Sky News with Kieran Gilbert Transcript, 17 July 2024
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's go from Milwaukee to Armidale now and New South Wales, to the Assistant Trade Minister, Tim Ayres, Assistant Minister for Manufacturing as well. Thanks for braving the elements. I know it's a bit chilly up there in New England today. You're at a solar energy facility. Wouldn't be generating a lot of energy today, given the cloud cover. But, what's the ambition there?
SENATOR TIM AYRES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING: Let the record be really clear, Kieran, there is nothing I won't do for Kieran Gilbert. Standing in the middle of a paddock. It is horizontal sleet here in the New England. It's very good to be home in the New England, but it's bitterly cold. The renewable energy zone around the New England is slated to provide eight megawatts of power for New South Wales and Queensland. It's an example of the kind of investment when there's policy certainty, evidence-based policy and a government that's prepared to put its shoulder behind the wheel to deliver reliable and low-cost renewable energy and storage. This area in the New England [has] some of the best solar, wind and hydro resources in the country. Working with the Federal Government and the New South Wales Government, this will deliver cheap renewable power for industry and for households.
GILBERT: And on that storage component, that's the big question, and a lot of the critics would say there isn't the sustainability, there isn't the permanence or reliability around solar and wind. Where is that storage piece up to right now?
AYRES: Well, this is the problem. And I think Chris Bowen set it out really clearly in the speech today; you've got two starkly different visions for Australia and our energy. One vision that works. That is where the energy market operator, all of the experts are taking Australia, Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese leading clarity of position around the future of our energy, low price, reliable renewable energy and storage. On the other side of the argument, you've got this sort of moving, irrational argument. David Littleproud, the other day, said we should keep sweating coal assets. There wasn't a single day over the course of the last year where one of our coal fired power stations wasn't closed down. You know, it just defies belief. The Peter Dutton recipe for the energy sector is; low reliability, higher prices, and nuclear reactors coming to a community near you, whether you like it or not.
GILBERT: I know obviously that's going to be a big part of your election campaign, that nuclear component, but you're a member of the national executive of Labor. I want to ask you about the CFMEU, a former union official yourself, not that union, but you will have involvement in terms of the response here. It goes into administration, overseen by the Fair Work Commission. But does this also mean the national executive that Labor will cease taking donations from this controversial union?
AYRES: There’s two parts of this and I want to really clearly separate them out. Firstly, what Tony Burke, the Workplace Relations Minister, announced today was a tough and effective set of interventions into the CFMEU construction division that is designed to restore that union to proper governance, to doing its job on behalf of construction workers. Because all of us, all of us are completely appalled by what we have seen over the last few days. The premiers have written to the national executive, asking the executive to intervene into the affairs of the state branches of the Labor Party, New South Wales and Victoria, and some other areas, to suspend the affiliation of the CFMEU so that they no longer participate in the affairs of the Labor Party, and that they, you know, no longer make donations or affiliations. The executive will meet tomorrow. I don't, as a matter of principle, Kieran, comment on the internal deliberations of the national executive of the Labor Party, but we have received those representations from the premiers. We will act on them, and we will act on them in accordance with the wishes of the premiers, and that is clear, decisive action in the Labor Party, because these allegations are absolutely appalling and shameful, and we are determined as a Labor Party to act with integrity here.
GILBERT: Senator Ayres, thank you, and thank you for braving the elements in the beautiful part of New England that you are in today. We'll let you get inside and get warm.
ENDS.
