In a speech to the National Press Club, Smart Energy Council chief John Grimes urged Australia to stay on course with urgent energy reforms just weeks before the 48th Parliament opens.
He praised the Albanese Labor government and energy minister Chris Bowen for driving Australia’s global leadership in renewable energy.
And described how his visit to the SNEC solar conference in Shanghai reinforced Australia’s central role in the global solar boom.
He pointed to the legacy of UNSW’s Professor Martin Green and Sydney-trained Chinese researchers as foundational to today’s multi-trillion-dollar solar industry.
Grimes also squarely blamed the federal Coalition for obstructing progress, calling its anti-renewables stance a major cause of Australia’s current energy challenges.
“The Coalition has been coming after our industry since 2013,” said Grimes. “I’ve been chief executive of the Smart Energy Council for 17 years and it has been shocking to watch.”
He argued the Coalition’s internal politics have turned hostility to renewables into a loyalty test, built on the false claim that clean energy is unreliable and uncompetitive.
He criticised the Coalition’s election proposal to build seven nuclear reactors without costings, describing it as a deliberate strategy to undermine renewables and prolong fossil fuel use.
Grimes also called on the Coalition to align with science and economics, and promised industry support for any party that backs a clean, affordable, and evidence-based energy future.