Bill Shorten says his goal to source 50% of Australia’s power from renewables by 2030 is a “declaration of intent”, to be achieved by Labor’s yet-to-be-detailed policies including an emissions trading scheme, as well as increased consumer demand for clean energy.
The Labor leader says the change in prime ministership meant Australia could now have a “referendum” as to which party had the best policies to shift to a low pollution economy.
In a speech apparently aimed at increasing pressure on Malcolm Turnbull to specify any changes he will make to the Coalition’s climate policy, Shorten does not announce any new policy detail of his own, saying his 50% goal was “not a matter of locking in specific technology or mechanisms.”
“Like you, I welcome the fact that the Liberal leadership no longer see wind turbines as a horrifying blight on the landscape, a creeping menace lurking on the horizon,” Shorten planned to tell the All Energy Council in Melbourne on Wednesday, according to a copy of his speech provided to the media.
“The muzzling of the far-right’s ideological attack dogs in the clean energy debate is long overdue. And it’s a gesture I’m prepared to accept in good faith.
“I’m hopeful our parliament, our politics, can move past the basic binary argument of whether renewable energy is ‘good’ or ‘bad’… the test is no longer a matter of competing rhetoric. Instead it becomes a policy contest, a battle of ideas.”
Turnbull has announced no significant changes to the coalition’s policy although he did not reappoint climate change sceptic Maurice Newman to the prime minister’s advisory council and he has taken a different approach to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
He has said he will stick with the current Direct Action policy, but he could make changes to it.
Early last year Shorten announced Labor would go to the election promising an emissions trading scheme but has not given details. Labor is also likely to announce a longer term mandatory renewable energy target for large scale renewable projects.
Shorten said Australia had fallen behind in renewable energy investment under the coalition government, citing figures showing that last year clean energy investment grew by 8% in the United States, 12% in Japan and 35% in China, but fell by 35% in Australia. He said investment in large scale renewables fell by 88% here.
Citing figures that predicted already falling costs of renewables and battery storage would halve again in the next five years, Shorten predicts “consumers not governments” would drive the energy change.
He said Labor’s policy would ensure “affected workers” were “redeployed, retrained and supported through the transition.
