs more, pushes up prices, creates investor uncertainty, and it’s not right for Australia because we’ve got the best combination of renewable energy opportunities, and we’d be made not to make the most of them.

Barnaby Joyce describes wind turbines as ‘monuments to future obsolescence’

Tanya Plibersek was sent out on the media rounds this morning, but she also had to front up for her standing “debate” with Barnaby Joyce on Seven’s Sunrise.

Of course, Joyce was very fired up on the issue of renewables which he described as:

Now, what we are doing instead [of nuclear] is we’ve got these billionaires, multibillionaires, coming into this building, the independent power lobby, painting the nation with a photovoltaic black, covering our countryside with monuments to future obsolescence, which is your wind towers, covering us with transmission lines, which 40% of your power bill comes from. So what do you think that’s going to do? Another 28,000 kilometres full of new power bill coming into your life.

​He’s always been good with the evocative imagery, even if it’s never actually correct.

It devolved into an argument from there, which there is no actual point to running, as it’s basically just Joyce yelling at Plibersek to “stand by your word” and Plibersek trying to get a word in edge wise about, you know, things like the law. And cost.

When it comes to cost, Joyce offers this:

Can I just give one example, one example where that’s wrong. Their own costing at $8.4bn for one nuclear reactor is basically less than what Snowy Hydro 2.0, which only provides 2,000 megawatts for 10 days will do. $12bn it’s costing right at the moment …

Plibersek finally gets some clear air to remind Joyce that:

​That’s one of your policies as well, Barnaby.

​Joyce:

There’s your renewables. There’s renewables. It’s ridiculous.

​Plibersek:​

Do you remember Malcolm Turnbull started it?

Because yes, Snowy Hydro 2.0 is a project that started under the Turnbull Coalition government. Of which Joyce was a member.

Frontline workers priced out of Queensland housing market

Frontline workers are being pushed out of the housing market in Queensland as prices and rents hit levels that are beyond their reach, a report reveals.

Most nurses, police officers, childcare workers and teachers can’t afford to buy or rent a home on their own in southeast Queensland, based on their income and the median price of houses and apartments.

“Most of southeast Queensland is a ‘no go zone’ for frontline workers hoping to get their foot on the property ladder,” Property Council of Australia Queensland director Jess Caire said.

The council on Monday released a report, Beyond Reach, which shows that if you are a single-income critical worker on an average salary of $85,000 buying a house is “beyond hope” and buying a unit is “beyond reach”.

For a dual-income family, with a gross income of $150,000, buying an existing home is ranked “beyond reach” and purchasing house and land packages is deemed “unaffordable”.

Brisbane is now the second-most expensive city in Australia to buy a home, according to data released by CoreLogic earlier this month.

The median house value in the Queensland capital is $937,479, and $615,429 for a unit.

– AAP

Labor announces review of workplace safety and compensation laws

Tony Burke has announced a review of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act – the legislation that forms the foundation of the Comcare scheme.

Burke says the legislation has not been reviewed since 2012-13 and there have been no major reforms since 1988.

An independent panel chaired by Justine Ross, with Prof Robin Creyke AO and Gregory Isolani as panel members will start work on the review, today.

Burke:

The nature of workplace injuries and illnesses have changed a lot over the last 35 years. This review will tell us what we can do to future proof the scheme and make sure we’re getting the best outcomes for injured workers.

The panel will engage with a range of stakeholders to seek their insights and feedback, ensuring that the review reflects the experiences and needs of those directly impacted by the scheme.

While the review is underway, applications to join the scheme will only be considered from companies that are members of a corporate group in which most employees are already covered by the scheme.

Before considering further growth of the scheme, we need to ensure the underpinning legislation is fit for purpose and provides effective support for people who are injured at work.

Josh Butler

Grocery code will not bring down cost of living, Greens say

The Greens are not ecstatic about the release of the food and grocery code. The party’s economic spokesperson Nick McKim was out this morning, saying it wouldn’t do enough to bring down food prices at the supermarkets.

“The code of conduct will improve things for suppliers, but will do nothing to bring down the cost of living in Australia,” he told a doorstop in Parliament House.

The Greens had been pushing for divestiture powers to break up the big supermarket chains – a suggestion the government hasn’t been keen to take up.

Paul Karp has looked at the crossbench bill which aims to make housing a human right:

Josh Butler

Coalition did a ‘terrible job’ at consulting communities on energy, Plibersek says

Tanya Plibersek says the Coalition did a “terrible job” of consulting with communities over new energy projects when they were in government, taking another potshot at the confusion over Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan.

“It’s important to work with communities to share the benefits of renewable energy projects and to consider where they’re built, the way they’re built,” she told reporters in a doorstop at Parliament House.

I think the previous government did a terrible job on community consultation, remembering that a lot of the projects that have been built already or are being built right now were approved under the previous government.

I think it’s fair that a lot of those communities say, we weren’t consulted by the Liberals and Nationals on the projects that they approved.

The issue of consultation has reared as a major concern under the Coalition’s nuclear plan, with the opposition saying they would engage in a two-year process but conceding the local communities wouldn’t get a say in whether they actually housed a nuclear reactor. David Littleproud and Ted O’Brien have said they would build a nuclear plant in those towns regardless, with the consultation likely to be more about what incentives or benefits the communities would reap from the energy plant.

Plibersek went on:

Chris Bowen as energy minister has put an enormous effort into improving community consultation around renewables projects, and in turn, making sure that communities that host these projects actually benefit from them.

I can tell you there’s a lot of farmers in particular that are keen to host renewable energy projects on their land because they know that it is a consistent source of income for a farm, even in the bad years when the rains aren’t falling and the crops aren’t growing … We need to make sure that communities are feeling the benefits of those projects.

‘His nuclear shambles is economic insanity’: Chalmers sets the tone

Earlier on ABC News Breakfast, Jim Chalmers made clear where the government was taking the nuclear lines this week (see if you can pick the line of the day):

You know, this is a very dangerous approach from Peter Dutton and the Liberals to a very serious issue.

His nuclear shambles is economic insanity for Australia, and every time they speak about this nuclear shambles it raises more questions than it answers.

We already know that the economics of nuclear power for Australia is absolute madness. It takes longer, it costs more to build, it will push up energy prices for Australians, it will create extreme investor uncertainty and it will squander Australia’s unique combination of advantages when it comes to becoming a renewable energy superpower and nailing this net zero energy transformation in our economy.

So from beginning to end, this is a complete and utter nuclear shambles, it is economic insanity to go down the path that Peter Dutton is proposing.

He can’t even provide the most basic details. So he’s gone for the most divisive option, he’s divided his party, he can’t provide key details, and he wants Australians to believe that somehow by building nuclear reactors in the second half of the 2030s will have an impact on power prices in the middle of the 2020s, and that’s why it’s all falling in a heap around him.

… And that’s why this has turned into a complete and utter nuclear shambles.

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