KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let’s go live now to the Shadow Minister Assisting on Climate Change, Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy, thanks for your time. The Hunter Power Project or the gas fired power station funded by the Government at Kurri Kurri - Labor at the time it was announced opposed the project. Now you’re going to support it if you win the election and keep it and kick on with it. Why is that? What’s changed?
PAT CONROY, SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Well what’s changed is that this Government has signed a number of contracts, particularly with Mitsubishi in Japan for the two gas turbines. So we’ve been very clear that we didn’t support the original project. We thought it didn’t stack up properly. There wasn’t a single independent energy expert that said it was a project that made sense.
But the community wants certainty. We’ve got these contracts signed, and an incoming Labor Government has been very clear that we don’t tear up contracts. We won’t engage in issues of sovereign risk. So what we are proposing to do is that we would instruct Snowy Hydro to make sure the plant can use up to 30 per cent green hydrogen when it’s commissioned or as soon as possible thereafter, and that’s something that Snowy Hydro has said is possible with minor modifications, with the goal of getting to 50 per cent green hydrogen and then 100 per cent green hydrogen.
And this does two things. One, it future-proofs the plant. It ensures that it won’t be a stranded asset which is a real risk under the Government’s proposal. And secondly, it provides critical demand for a homegrown green hydrogen industry, a hydrogen industry that I’d love to see centred in the Hunter area that will drive thousands of jobs. So this is a project that is a vast improvement on what the Government is proposing, and it provides certainty to a community that has been asking for that.
GILBERT: Okay, but you said it isn't justified - at the time, you said “it isn’t justified by the economics. It isn’t justified by the engineering. If that was a commercial proposition, the private sector would have backed it. They didn't because it was a dog” is the way you described it. Do you still have those concerns even though Labor is going to maintain the project and support it?
CONROY: Well we were opposed to the market intervention when there was several other gas projects being proposed by companies such as AGL at Tomago, and Energy Australia. I stand by those comments. Those comments were accurate then and they are accurate now. That's why we are proposing not to go ahead with what the Government has planned, but to make it a plant driven by green hydrogen.
We were faced with two choices. We either renege on contracts that had been signed by this Government and by Snowy Hydro, or we find a way where this project can make a really meaningful contribution to energy security and growing a green hydrogen industry, and that's what we've chosen to do. They were the two choices that we faced, and this is the right solution that will help drive a green hydrogen industry and thousands of jobs and ensure that a Government doesn't engage in issues that are of sovereign risk.
GILBERT: How much more would a Labor Government have to fund the Kurri Kurri plant to bring on the green hydrogen technology if it's not at parity by the time 2030 comes around which looks at this stage unlikely?
CONROY: Well we've said we'll work with Snowy Hydro about the additional investment required to convert the plant to green hydrogen. If you look at a comparable plant being proposed by Twiggy Forrest at Port Kembla, that looks like an additional $700 million dollars of equity investment within Snowy Hydro is the sum we're talking at the top end.
GILBERT: At the Top End, $700 million. Does it have any flow on impact though as Angus Taylor warns? I spoke to him earlier in the program. He says it will drive up power prices, the fact that you will make an intervention to make it 100 percent green hydrogen by 2030. Is that a risk here?
CONROY: No, that's absolutely incorrect from Angus Taylor, a Minister that lies at will and has zero credibility in the industry. The truth is that power prices are determined by a combination of factors, but the one in this case that’s relevant is the wholesale energy market, and Snowy Hydro will bid the plant into the wholesale market like any other bidder, and they'll take the price that the wholesale energy market settles at.
So this will not impact on electricity prices for consumers, and Labor's policies will actually drive electricity prices down. Our climate change policy that we announced late last year will cut the average household electricity bill by $275 a year. So we're very confident this project will help drive jobs in the Hunter. It'll provide certainty to the community of Kurri and the broader Hunter Valley, and it won’t impact on electricity prices.
GILBERT: Is it about shoring up the seats of Hunter, Paterson, and Shortland, your seat?
CONROY: Absolutely not. This is about providing certainty to a community that is rightly saying well what is the plans by the alternate government for this project? And our plan is to use this project, as flawed as it was in its original construction by this Government, to drive a Hunter green hydrogen industry that can deliver tens of thousands of jobs in a sector of the global economy that could make up up to a third of global energy supply in the future. So it’s about growing jobs in the Hunter region, providing certainty to the community, and providing certainty to investors that Labor will not engage in policy that will cause sovereign risk.
GILBERT: So the way - just to wrap up, Snowy Hydro builds the plant. It's got a 10 percent initial capacity for green hydrogen. You want it up to 30 percent by when? And then, as you said, 100 percent by 2030. When do you see that 30 percent threshold being met? Is that within a year or two?
CONROY: Well as soon as possible. Snowy Hydro have said that the current gas turbines that they've ordered are capable of up to 30 percent of hydrogen with some small modifications. So we will work with Snowy Hydro on what those modifications are and how long they'll take. If you look at the Port Kembla project pursued by Twiggy Forrest, they think around 50 percent can be achieved by 2025, and 100 per cent by 2030.
So they're broadly where we are aiming at, but obviously we will work with Snowy Hydro to make sure that this project delivers in the timeframes that are appropriate. But the important thing is that this is a project that now will have solid environmental credentials, it is consistent with net zero emissions by 2050 unlike the Government's project, it will grow jobs in the Hunter, and it will be consistent with Labor's policies of putting power prices down through our broader climate and energy policies.
GILBERT: Shadow Minister Assisting for Climate Change, Pat Conroy. I appreciate it.
CONROY: Not a problem, have a great afternoon.