Residential battery scheme
9. Mr Hugh Jonesto the Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I also congratulate you on your appointment, and you will not catch me talking when you are talking.
I refer to the Cook Labor government's plan to make Western Australia a renewable energy powerhouse.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how the Cook Labor government's residential battery scheme will support more Western Australians to access cheap, clean and secure energy sources?
(2) Can the minister outline how the scheme will help create more jobs and make more things in WA?
Ms Amber-Jade Sanderson replied:
Congratulations on your election as the Speaker of the House.
I thank the member for Darling Range. Congratulations, again, on your very hard-fought win.
(1)–(2) We know that Western Australians know that we need to transition to a clean energy economy. It is not just an environmental issue; it is economically sensible. It is the way the world is going. It is where investment is putting its money. Anyone who thinks otherwise is taking an ideological position, not a sensible position and not a sensible economic position. We know that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy generation. We also know that Western Australian households have taken it up in swathes. In fact, Western Australia has one of the largest uptakes in the world. We actually have 40% of our energy in the South West Interconnected System generated by rooftop solar panels. Mums and dads and families have invested in solar panels. Sometimes it was a big up-front cost, but they did it and they are reaping the benefits with lower bills and they are supporting our energy transition.
As I said, it is one of the highest uptakes in the world. In fact, panels actually generate more electricity than the largest coal-fired power station in Collie. We need to leverage that capacity as well as supporting families with cost-of-living measures. We need to strengthen the grid and deliver secure, reliable and affordable renewable energy. That is why the Cook Labor government, the Premier, took to the election our battery rebate scheme, which has been hugely popular. That will be a residential rebate. It is a rebate for residential customers. It will be $5,000 for Synergy customers and $7,500 for Horizon customers, acknowledging that the costs are higher in remote regions. Importantly, we are supporting low- and middle-income earners. We will also match this scheme with a no-interest loan scheme, which will support people with the gap. Batteries can cost between $10,000 and $15,000, and it will support those households with that gap and make it much more available for people on low and middle incomes. This is the most generous scheme in the country. It is more generous than the federal scheme. It is more generous than the New South Wales scheme. We will more than double the number of household batteries on our system, helping families to save around $1,500 a year on power bills.
We are working very closely with industry to roll out the scheme. I met with them last week, or the week before last. They were incredibly constructive around the development and the implementation of the scheme, and we will continue to work closely with them to make sure they have a pipeline of work that is not overly demanding, and that they actually have a pipeline of work to see them through for the lifetime of the scheme. Importantly, we want to support making things here in WA. We are giving $50 million to support manufacturers of local batteries. Local manufacturers will get grants of up to $50 million. They will be available to support them to make them here in Western Australia.
Over the weekend, we saw Federal Labor announce its cheaper home batteries program, which will provide people with $4,000. This announcement complements our scheme and means that more people will have access to affordable home batteries so that they can get the benefit of all of the power that they are generating during the day, store it and use it at night. This is a great policy for Western Australia and it will complement ours. Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party came out against it straight away. Straight off the bat, they absolutely did not support this scheme. They said it would only support the wealthiest. Well they certainly had not seen details of this scheme in Western Australia, because our zero-interest loans make it accessible for low- and middle-income families, and thanks to the new virtual power plant technology, they will provide low-cost firming for the grid as well.
We know that Peter Dutton and the WA Libs do not support this scheme. But we know what they do support. They support a nuclear power plant in the South West. That is what they support. Peter Dutton claims that he and the Libs will make power prices lower, but they cannot explain how. He has taken his plan to Western Australia and the nation for nuclear power plants around the country, including in the South West town of Collie. Instead of investing in renewable energy, he wants to build nuclear. His plan assumes there will be a reduction in electricity use by industry of 30%. That is what his plan assumes. It assumes a 31% reduction and everyone knows that a growing economy needs more energy, not less. We are not going backwards in our energy consumption. We are going to need five times more in the next 20 years.
His plan also involves more coal-fired power stations. That is what it involves—more coal-fired power stations and a requirement to use them beyond their useful life span. They are coming to the end of their useful life span and the market does not support them anymore. I am interested to know what the Leader of the Liberal Party thinks of the nuclear power plant. Will he be going out with Tom White, standing next to him on the hustings, taking it to the people of Churchlands saying, "We're going to build nuclear power plants. We don't support you getting batteries or government subsidised batteries" to the good people of Churchlands, who I bet have taken up solar panels on their homes with gusto, many of which will have batteries? Is he going to be standing next to Peter Dutton, backing in the nuclear power plan for Western Australia? I look forward to that. I look forward to him taking that and I look forward to him explaining how he will stand with Peter Dutton and what his constituents, the people of Churchlands, really think of that plan. Thank you.
The Speaker: Members, that concludes question time.
House adjourned at 4:54:00 pm
