Creating jobs, cutting power bills and reducing emissions by boosting renewable energy are at the centre of Labor’s Powering Australia plan.
This plan will bring cheaper renewable energy to Australian homes and businesses.
For nearly a decade, the Liberal Government’s mismanagement of our energy policy has been a threat to our economy – leaving Australia missing out on the jobs, growth, and opportunities that our abundant renewable resources could unlock.
Our Policies:
* Cut power bills for families by $275 a year by 2025.
* Create more than 600,000 jobs, with five out of six in regional Australia.
* Reduce emissions by 43% by 2030.
* Put Australia on track for net zero emissions by 2050.
* Spur $76 billion of investment.
* Boost renewable energy in our grid.
* Connect regional renewable energy projects up to the national energy grid.
* Make electric vehicles cheaper.
* Build community batteries to connect more Australian households to renewable energy.
* Upgrade the electricity grid to fix energy transmission and drive down power prices.
* Make electric vehicles cheaper with an electric car discount and Australia’s first National Electric Vehicle Strategy.
* Adopt the Business Council of Australia’s recommendation for facilities already covered by the Government’s Safeguard Mechanism that emissions be reduced gradually and predictably over time, to support international competitiveness and economic growth – consistent with industry’s own commitment to net zero by 2050.
* Protect the competitiveness of Emissions Intensive Trade Exposed industries by ensuring they will not face a greater constraint than their competitors.
* Allocate up to $3 billion from Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund to invest in green metals (steel, alumina and aluminium); clean energy component manufacturing; hydrogen electrolysers and fuel switching; agricultural methane reduction and waste reduction.
* Provide direct financial support for measures that improve energy efficiency within existing industries and develop new industries in Regional Australia through a new Powering the Regions Fund.
* Roll out 85 solar banks around Australia to ensure more households can benefit from rooftop solar.
* Install 400 community batteries across the country.
* Demonstrate Commonwealth leadership by reducing the Australian Public Service’s own emissions to net zero by 2030.
* Invest in 10,000 New Energy Apprentices and a New Energy Skills Program.
* Establish a real-world vehicle fuel testing program to inform consumer choice.
* Work with large businesses to provide greater transparency on their climate related risks and opportunities.
* Re-establish leadership by restoring the role of the Climate Change Authority, while keeping decision-making and accountability with Government and introducing new annual Parliamentary reporting by the Minister.
* Labor’s plan will see Australia re-join key trading partners in their ambition to 2030, like Canada (with its similar economic base) at 40-45%, South Korea at 40% and Japan at 46%.
* Labor will establish the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Corporation to partner with industry to build the energy transmission system that Australia needs at lowest cost to consumers.
* The Rewiring the Nation Corporation will:
* Work in partnership with transmission companies, providing low-cost finance to lower the cost of building the ISP and lowering the energy bills of families and businesses
* Require that Australian workers and supplies such as Australian steel are used, consistent with Australia’s trade obligations.