Doorstop, Newcastle

SHARON CLAYDON: It is so good to be welcoming Minister Catherine King back to Newcastle to be here with GrainCorp today in front of their important terminal site here at Carrington, Newcastle, because there’s a really important piece of the Albanese Labor Government’s determination to see a future made in Australia underway right now. I’ll leave the details of that announcement to Minister King to unveil, but the need for low-carbon liquid fuels in this country is so obvious. It is such an important part of the decarbonisation of our transport sector now. This is really great news for not just the aviation sector, which is screaming out for renewables, but also our heavy transport sector and, indeed, marine services. 

So for a city like Newcastle, I am really proud to be part of another important step in making a future in Australia. And on that note, I’d like to hand across to Minister King for today’s announcement. 

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much, Sharon. It’s terrific to be here back in Newcastle. And can I thank very much GrainCorp for hosting us this morning. 

In the Budget we announced a significant investment in a future made in Australia. We want to make more things here, in Australia. And low-carbon liquid fuels - sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel - are very much part of that story. 

In the Budget, we announced money as part of the Future Made In Australia Innovation Fund to drive innovation across this supply chain. We also announced money for certification, making sure that from farm to bowser we actually know that this is a sustainable and low carbon product. We also announced money to look at whether in the aviation sector, in particular, we were to go down that regulatory pathway to see whether we need to mandate a target for sustainable aviation fuel. 

Today is the next part of that journey. We’re announcing a consultation paper for the next four weeks to look at what incentives we need to put in place to actually get production in place in this country. We know already that almost 60 per cent of the canola that we export to Europe is going towards low-carbon liquid fuels in that country and we then import them back into Australia for use in our transport sector. Four hundred kilotons of tallow also going to Europe for exactly that purpose. We need to manufacture low-carbon liquid fuels here in this country. It’s an issue in terms of security and sustainability of our fuel supplies, but also very much part of the road map towards decarbonising the transport sector. 

We know in hard-to-abate sectors like aviation and heavy haulage, low-carbon liquid fuels are really going to be the short to medium and, in some instances, the long-term way of getting our carbon emissions down. So low-carbon liquid fuels, it’s ridiculous, frankly, that we are exporting more and more and more of our feedstock to other countries to make low carbon fuels. These are things we should be making here in Australia. It’s good for our farmers. It’s good for our manufacturing sector. It’s good for sectors like GrainCorp. And it’s good certainly for the country to be able to make those here. 

I’m going to hand over to the CEO of GrainCorp to say a few words. And then I’ll be happy to take some questions. 

ROBERT SPURWAY: Thank you, Minister. And welcome, everyone, to GrainCorp’s site at Newcastle, our Carrington terminal, one of our seven ports across Australia. We’re always very proud to show off the infrastructure that we operate. And today’s announcements around low carbon fuels for Australia and the consultation on that is an exciting opportunity to build confidence in the opportunity that GrainCorp is working on alongside IFM investors. 

It’s an opportunity for the agriculture sector to supply feedstocks to meet the objectives the government set out on a transition to a low carbon economy, particularly in the transport space for sustainable aviation fuel and biodiesel. So, we’re delighted to be involved in the consultation. We see it as a huge opportunity not just for GrainCorp but for the whole sector, and we’re very proud to be hosting the Minister and the Government here today for this announcement. 

CATHERINE KING: Happy to take some questions. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, I take it that there will be quite a significant amount of infrastructure needed to be able to manufacture the various fuels and that will be a major part of the consultation, I imagine? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, the really good thing about low-carbon liquid fuels is often we’ve already got the infrastructure. We’ve got the infrastructure at airports to actually be able to blend the sustainable aviation fuel. We’ve got the pipelines to transport this fuel already. And that’s the beauty of low-carbon liquid fuels, is a lot of that infrastructure is already in place. 

What we’re trying to do is really, from the farm to bowser, to understand what creates the incentive for industry to invest in actually producing these fuels here in this country. There is a lot of incentive to export feedstock at the moment. We want to try and grow that feedstock. Obviously, that’s important to be able to do that. Use the existing tallow and feedstock or where we actually transport that through and actually then produce those fuels here. But a lot of the beauty of this is that there is already existing infrastructure that is in place to actually develop these here now. We’re just not doing it yet. 

JOURNALIST: In terms of the actual challenges that you’ve heard so far or some that you anticipate, yeah, what are they? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, obviously the feedstock is incredibly important. And our feedstock is very valuable to other countries in producing low-carbon liquid fuels. We want to be able to grow that here in this country for farmers. We want to keep being able to export, but we also want to make sure that we can convert that here in this country into low-carbon liquid fuels and then actually use that in our aviation sector, in our heavy haulage sector, right the way, particularly when we think of east to west just how much we’re transporting that way but all the way up the eastern seaboard as well in our heavy haulage sector, being able to actually use those fuels there to really help decarbonise the transport sector as well. 

The challenges really are there, but the opportunities are there as well. Opportunities for our farmers, opportunities for our producers, opportunities for our refiners, really particularly in regional Australia for the jobs that come with both transporting and really making these low‑carbon liquid fuels here in this country. 

JOURNALIST: Is it also an issue of trying to make it more economically viable as opposed to, you know, people along the supply chain just being able to export? 

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well, very much. We know that there are investors looking to invest today. This is really the partnership between GrainCorp and IFM that they’re exploring at the moment. We know BP over in the west, we know that Ampol and Jet Zero over in Queensland are looking very seriously about investing here in this country to produce low-carbon liquid fuels. 

One of the things that we have that is incredibly important is that we are very aviation dependent. We live a long way away from the places that people want to visit and places where freight needs to get to. In order to decarbonise aviation, sustainable aviation fuel is really the point that we need to actually develop. At the moment most of our long haulage flights are purchasing that sustainable aviation fuel overseas. We want to be able to make it here and actually have it purchased here and that value actually coming into Australian industries for Australian jobs. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, on the announcement today on the tenders for the high-speed trains. I take it that you will be very pleased to see that’s progressing. 

CATHERINE KING: Very, very much so. So today we’ve also announced the first package of tenders that have been awarded for the High Speed Rail Authority. We are very serious about getting high speed rail from Newcastle to Sydney. And what I’ve said all the way along is we want to get every element of this right – from the planning to the financing to understanding the route, the trains to be used, the technology to be used and how we actually look at that as a really important passenger service. Because, really, this is not just about trains; it’s actually about the economic development of Newcastle and the Hunter as a whole. 

I’ve had the great opportunity of going and having a look at High Speed Rail 1 and 2 over in the UK, and the transformation that High Speed Rail 2 is seeing in Birmingham where you’ve got major companies taking the decision to take their headquarters out of London to actually locate in the city of Birmingham, that’s the sort of thing we really see the opportunity of high speed rail making not just for Newcastle but also the Central Coast. 

So the package announced today is very much about ensuring that we’ve got the right people, the right technology and the right information in place to ensure that we can actually build this important piece of infrastructure and plan this properly. 

JOURNALIST: How far off is it in becoming a reality? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, the first part, the first milestone is today, is ensuring that we’ve actually got the right people and the right technical people in place to provide the business case which is to come to government at the end of the year. 

There’s already $500 million allocated for doing this planning work, doing the technical capability and doing the corridor preservation. And then the Government will need to make a further investment decision, a further financing decision from there and the business case that’s due to me at the end of the year is very much part of that. 

JOURNALIST: A question for you, Sharon. Just on a separate issue, we’re seeing some new stats being released about domestic violence offending rising to 42 per cent this year in New South Wales. I guess, what is your government doing locally in the Newcastle area to support victims, and then how can we stamp out this kind of offending? 

SHARON CLAYDON: Well, the Albanese Labor Government in Australia that has ever taken an ambition to end domestic violence in a single generation to the Australian people. The national scourge of violence against women is something that every single person at any level of government, in any role in our community, in any workplace, should take very seriously. This is a huge epidemic of mostly male violence that occurs in Australia, and there is – the government has invested a $3.4 billion package around women’s safety. I know that often when you use big figures people’s eyes glaze over in what does that mean on the ground. So, locally for us it’s investing in a specialised primary health service at the moment where we’ve just finished trialling on the Central Coast where the recent Budget is extended to that program so that we can run that over another five sites. We’ll have one here in the Newcastle area and perhaps other parts of the Hunter where we’ve seen those alarming rates of domestic violence. 

So that is ensuring that we’ve got primary health workers working at the front end, like, in the refuges, in the crisis accommodation places, ensuring people get the free Medicare health services that they require for themselves and their children. We know that this is often the first time these women have actually had a primary health care plan and picking up a lot of issues, so that is a really important step. We’ve made lots of changes to family law and there’s more in the pipeline around making sure that when women take that very brave decision to leave a violent relationship and they’re then forced through a legal process, that that is one that is delivering more fair and equitable outcomes and that the primary focus is around the best interests of the children and keeping them safe as well. 

So, you know, for the Albanese Labor Government this is an issue that crosses absolutely every portfolio area. So, it’s not just a women’s issue. And I think we really need to understand that in Australia. Like, this is an issue that belongs to all of us. And we don’t just leave it to women to do all the heavy lifting. So, you know, whether you’re the Attorney-General, the Health Minister, the Education Minister, the Infrastructure Minister, we are all thinking about this issue. We apply a gender lens across every piece of legislation that comes before the Australian parliament. 

These are issues we are thinking deeply about. We have a very strong commitment to end violence in a generation. A lot of people said to us, “You’re kidding. You know, like, don’t make yourself a big target like that.” Well, you know, if this is not something that governments would want to commit to, if it’s not something the Australian people want to commit to, you know, I don’t know what else we would take so seriously. So I think it is an ambition. It is an ambitious target, but it is not one that should be beyond us. Thank you. 

SPEAKER: Great, thank you for that.