We can go “toe-to-toe” on IRA: Albanese hints at an Australian Green Deal

Australia looks poised to get its own version of the so-called Green Deals of other countries, with prime minister Anthony Albanese promising his government will go “toe-to-toe” – if not “dollar-for-dollar” – on policies to establish Australia as a renewables powerhouse and a booming net-zero economy.

In a speech to be delivered at a dinner in Newcastle on Friday night, Albanese will again make the case that no nation is better placed to achieve its own net-zero transition and “power it in the world” than Australia.

But this time, speaking to a Hunter region crowd that finds itself at the pointy end of the transition to renewables and green industry, he will add that “government has to be a partner in this, not just an observer.”

“Fifty years ago, the Liddell Power Station was brand new – and it was the most powerful generating station in Australia,” the prime minister will say.

“Today, the future of that site lies in renewable energy. It’s a snapshot of the economic and energy transformation underway in Australia, particularly in regional Australia.

“A journey that every advanced economy has embarked on. And a race that Australia can win.”

The appeal to a New South Wales regional and industrial heartland comes as federal Labor braces against an increasingly brazen anti-renewables and pro-nuclear campaign from Liberal National Party ranks, as well as an increasingly disenchanted segment of voters from “the bush” feeling overburdened and under-informed about their part in decarbonisation.

Clear communication, as much as sound policy and the necessary public funds to back it up, will be crucial from here on in.

“Every nation needs to decarbonise and electrify,” the prime minister will say.

“When we talk about a future made in Australia – we want it made the Australian way. Not entering a race to the bottom on pay and conditions but driving a new generation of good jobs and fair wages in safe workplaces. Highly-skilled workers, making high-value products.

“That’s the economic high road – and it runs right through the Hunter.

“This is a task that traverses far more than energy policy, or industry policy. This is a whole-of-nation opportunity and it demands a whole-of-economy approach.

“It all has to fit together, it all has to pull in the same direction.”

In contrast to the previous iterations of the Coalition government, federal Labor under Albanese and with Chris Bowen as climate and energy minister has done a great deal to get Australia back up to speed with the rest of the developed world on renewables and decarbonisation.

But after a year that saw new solar and wind project approvals fall to an eight year low there is plenty of pressure to do more to attract international investment and drive the kind of growth needed to meet current emissions and renewable energy targets.

In particular, industry and investor groups have been pushing for Australia’s federal government to come up with an answer to world-leading policies like Europe’s Green Deal, or the US Inflation Reduction Act, which has directed hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding to clean energy while also using tax incentives to drive investment in clean energy.

“You can see that in the unprecedented investments the United States and the EU and Japan and Korea are making in their industrial bases,” Albanese acknowledges in the speech.

“We don’t have to go dollar-for-dollar in our spending. But we can go toe-to-toe on the quality and impact of our policies.

“Our new Net Zero Economy Authority will be part of that. Working with business and industry in the Hunter, so they can invest in reducing their emissions.

“In all of this, we must be prepared to think big,” the prime minister will say.

“There is a huge prize on offer here, across every sector of our economy and in every market in our region. That’s why I talk about Australia as a renewable energy superpower – because that’s the truly global scale of the opportunity.

“Those are the stakes. That’s the path so many countries are trying to find for themselves. And Government has to be a partner in this, not just an observer.”