CARRIE BICKMORE:
Please welcome Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
Great to have you here. Certainly has been a big day. Did you choke on your popcorn as you watched that press conference happen today?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's the first time I've seen it actually. I've been up in the Snowy Mountains today announcing this great new project which is, as you said, you know, will add 2,000 megawatts of power. It is going to make renewables reliable, it is the storage that we need in the 21st century to stabilise our grid and make power more secure and more affordable. And we will do both.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
If that's the first time you've seen it, what's your impressions of what you saw?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's interesting, you know. I will make a couple of points about South Australia. The first one is the one that Josh made, which is that Jay Weatherill did introduce a huge amount of wind into the state and made no provision for back-up or storage and that was the mistake that he made.
Secondly, far from not helping South Australia, the first pumped hydro project that we provided funding for is actually in South Australia. It is not nearly as big as the Snowy project, but it is at a place called Cultana on the Spencer Gulf and it would provide, built at full scale, 200 megawatts of power for about eight hours, which would be very critical in the context of South Australia.
The third thing is, and this is where you see Jay's anger as a little bit theatrical, when he announced his measures, which basically involves buying a new gas-fired power station on Tuesday, he rang me up and walked me through it - and we had a perfectly civilised conversation.
There it is. But I'm not interested in stunts or riotous press conferences.
The big issue is how do we ensure our energy security and affordability in the future and, storage, pumped hydro, which is the biggest storage you can do at scale, is critically important.
The exciting thing about this project is this is all designed. All the engineering drawings are done, it’s all designed in the 80s, the 1980s and early 90s. And then governments owning the company decided to not do anything about it.
And when I gave my speech in February and talked about the importance of storage in pumped hydro, the people at Snowy Hydro said: ‘Gee, we have got some plans here.’
So that's why we can do the feasibility, bring it up to date, you know, in light of modern tunneling technology and so forth. And once the environmental approvals are given, the company believes they can build it in four years. Now that's fast. That is really fast.
WALEED ALY:
Well, four to seven years was the timeline that you outlined today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the company has said, I was just with them today, Waleed, Paul Broad said they can do it in four years. They reckon they can build the tunnel in two.
WALEED ALY:
We're talking though about a situation, particularly in places like South Australia, where they're worried about this summer. There's been a lot of talk about whether or not power is secured for this summer. Jay Weatherill made the point today, we can't wait four to seven years for something to be built, we need something now, which is why they are going on a -
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he can’t - the measures he's proposing, the gas-fired power station he's talking about, he can't build in six months either.
WALEED ALY:
But there's also the battery stuff, and whatever.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the battery, look, I'm a big believer in storage, Waleed, and I think, and as far as energy is concerned, we should get rid of all the ideology and the politics. Chuck it out. Let's just focus on economics and engineering.
So you've got to deal with all of the above. Every technology has a role to play. Batteries have a role to play, but it's not a huge role at this point.
The battery that they're talking about there would deliver 100 megawatts of power for one hour. Just one hour.
Now, this, what we're talking about here in the Snowy is 2,000 megawatts of power for weeks.
That's the difference.
So, you're talking about, you are talking about a really big battery, a giant battery and that's what you need.
DAVE THORNTON:
Can I get that battery for my iPhone?
(LAUGHTER)
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I know you're very chatty.
(LAUGHTER)
But the battery that we're talking about in the Snowy, I think you would run out of things to say long before the battery ran out.
(LAUGHTER)
WALEED ALY:
I'm just trying to figure out what was actually announced today –
PRIME MINISTER:
And being tethered to the dam and the pipeline might be –
DAVE THORNTON:
Oh yeah – that’s going to be a tough one.
PRIME MINISTER:
It might restrict your social engagement.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVE THORNTON:
That's just a landline then – isn’t it?
(LAUGHTER)
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, that would be – that would be.
(LAUGHTER)
WALEED ALY:
I'm trying to figure out what was announced today though because there was the Snowy thing that we are talking about but as I understand it there's a feasibility study that has to happen first, is that right? Is that really what was announced today? That you are going to look into doing this?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no. The feasibility study is really just to check the geology for the tunnel route. See, the plan that was done, all the design has been done. The engineering design has been done - everything. The civil works, all the preparatory work has been done.
But in the 80s, the way you built tunnels was with dynamite and jack hammers and so forth. Nowadays you dig a hole and put in a tunnel boring machine - that's much quicker, much cheaper too. So they have got to check to make sure that the alignment of the tunnel is right. They might need to move it a little bit one way or the other and obviously all of the generation technology, the turbines, and so forth, is much more advanced.
So this will be a bigger project. It could be quite a lot bigger than 2,000 megawatts and the chamber, the machine hall where the turbines will be, will be built of a size so that you could double it and go to 4,000 megs in the future. But of course that is going to depend on what the business case is.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
Can I ask, the people at home getting lost in the turbines and all the intricacies of what is happening -
PRIME MINISTER:
More reliable, more affordable power.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
We saw the Grattan Report - we are being ripped off. When can we expect power bills to come down?
PRIME MINISTER:
There are two separate issues there about retailers taking too much of a margin. And we are all having a close look at that, I can assure you. The ACCC is very aware of that as well. That's particularly the case in Victoria.
In terms of the cost of generating power - you see, your power bill is made up of the cost of generating the power, the cost of getting it to you, the poles and wires, and then of course the retailer takes their margin.
So we are just talking here at the Snowy end about the generation.
And what we've seen is massive volatility in energy prices - energy spiking right up - that is where storage is so valuable because what it means is they can react, they can stabilise the grid. As they did last night – there was a, one of the coal fired power stations in New South Wales had an outage and Snowy Hydro was able to come in to support the grid and stabilise the grid.
They can get power, massive amounts of power into the grid on 90 seconds notice. That's the power of pumped hydro. That's why we need more of it and I'm committed to delivering it.
WALEED ALY:
I think that question was when is it cheaper?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm saying this project will obviously have an impact, when it is built. But it is, but what it will enable you to do is take a lot of the volatility and the big spikes out of the price. Because, as the price goes up, they can hit the market, deliver the electricity that brings the price down.
DAVE THORNTON:
Now, Malcolm, I know you're a big fan of using public transport, especially when you are here in Melbourne.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I came out here on the train.
DAVE THORNTON:
Well that’s it – we’ve got a little bit of intel because I believe there is some footage we’ve got of you in South Yarra Station, just getting out here today.
Now question, Malcolm, Big Dog, be honest with me, do you pay for your ticket or do you just go in?
(LAUGHTER)
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it cost me $4.10.
DAVE THORNTON:
$4.10! Doesn't use concession! Put that on the front page!
(LAUGHTER)
CARRIE BICKMORE:
Before we let you go, there is a member of our team who is very disappointed he can't be here tonight - Mr Pete Helliar. He wants to know when are Pete and I coming for dinner? You promised us we could come for dinner.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you're very busy, if you can fit me into your schedule, you let me know.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
I am a busy mum – oh okay? Great.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm looking forward to that fish you promised me.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay, done. We will line it up.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
Sure. We will have that on the same day the power bills come down. How about that?
(LAUGHTER)
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the Snowy Hydro project will take four years to finish so I reckon we should have dinner before then.
But the most important thing is to make sure that the gas is affordable too and I'm dealing with that as well. Otherwise – you know that's how we will cook the fish.
CARRIE BICKMORE:
Alright, it’s been a pleasure. Would you please thank the Prime Minister?
[ENDS]