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Chris Bowen will travel to Egypt for the next United Nations climate summit in November, and said he plans to let world powers know the new Australian government “is back at the table”.

Bowen, the climate change and energy minister, said:

We’ll be going and the message is we’re back. Australia is back at the table as a world leader. That’s the message I’ll be taking to Egypt.

And this COP. As I said before, if my conversations in the early stages are anything to go by, the response from our partners will be very warm and strong. It has been from JohnKerry, from Jennifer Granholm, Alok Sharma. A know the prime minister has felt the same in his conversations with world leaders. I expect that to be reflected in Egypt.”

Commonwealth fleet EVs would move into secondhand market after turnover, Bowen says

Climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is taking questions from journalists after his National Press Club address.

Asked how government policies will increase electric vehicle uptake in line with Labor’s projection, Bowen gives the example of taking the commonwealth car fleet to be 75% no emissions. He notes this fleet is about 10,000 cars, and has a flow-on effect in the market.

He said:

The commonwealth turns over its cars every three years. That leads into the secondhand market. At the moment you can’t buy a secondhand electric car in Australia. As we all know, if you want an affordable car, it’s most certainly a secondhand car. If you’re at a place in the market as many young people, buying their first car, they would love an EV.

And with that, I will hand the blog over to Elias Visontay for the rest of the day, thanks for reading.

Chris Bowen says avoiding blackouts ‘was no easy thing’ during worst of energy crisis

First up, a question on how close we got to blackouts during the height of the energy crisis. Bowen says:

Supply was tight. At several of the evening peaks, we would have gone through load shedding before we got to blackouts so – load shedding was a possibility we were preparing for. I’m confident that that would have avoided blackouts but I didn’t want to go down the load shedding line either.

And working together we managed to avoid that. No load shedding and no blackouts, and that’s a tribute to everybody involved, but it was no easy thing and, as I said, it shows the scale of the problem we’re dealing with. Far too many megawatts taken off with not enough megawatts brought on. That’s the problem, a deficit in energy generation as well as some market issues.

So, that was what we were facing. Now, in terms of your question about confidence, I’m very confident that all the people who work together to avoid load shedding and blackouts in the recent weeks will continue to do so.

As I have said, we run the risk of major unexpected outages, that’s a risk when you have a system that is under pressure, but any challenges we face, we will apply the same determination to put consumers first and ensure reliable energy supply in those difficult circumstances.

Australia’s new climate approach has been given “very warm” reception internationally, Chris Bowen says

Bowen has described the international climate emergency as a “jobs opportunity” for Australia:

We have already moved quickly to demonstrate to our international partners that we’re here to help and to lead. I have held, in the past and last month, discussions with the US secretary of energy, with President Biden’s special envoy for climate change as well as the COP26 president.

It’s fair to say that the reception to our government’s approach has been very warm. With a shared sense of excitement about the opportunities for strengthening the economic ties with these key partners in the global transformation under way, I’ll be continuing these conversations at the Sydney energy forum next month with visiting energy ministers from around the world.

The government will continue to support our partners in the region as they work to address climate change including with new financing arrangements.

Chris Bowen says national energy plan ‘the most dramatic economic transformation’ Australia has faced in modern era

Returning to Bowen, who has maintained his fiery pace during this address and is welcoming the integrated system plan (ISP) final document from Aemo, to be released tomorrow and outlining the future of the energy grid.

He then goes on to outline a national plan to cover all investments needed for renewable economy:

The plan is to cover what storage we need and where. It needs to cover what hydrogen we need and the pipelines we need to get it around the country. It needs to cover all the necessary investment. It needs to cover the enablers to the program like the upskilling of our workforce and making things in Australia.

I was delighted when the state and territory energy ministers, Labor, Liberal and Green, all represented around the table, unanimously agreed to work with me on that plan in our recent meeting. I described it as the ISP on steroids. The best time to second working on that plan was 10 years ago, and the second time is now. That’s what we’re doing.

This is the most dramatic economic transformation our nation has faced in the modern era and we have eight years, just over 90 months, to do it. That means we have to be all in.

Meanwhile, we have some Covid figures for the day.

South Australia has recorded 2,847 new cases and zero deaths:

The ACT has recorded 1,458 new cases and zero deaths:

And finally, Tasmania has recorded 1,174 new cases and one death.

Albanese government will seek to enshrine national emissions reduction target of 43% by 2030, Bowen says

Ok, Bowen is flying through a series of details. He says there are four elements to the Albanese government’s climate change bill:

Firstly, we’ll seek to enshrine a nationally determined contribution of 43% emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Secondly, we will task in law the Climate Change Authority to assess and publish progress against these targets and advise government on future targets including the 2035 target. Thirdly we will legislate a requirement for the minister for climate change to report annually to parliament on progress in meeting our targets.

I see this report as frankly … forcing the government to be transparent about progress and plans and, frankly, obliging the opposition of the day to share its views and plans as well.

High on our list of priority is the much needed upgrade to the transmission system. Our grid is not fit for purpose, and our rewiring the nation
program will make it so. Rewiring the nation will help us get the renewable energy from where it’s generated to where it will be consumed.

This will include, under our government, increasingly, offshore wind, and will help us manage the electricity system as we shift to a much higher renewable share of generation.

They say the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine and that’s true everywhere. But across our country it’s normally blowing or shining, and improved transmission will help us get the renewable energy from wherever it’s being generated at the time to where we need it.

We’re fortunate as we embark on rewiring the nation that we have the blueprint ready to government – in fact, tomorrow Aemo will release the 2022 integrated systems plan, the final version of it. The ISP shows our energy mix changing, predicting the [most likely] change scenario.

Chris Bowen says he plans for electric vehicle tax cut to take effect from 1 July

Bowen has shifted his focus to the future, highlighting that Labor wants to work with the business sector on renewables, and adding that it was time for the “climate wars to end”.

Next, he says the government intends to introduce two pieces of legislation which will implement the electric vehicle tax cut:

We promised to cut the tariffs and abolish the fringe benefits target on affordable EVs from 1 July and that’s exactly what we’ll do. Of course the parliament doesn’t sit until late July so we’ll ask the tax office to make the normal arrangements to ensure it is implemented retrospectively from 1 July in accordance with the usual proceed quarter. Of course the EV tax cut is just one part of our electric vehicle policy.

We also promised Driving the Nation, to deliver [an EV] charger once every 150km on the highway, to convert the commonwealth fleet to 75% EVs, to deliver a refuelling network, to deliver stations on freight routes and the development of Australia’s first electric vehicle strategy.

Opposition’s claims about energy crisis were ‘bizarre and laughable’, Bowen says

Bowen has continued ripping into the previous government and current opposition, saying some of their responses to the energy crisis have been “laughable”:

They weren’t just incompetent, they were dishonest about it. And all this came at a great cost to the country, a dive in renewable energy investment, not enough investment in storage, not enough investment in transmission.

Further uncertainty was created through the market through their announcing of the underwriting of the new generations investment program which hasn’t seen a single watt added to the market.

Lots of big announcements, but not one watt of generation funded or underwritten by the previous government despite all the spin.

This was the worst of all – they managed to chill private sector investment by announcing they would invest but then they didn’t deliver any of that investment themselves.

Now we see the results. By their early actions the new opposition are making themselves irrelevant to the debate. No recognition or contrition for their actions. More denigration of renewables by the new leader of the opposition, a unilateral declaration by him … that they will not support the government’s climate change bill despite the investments for certainty.

Bizarre and laughable claims that somehow the new government talking about renewable energy spooked coal-fired power generators into not working, and an economically illiterate attempt to answer that the answer to higher prices is to introduce the most expensive form of energy that takes many years to build – nuclear.

Energy minister Chris Bowen has begun his National Press Club address by rattling off all the “failures” of the previous government in climate, adding that he believed the May election saw a “gale” (not wind) of change in Canberra:

It’s tempting to say May 21 saw the winds of change blow through our country, but in fact, a gale blew away nine years of climate delay, denial and dysfunction.

After years of climate change being weaponised, after years of baseless fear campaigns about the cost of climate change election there was an election, and that resulted in a Labor victory with a climate agenda.

We have seen in dramatic form in the last few weeks the real life results of delay, denial and dysfunction when it comes to energy policy. This really has been a Taylor-made crisis.

Nine years of stop-start policymaking, direct action and an attempt to water down the renewable target and abolish [the Australian Renewable Energy Agency] and the CFC and abort the Clean Energy Target, a discarded National Energy Guarantee, the disparagement of storage, … campaigns of denigration against companies and CEOs who dare to argue that a well managed transition to renewables was important.

The former government’s signature energy investment, Snowy 2.0, [is] running 18 months late. They knew this before the election but hid it from the public and the market which needs this information to make decisions about new investments in their final year in office they oversaw a big spike in emissions, 4.1 million tonnes. That is their legacy.

Kaurna ancestral remains returned to their lands in Wangayarta Memorial Park

200 Kaurna ancestors have been laid to rest in the Wangayarta Memorial Park, which was created so the Aboriginal people of the Adelaide Plains could be returned to their lands.

The SA Museum is the custodian of about 4,500 ancestral remains, remains that were stolen from traditional burial grounds, used for “research” in universities and by medical practitioners, and traded around the world.

More than 100 were repatriated in a ceremony late last year, brought home to rest in the soil of their Country, soil brought from around the state to Wangayarta by Uncle Moogy Sumner.

Sumner said he had been involved in repatriating ancestors for 40 years, travelling around the world to bring them home. It’s not easy, he said, and he talks to them:

You know, you went across there a long time ago on a big sailing ship. You’re coming back now on a 747.

Kaurna and Narungga elder Rosalind Coleman said the repatriation was important because of the respect it showed for ancestors, for cultural beliefs, and for the hurt that has been caused.

We are the descendants of the people, our Kaurna people, our Kaurna ancestors … we have obligations, cultural commitments, and the responsibility to make sure they come home.

Repatriation is about restoring dignity and making right the wrongs of the past.

University of Adelaide professor Benjamin Kile, the head of health and medical sciences, apologised for the role his institution played in keeping the remains from their rightful place.

We are expecting energy minister, Chris Bowen, to address the National Press Club shortly:

Elias Visontay

Air New Zealand to install economy bunk beds on long-haul flights

Air New Zealand will soon allow economy passengers to lie down and take a nap in communal, bunk bed-style sleeping pods on its planes, as it attempts to entice passengers on to its more than 17-hour ultra-long-haul flights.

In what the airline says will be a world first when its new cabins are installed by 2024, premium and regular economy passengers will still be sold traditional seats that do not recline into a bed.

However, these passengers will be able to book four-hour sessions in lie-flat sleeping pods – which the airline has named “Skynest” – at an additional cost.

Pods will have a mattress and sheets – which will be changed by cabin crew after each booking – and will be stacked on top of each other to take advantage of the height of the cabin.

Each pod will have a privacy curtain, USB charging and “ventilation outlets”.

Read more about the pods here:

Earlier this morning, acting prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, told RN Breakfast that it was “optimistic in the extreme” to expect Australia to have an operational nuclear submarine by the 2030s.

Marles told host Patricia Karvelas that the previous government was to blame for failing to land on a deal on the submarines within a reasonable timeframe, and defended the two year extension handed to chief of the defence force, General Angus Campbell and the vice chief of the defence force, Vice Admiral David Johnston:

I think you need to look at the personnel that you have that you can put on the field and the way in which we can get the best use from them.

It’s not them who oversaw the issues and the problems that we now face. It was the former government. I mean, the former government’s handling of national security, specifically defence procurement and specifically the procurement of submarines was one of the worst failures in defence procurement that we have seen in our history.

They went about matters in an entirely political way. But they went with an option with Japan and then abandoned it. They went with an option with France, spent billions of dollars, abandoned [it].

The truth of where the former government left us at the time of the election is that they were looking at a new nuclear submarine in the 2040s. That’s where they were at.

We will be looking at every option available to try and bring that time forward. I think bringing it forward to eight years from now would be extremely optimistic.

Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you for a short while, and a quick thanks to Stephanie Convery for her stellar job this morning.