Energy, health, homes, jobs and farm picker crisis drive Bush Summit debate
Sparks flew as the debate over Australia’s energy future took centre stage at The Daily Telegraph’s third Bush Summit on Friday. Read our blog to recap the day's events.
Sparks flew as the debate over Australia’s energy future took centre stage at The Daily Telegraph’s third Bush Summit on Friday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, ahead of the COP26 UN Climate conference in Glasgow, said the bush had a crucial role to play in the country’s “low emissions future”.
“We’ve had your back as you’ve faced the fires and floods and calamities of recent years,” Mr Morrison told The Bush Summit. “And we’ll have your back as the world transitions to the new energy economy.”
He predicted that “technology not taxes” would help drive up to 100,000 new jobs by 2050 in hydrogen, renewable energy, green iron and alumina, and critical minerals.
"And the majority of those jobs will be in regional Australia,” he said.
Barnaby Joyce and Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes clash over the value of renewables during The Bush Summit. Picture: Toby Zerna
But in a fiery debate Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes told the man Mr Morrison left in charge in his absence, acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce: “I still don’t see a plan to get us there.”
Mr Joyce argued that renewables took jobs and that there were mining towns across NSW but no renewable towns.
“We've had a six-fold increase in power prices in a year, up to 850,000 people a night have been losing the energy provider … chaos, because the wind power was unable to fill the void,” Mr Joyce said.
“There’s no point shaking your head, you are wrong mate,” he said.
“There was a 40 per cent gap that was supposed to be provided by renewables because … of a wind drought.”
Mr Cannon-Brookes argued that “Australia’s future was underpinned by renewables” and that every town was a renewable town.
“Our mining industry will benefit massively from the decarbonisation of the world … we’re going to need to do a lot more of it,” he said.
“All of the critical minerals, all of the essential elements that go into any form of global carbonisation, we’re in the leading pack for almost all of those things.”
NSW Jobs and Investment minister Stuart Ayres told a panel on The Great Inland Migration that energy would drive what happens in rural and regional Australia.
“Hydrogen is a game changer right across the globe and here in NSW we have just released a hydrogen strategy that says we want to deliver 110,000 tons of hydrogen,” he said.
Daily Telegraph deputy editor Anna Caldwell interviews Premier Dominic Perrottet during the Bush Summit on Friday. Picture: Toby Zerna
But the shortage of suitable housing for the workers taking those jobs needed to be addressed.
Housing minister Melinda Pavey conceded: “There is no doubt there are some big challenges, costs have gone up.”
One solution to the immediate crisis was “granny flats,” she said.
Mental Health Minister Bronwyn Taylor said the government has “thrown billions of dollars” at the lack of doctors and specialists in the regions but “we still don’t have a solution”.
She said the focus was trying to reduce the waiting times to see a psychologist.
The Summit also looked at the recovery from Covid.
NSW Farmers head of policy Annabel Johnson said there are challenges: “Number one is workforce. We have this amazing crop across the majority of the state but farmers only get paid once we get the crop off and we get it off to market.
“That’s where we’re running into issues, with the borders having been closed for so long we have a 16,000 worker deficit in NSW.”
NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole said he had been working with Foreign Minister Marise Payne to get the first of 55,000 Pacific Islanders into the state.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott used the even to urge the Coalition to take a proposal of domestic nuclear power to the next election in order to differentiate itself from Labor.
Mr Abbott said that laws banning nuclear energy no longer make sense and need to be scrapped.
Mr Morrison has rejected recent calls to lift the ban on nuclear energy amid staunch opposition from Labor.
Speaking from Washington DC in high-powered panel discussion held across five international time-zones, Mr Abbott said that makes things more “complicated” for the government, but it could be used as an election issue.
“There doesn’t appear to be as much difference between the two major parties as normal, and in the end, elections are contests, not coronations,” Mr Abbott said.
“There’s going to have to be something that the two parties are arguing about at the next election. If we were to say, look, over time, we are going to move to a civil nuclear industry in Australia, that would be a way of sharpening the difference between the Liberal/National Coalition and the Labor opposition, and that might not be such a bad thing.”
The Summit drew up a communique of six points including mental and physical health, housing, energy, jobs and trade that need to be add dressed in the future.
The Daily Telegraph’s editor Ben English said challenges remain in the bush.
“That’s why the Bush Summit is not just a one-day event. It’s an always-on commitment from The Daily Telegraph.
“It forces us to devote our resources and attention to the most pressing issues facing our regions,” he said.
The Daily Telegraph’s next Bush Summit will be held in Griffith in the Riverina next year.
Updates
Editor: Bush Summit a big week for news, policy and ideas
Daily Telegraph Editor Ben English wrapped up the 2021 Daily Telegraph Bush Summit with the communique for next year’s Bush Summit.
“During the week, The Daily Telegraph, we’ve broken a lot of news in the lead-up to today’s event,” he said.
“For example $35 million for a regional housing package for health professionals.
“We also revealed that the state government is going right back to the drawing board on the controversial water policy, declaring that a failure after 10 years.
“We have a $50 million scheme to drive innovation in soil carbon capture and $130 million for mental health recovery.
“And today’s front page, the 55 Pacific Island workers who are on their way to help with our expected $8 billion harvest.”|
“Today’s Bush Summit has revealed more pressing issues as you’ve identified and they need to be tackled. So we’ve captured them in the Communique for 2021.”
Perrottet: Bush businesses need workforce for harvest season
With rural and regional NSW facing a workforce shortage crisis Mr Perrottet said it’s “a better issue to have than higher unemployment".
"I’d rather be talking about labour shortages than high unemployment but from the first of November, for anyone returning into Australia through NSW, you won’t have to quarantine if you’re fully vaccinated,” he said.
“That is sending a strong signal that we’re open for business.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet taking part in The Bush Summit on Friday. Picture: Toby Zerna
“We’ve seen Victoria follow our lead and I know the federal government’s working incredibly hard to move not just returning Australians back in but ultimately deal with the labour shortages as well.”
“We need to do it quickly because businesses in the bush rely on the harvest season to make a living.”
Perrottet: People want bold ideas that improve lives
Premier Dominic Perrottet said people running “scare campaigns on reforming the tax system were indulging in “lazy politics” in his view.
“I think that the people of our state, as we move into a post pandemic world, want to see bold ideas that can improve the lives of people,” he told The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet taking part In Conversation with Daily Telegraph Deputy Editor Anna Caldwell. Picture: Toby Zerna
“Housing affordability, whether you’re in Sydney or regional NSW, is one of the biggest issues our state and nation is facing and fortune favours the brave.”
“If the ultimate outcome is ensuring that young people particularly can get the keys to their home for the very first time – what a great thing that would be.”
"I don’t want to live in a state where my kids don’t have the same opportunity that I have had and my parents have had.”
Perrottet: Regional NSW a focus of ecomonic recovery
The NSW Premier said investing in regional NSW will be a focus in the state's economic recovery plan.
"We're investing in putting about 8000 new medical staff across the state, of which two-thirds will be in regional NSW, and that's a really positive thing," Mr Perrottet told The Bush Summit.
"We've also got to encourage people to go to the bush because it's a great place to live and if you've invested right across the board in connectivity, education and in health well more people from Sydney, around the country and around the world will see regional NSW as a great place to live."
"We've got a program right now where businesses coming to NSW are exempt from a certain amount of payroll tax … we want taxes lower, we want wages higher but we want to have a system that drives growth and opportunity."
Perrottet: 'Everyone in NSW deserves modern healthcare'
At The Bush Summit this afternoon, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has told Daily Telegraph Deputy Editor Anna Caldwell that everyone across NSW deserves modern healthcare.
“Wherever you live in the state, even in remote areas, you should have access to the best health care, the best education, the highest quality services and I think from our government's perspective, we’ve obviously had significant investment over a period of time in the last 10 years but there are always challenges in the bush,” he ssaid.
“I think if we can set up regional and remote NSW in such a way that everybody wherever they live has access to better services then that would be a great thing for the state.”
“We’ve had a significant infrastructure focus … there’s $108 billion over the next four years.
"That's a lot of hospitals and a lot of schools but it’s really what’s behind the bricks is delivering that modern healthcare that people right across our state deserve.”
What changes would you like to see for regional NSW?
The Bush Summit's panel for Trade Relations has been asked: "What changes would you like to see for regional NSW?"
Here are their answers:
Sunrice CEO Rob Gordon: “The opportunity to have a strategy to developing the bush and playing to our strengths and then having government lining up behind private enterprise."
The Exchange founder and CEO Jillian Kilby: "I’ve watched so many incredible women export products from side hustles and from the kitchen bench at the farm through Buy From The Bush. I’ve watched so many of these products go around the world and if we could see more of that – how wonderful."
Ampol managing director and CEO Matt Halliday: “For me it’s about the innovation and the ingenuity of regional Australia. There’s so many opportunities that are in front of Australia and in front of NSW. I’m very excited to see them harnessed."
NSW Farmers president and Guyra farmer James Jackson: "Release the beast would be my comment. I think we need to take the red and green tape off agriculture, off regional Australia and let people develop these solutions, free from the government."
Founder and CEO of The Exchange in Dubbo Jillian Kilby said “what’s missing from the conversation” about trade relations and opportunities is the role of the government in market failures.
“Infrastructure across regional NSW is what drives our trade – getting something from the paddock to the ship, it will travel on our inland rail," she told The Bush Summit.
"It travels on our Hunter Valley coal chain, it passes through our special activation precincts which are being built."
“The role of government is providing security and sustainability and what we haven’t touched on is the fact that our fuel supply is as low as 21 days for diesel.”
“This is a problem that can actually be solved in regional Australia. Storage of diesel, movement of diesel across the inland rail, across our other rail lines and in through our ports has not been discussed and one thing that Covid showed us is we have lost our sovereign manufacturing capability.”
"We can run out of diesel in 21 days and that's our bumper harvest on the 19th of November 2021."
Advisor to UK's Board of Trade and former PM Tony Abbott hs told the Bush Summit he believes "Britain and Australia have complimentary economies".
"I even think that we tend to have complementary economies when it comes to farm stuff because British farming tends to be boutique, high-end farming," Mr Abbott said.
"Our farming, a lot of it anyway, is commodity farming. So I think when it's explained properly, even anxious British farmers are prepared to see the benefits of all of this."
Joyce: Batteries not good enough to keep power prices down
Mike Cannon-Brooks has told Barnaby Joyce, during a heated conversation, that “based on the numbers that are in the pamphlet, we’re going to somewhere between 85 and 90 per cent reduce the emissions of our electricity grid between now and 2030".
"The numbers that are in there that I can kind of see. How does that happen without us getting renewables?”
“Electricity is covering the lion share of the emission reductions that we’re planning on. How’s it going to happen if it’s not through renewables?"
Mr Joyce replied that he believed we "need special capacity, which means you’re going to have vastly more water storage as one of the most effective batteries".
“If you’ve got batteries themselves, the batteries that we have at the moment … they run through a short period of time … they’re capacity is just not there.”
“One would hope that technology takes that ahead where you’d see things like Snowy Hydro 2.0 coming on site. But of course when you put the price of Snowy Hydro 2.0 to give you 24/7 reliability for the wind powers, the price of wind power and that renewable goes through the roof.”
Cannon-Brookes: Mining to benefit from decarbonisation
Mike Cannon-Brooks believes "Australia's future is underpinned by renewables in a decarbonised economy".
“It’s all of the towns in Australia. In every region in Australia,” he said.
“You’re comparing to centralised assets. When you talk about a town, you’re talking about something like a mine or a plant which exists in one place. That’s a very important point.
“Renewables are far more democratic, you can build solar panels all over the place. What it does is it spreads jobs across all of the regions.”
"Secondly we've got to divorce mining from fossil fuels."
"Our mining industry will benefit massively from the decarbonisation of the world. That is a really important point."
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