Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I join with the Minister for Resources and Energy in acknowledging that Australia’s geothermal resources have great potential for Australia and will play an enormous role in Australia’s clean energy future. I also give all strength to his arm to ensure that his efforts continue to see energy market reform through the Ministerial Council on Energy, which he chairs. He is a great supporter of reform in that area. It is very unfortunate, though, that, when push comes to shove, the Prime Minister does not share that same conviction. In fact, the Prime Minister allowed the New South Wales privatisation of its electricity assets to fall in a heap because, quite frankly, he did not have the courage to put his words into action.

Australia has in its interior a vast and untrapped geothermal resource that could ultimately deliver big, clean energy dividends. Unlike other energy sources, such as solar and wind power, geothermal offers the potential to deliver baseload electricity with zero emissions, around the clock, 24/7. The minister spoke about advances that were being made overseas in both types of geothermal energy. In the long run, I think it is a blessing that we do not have the volcanic activity that now gives other countries geothermal electricity. Those other countries are continuing to explore the opportunities of hot rocks geothermal power. I see real potential in that, as does the minister. There are of course always challenges in that regard. The biggest challenge is to ensure that there is the ability to deliver that electricity into areas of high population growth or, alternatively—and it is not out of the question—to actually move some industries to those parts of Australia where that geothermal electricity may be produced.

Not only is a wide range of companies involved in funding these projects—the minister mentioned a few, and I will come back to them—but there are also companies where predominantly men, but also women, operate rigs that drill up to five kilometres into the earth. One of those companies, which I cannot not mention, is the Easternwell Group, based in Toowoomba. It is a family company that has built its operation primarily in the gas industry but is now showing the world, by using a rig imported from Canada, how to drill down into these rock substructures. I invite the minister, next time he comes to Toowoomba, to visit Troy and his team. I am sure that he would be more than welcome, and they would show him just how well we can do things in the great town of Toowoomba.

It is important in the current national debate to recognise that geothermal produces energy without greenhouse gas emissions and therefore will play a major role in lowering Australia’s carbon dioxide emissions. That is going to be very important as we move forward with the Prime Minister’s carbon trading scheme, a scheme that is still fundamentally flawed but which will also see the biggest economic reform in Australia. We need to use every piece of technology we can lay our hands on. We certainly do not need another committee or inquiry to tell us that we will have to work hard on it. When we talk about lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and the role that geothermal will play in that, it is important that we acknowledge the work that has already been done. There is a great myth being promoted by most of those on the other side that in fact the Howard government, in the 11½ years that we were in government, did nothing about lowering greenhouse gas emissions. I cannot pass up this opportunity to again point out to those opposite just exactly what was done.

When we were in government we realised that greenhouse gas emissions had to be lowered and that it would require a broad suite of energy sources. We invested some $3.5 billion in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and the results speak for themselves. Australia is probably the only country not using nuclear energy that will reach its Kyoto target because of the work that has already been done and, I hope, will continue to be done. From what has already been done, we will reduce our emissions by some 85 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by the end of next year. But that will not be enough. Ross Garnaut, that doyen of climate change and carbon trading, gave credit where it was due when, in an address to the National Press Club, he said that, in Australia, ‘we have been punching above our weight on climate change for the last seven years’. So, much has been done in this area.

In the area of geothermal, back in March 2007 I, as the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, along with the Leader of the Opposition, the then Minister for Environment and Water Resources, hosted the inaugural meeting of the geothermal industry roundtable here at Parliament House in Canberra. Can I again digress for a moment and congratulate the member for Wentworth for attaining his goal of becoming Leader of the Opposition. I look forward to working with him and I am sure he will make life interesting for those who sit opposite.

At that meeting in March 2007 we gave the industry the commitment that the Howard coalition government would work collaboratively with them to prepare a Geothermal Industry Development Framework that could act as a guide to the long-term development of the sector—setting the framework, if you like, to ensure the industry moved forward. The commitment we gave was not just for the 24-hour news cycle that seems to drive those opposite. As the Minister for Resources and Energy would appreciate, the geothermal industry has always been supported by the coalition, both in government and now in opposition. In fact, we went into the last federal election with a commitment to promoting and advancing this alternative form of energy. We were fully committed to the establishment of a national research institute for geothermal energy, to be hosted in South Australia, and we were prepared to commit $20 million over five years to that end.

This is in contrast to the Labor Party and its first budget cutbacks. In May, the Labor Party failed to allocate any funding for geothermal in this current year. The previous coalition government had already invested some $28 million in hot rocks geothermal energy research and development, which has stood the industry in good stead during the current period. We put $5 million into Geodynamics Limited for the Innamincka hot fractured rock power plant, which Easternwell, the company I mentioned earlier, is drilling for. We also put $3.9 million into Scopenergy Limited for a proof-of-concept project on the Limestone Coast. Geothermal Resources Limited were awarded $2.4 million for a project entitled ‘Heat generating capacity of buried hot radiogenic granite’. Proactive Energy Developments Limited were awarded some $1.2 million and Petratherm Ltd were awarded some $5 million to further develop their groundbreaking approach to using geothermal energy at their Paralana site in the Flinders Ranges. And if those opposite have any criticism of my pronunciation of ‘Paralana’, I refer them to the Speaker’s effort on Chinese names during question time! I think he got about five out of 10 right, according to the look on the Prime Minister’s face. This is a comprehensive range of programs, and I am confident that the Minister for Resources and Energy will ensure that they continue to grow.

There is, of course, one technology that those opposite do not consider—although there are some who harbour secret support for it. I will not embarrass anyone today by asking them to put up their hand. In the absence of nuclear power in Australia, there will need to be a very strong commitment to zero-emission technology that can produce baseload electricity. Baseload electricity from hot rocks is such an option.

The Labor Party, in opposition, promised $50 million out of its $500 million Renewable Energy Fund to assist geothermal energy companies to drill into these hot rocks. We now know that the Treasurer’s razor gang was unleashed and that that funding was deferred until the end of next year, significantly affecting the plans of companies who seemingly had been conned during the 2007 election campaign. The resources minister is indeed a sensible man most of the time, unlike many, if not all, of those who sit around him on the other side. We now know that he borrowed $20 million from the Energy Innovation Fund, which is essentially a research fund, to patch up the mess. At least, I hope he borrowed it. I am sure the resources minister, if his predecessor is anything to go by, would never have stolen money out of Treasury while no-one was looking. So, despite boasting of a $2.3 billion climate change budget, the $500 million for the Renewable Energy Fund included $0 in 2008-09.

In conclusion, I welcome the minister’s announcement on 20 August 2008 of the $50 million Geothermal Drilling Program. It is unclear how this will work without any money just yet. We can only hope that the $20 million will go some of the way. I also commend the people in the geothermal industry. It is a tough industry. It is an industry that operates primarily in outback Australia. It is an industry that is breaking new ground. It is an industry that, as Sir Nicholas Stern acknowledged when he came to Australia the year before last, is leading the world. Nicholas Stern also acknowledged the work that was being done on clean coal in Australia, again saying that we are world leaders. The future of the geothermal industry is not only important, it is critical to Australia and the rest of the world if we are to produce low- and zero-emission electricity.

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