RAF EPSTEIN:
Prime Minister, good afternoon.
PRIME MINISTER:
How are you Rafael?
RAF EPSTEIN:
I’m okay. The feasibility study to turn the Snowy essentially I guess or parts of into a battery – is that definitely going to happen or do you wait for the study?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the project is fully designed. What we are talking about is a project, a pumped hydro project which will add 50 per cent to the capacity of the Snowy Hydro scheme.
Work, or the engineering design work was done many, many years ago. And the study is designed to, the study which can be completed before the end of the year according to the company is designed to update some of the geological information because obviously you’d be using big tunnel boring machines nowadays to build the tunnel, and also to update it for, you know, 21st century technology.
But it is a very viable, very real project that has been fully scoped out and designed, as have a number of others.
RAF EPSTEIN:
Will it happen? Do you wait for the study or not?
PRIME MINISTER:
The study will be completed by the end of the year and then the design will no doubt be revised to some extent, then you’ve got to get your environmental approvals and then of course the financial arrangements have got to be made.
The project can be funded by a mixture of equity and debt and the Commonwealth is prepared to, you know, subject to all of the numbers stacking up which I am confident they will, we are prepared to get in behind it.
We think it is vitally important. Our energy network needs more storage, it needs more of that flexibility to give greater security and greater affordability.
RAF EPSTEIN:
Just on clean coal, there is a long line of people who think clean coal is too expensive - CSIRO, Renewable Energy Agency, chief economists, Department of Industry and Science, former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Chief Scientist, Bloomberg New Energy Finance – not many people other than your Government seem to think it is worth pursuing. Why do you think it is worth pursuing if they, those people don’t?
PRIME MINISTER:
Clean coal projects are being pursued all around the world, but ultimately a particular project has to stand or fall on its merits. So, my position, and the Government’s position is that we should look, determine our energy future not based on ideology or political prejudices but on economics and engineering.
And so coal has a role to play. Whether a new project, a high efficiency low emission coal fired power station would go ahead is going to depend on whether the numbers stack up for that particular project.
So, you know, if the general proposition is there is no future for clean coal, that’s nonsense because there are plenty of coal fired power stations, modern ones being built right around the world.
RAF EPSTEIN:
It’s just that there is not many - I don’t know of a scientific institution in the country who think it’s the way to go for us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, because, you see, now you are shifting your ground Raf. I mean, the point is it is one thing to say from an environmental point of view that you don’t think it is the right way to go, but what you said earlier was that it is too expensive, i.e. it is not cost, you know, it doesn’t pass the -
RAF EPSTEIN:
I suppose the question is the same, Prime Minister – is there an expert body outside of industry who think it is worth keeping that option open?
PRIME MINISTER:
You would be completely irrational to close off any option and so the point is technology is constantly developing.
What I have announced today is our support for the largest addition to storage – it is the, it will be largest storage ever built in Australia and certainly and what it is a real game changer and of course as the energy supply becomes more volatile because you get more variable renewable sources of energy in the grid such as wind and solar, you need more storage.
It is just a fundamental mistake that the Labor Party made in South Australia in bringing so much wind into the grid without doing anything on providing back-up or storage - in fact, closing down baseload and gas fired power stations, coal fired power stations and just relying on that long extension cord into Victoria.
Now, you know, that created a lot of vulnerability to south Australia and Australians, South Australians have paid the price for Jay Weatherill’s complacency.
RAF EPSTEIN:
Understood and I think your Energy Minister was making points like that.
If I can just switch tack for a moment before we get to the news – do you still think it is a thoroughly bad idea to allow first home owners to access their superannuation to buy a home?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my view is that the best solution, if you want to make housing more affordable, you have to build more houses. You know, I’m aware of all of the arguments for, in favour of relating to superannuation and housing and deposits and so forth but, and again, I am not going to run a commentary on these matters in the lead up to the Budget but I -
RAF EPSTEIN:
But it is your comment isn’t it? That it is a thoroughly bad idea. I just wonder if you still agree with yourself?
PRIME MINISTER:
Rafael – if you just let me finish. The key to having more affordable housing is to build more housing.
And so the argument against demand-side measures in isolation is that if all you do is pump up demand without increasing supply, what you end up doing is pushing up the price of housing and there is no net benefit.
It is a complicated issue but the one fundamentally substantial point is that if you want to have more affordable housing you’ve got to build more housing and that requires changes to zoning and planning, it requires governments, and that’s mostly state and local governments to make it easier for new dwellings to be built.
RAF EPSTEIN:
Prime Minister, thanks for joining us. Hopefully we will have more time next time. Enjoy your time in Melbourne.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks a lot Rafael. Thank you.
[ENDS]