Transcript - Media conference - Canberra Airport

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for coming here today to Canberra Airport. I’m here with Catherine King and Chris Bowen to make an exciting announcement around sustainable aviation fuel. Canberrans are passionate travellers and keen environmentalists; enthusiastic about seeing the world but wanting to make sure that we look after the planet at the same time. And that’s why today’s announcement is so important.

I’m really pleased as a representative of the ACT alongside Alicia Payne, Dave Smith and Katy Gallagher that Canberra is a place where Chris and Catherine chose to make this important announcement. So I’ll now hand over to Chris Bowen.

CHRIS BOWEN : Thanks very much, Andrew. Australians love flying. But Australians also want to see their country move to net zero. And what we need to do, therefore, is work with the aviation sector on practical and real solutions to see emissions from aviation come down. Emissions from aviation are only one and a half per cent of our national emissions, but if we’re going to reduce emissions by 43 per cent and get to net zero, we need to make every post a winner. And that means working very carefully and closely to reduce emissions from aviation.

Aviation is what we call a hard-to-abate sector. People in the sector want to reduce emissions, but it’s genuinely difficult. And there’s going to be a range of solutions – electric planes will play a role in short haul travel, say Sydney to Canberra. Green hydrogen will step forward and play a big role, but that’s got a lot of work to do in the meantime. In the middle is sustainable aviation fuel, taking aviation fuel and making it step by step more sustainable. It’s happening around the world but we don’t have a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia at the moment, and we should have one. Other countries, most notably the United States, you can get early stages of sustainable aviation fuel. We want to see Australia at the front of the pack.

So two announcements today – one from me and one and one from my friend and colleague Catherine King – are all about steps to make that a reality. When you think about Australia, we have a great, thriving agriculture sector, biomass can play a big role in sustainable aviation fuel. That will create jobs across regional Australia. It will create jobs for traditional agricultural industries providing feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel.

So today we’re announcing that ARENA, the federal government’s renewable investment agency, will invest $30 million to work with companies to make sustainable aviation fuel a reality – not interested at this point in early stage research; that work has been done. This is about late stage research taking work that’s already been done and turning it into commercial reality, making it available for Australia’s airlines and, indeed, for international airlines to refuel in Australia.

Qantas calls Australia home; we want to make Australia a home for sustainable aviation fuel. So these grant applications will open in the coming weeks and will be open until November. So I invite people who are interested in developing Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry to apply for $30 million of funding. It will make a difference to taking good research that’s already occurred and taking it to the next step to make that a reality. This is really important, working with our aviation sector and the work that Catherine is leading in collaboration, which she’ll say more about and make more announcements about the work that she’s leading, to ensure that the Albanese government is collaborating with our airlines and our fuel industry more broadly. It is really, really important on our journey to net zero.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much, Chris. And can I thank Andy Leigh for having us here in his electorate today but also thank you to Canberra Airport and Canberra Airport representatives who are here today. It is a beautiful airport and it’s terrific to be here on this frosty Canberra morning.

Well, thanks, Chris, very much for that announcement. These are great partnerships across both of our portfolios to really look at how we make aviation sustainable in this country. And the fact that now ARENA is opening up $30 million worth of grants and it’s also great for our agricultural sector. We know there are people, particularly in industries like the sugar industry that are looking for new ways to develop their products and the feedstock with sustainable aviation fuel is an exciting opportunity for many of them. So I thank Chris very much for that announcement.

Leading across the government the work around trying to decarbonise aviation and, as Chris says, it’s a very hard-to-abate sector, is the announcement we made several months ago now for Jet Zero Council. Today we are formalising the membership of that council so that we can begin not only building a sustainable aviation fuel industry here in Australia but also looking to help across the whole of the aviation sector in Australia so we can actually look at reducing emissions.

Today, as I said, we’re announcing it will be comprised of airports and major airlines. I’ve got Shahana here from Sustainable Aviation Fuel Australia New Zealand to say a few words as well. Our fuel producers are also involved, as are ARENA and our scientific agencies such as CSIRO. It’s been based on a similar concept that’s come out of the United Kingdom and the Jet Zero Council will really lead that work not just in sustainable aviation fuel but other parts of the industry so that we know that government is getting the best advice it can and working in partnership with the industry to really decarbonise this hard-to-abate sector in transport.

We know Australians love to fly. Aviation has come roaring back, but we have our part to play very much in getting to net zero and getting to that important target we have now legislated. And I thank Chris very much. He’s a great partner for us to be able to [indistinct] with in the transport sector to really try and make sure the lead that we have been taking for over a decade now is really [indistinct].

I might just hand over to Shahana from SAFANZ to say a few words as well.

SHAHANA MCKENZIE: Thank you, Catherine, and thank you, Chris and Andrew. Today is an incredible day for aviation in Australia and, in particular, an incredible day for decarbonising aviation. As an industry we have set a target of 1 billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel being delivered in Australia, refined here, given to planes in Australia for use in Australia. A sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia can deliver an additional 80 thousand jobs, most of those in regional Australia, and an additional 3 billion GDP per annum. This is a new industry and we are absolutely delighted with the announcements today.

What the government have done in the last 12 months in relation to decarbonisation is some significant heavy lifting, and why are absolutely thrilled that aviation is on the table, we’re getting the attention that we need in order to drive this industry forward and to deliver. So thank you so much, everyone. We’re delighted to be working with the government to address this sector.