CANBERRA: Federal Labor will develop a plan to modernise Australia’s electricity sector that will include training for employees out of work due to a boost in renewable energy.
The opposition’s electricity modernisation plan will focus on slashing carbon pollution while trying to minimise costs for business and consumers. It would also aim to help local communities adapt to changes in key industries.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will announce the plan in a speech to the All-Energy Council, while reconfirming Labor’s focus on renewables as a source of economic growth. “Because renewable energy is at the heart of our view of the jobs, industries and environment of the next century,” he will tell the council in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Labor recently announced it wanted 50 per cent of Australia’s energy to come from renewables by 2030 and has committed to introducing an emissions trading scheme to curb carbon pollution. Mr Shorten said the goal was a managed, predictable transition process. He also welcomed the change in debate on renewable energy since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took over the top job from Tony Abbott.
Since taking office three weeks ago, Mr Turnbull has changed the government’s rhetoric on renewable energy to signal a push for growth and confidence in the sector. Mr Abbott famously labelled wind turbines “visually awful” while his treasurer Joe Hockey thought they were “utterly offensive”. The Abbott government convinced the parliament to slash the nation’s renewable energy target after months of political stalemate that crippled investment in clean energy.
But the opposition leader believes the nation can now have a debate about policy, rather than rhetoric, and has set the stage for a “battle of ideas”. “The muzzling of the far-right’s ideological attack dogs in the clean energy debate is long over due,” he said.
