Tania Constable interview with Steve Price News24

Topics: low carbon liquid fuels

E&OE

STEVE PRICE: Thank you very much for that. Okay, let’s turn our attention now to national politics. I want to go to the revelations yesterday about a new consultation paper. It’s been released by Energy Minister Chris Bowen, which reveals the government, can you believe it, is exploring the creation of a carbon credit trading system as a way to stop consumers, that is farmers and miners and the airlines and trucking companies, from using traditional diesel petrol and jet fuel. Now, critics say the plans have all the hallmarks of a Julia Gillard era emissions trading scheme. Now, those of us with long memories would remember exactly what happened to Labor in 2013 during the Federal Election when that was a live issue. Have a look.

JULIA GILLARD: There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

STEVE PRICE: Well, those quotes, of course, went on to haunt Julia Gillard throughout her Prime Ministership. Tania Constable is the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Council of Australia, joins us now from Canberra. Tania, welcome. I mean, they’re having a lend of it, surely. The government says this is about cleaner fuel and greater fuel security. But if the scheme makes diesel and petrol more expensive, isn’t that ultimately just another cost on business?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, great to be with you, Steve. And while we support low carbon liquid fuels as an industry, it must be a voluntary scheme. Anything that mandates low-carbon liquid fuels being mandated on industries across Australia, such as the mining industry, which is a global industry. And we want to make sure that we are not bound by something that is going to impose additional costs on our industry as a whole. And that’s what we think that this is going to do. The paper itself says that we can expect to see two to five times higher costs on industry. So, you can imagine any tradie driving a ute across Australia paying two to five times more than they have to by the use of a low-carbon liquid fuel mandate. So, it must be voluntary. And if there is a need for it, if there is a market for it, then that should come forward without it being mandated across industry, across individuals.

STEVE PRICE: What’s your suspicion, Tania, of what they want to do?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Oh, it’s cost upon cost upon cost. It’s about ensuring that we see lower emissions occurring across the whole economy. We already have a Safeguard Mechanism that is doing the job to bring down emissions. And 50 per cent of mining-related facilities sit in the Safeguard Mechanism, and there is a ratcheting down on that Safeguard Mechanism year upon year out to 2030.

And companies are required to reduce emissions if they’re over 100,000 tonnes, they’re in that Safeguard Mechanism. A lot of our companies are. So they’ve got to bring down emissions, and if they don’t, then there is a cost associated with that. So, emissions reduction is occurring in our industries. And there are other ways that the government is trying to bring down emissions through the 82 per cent renewables focus and other parts of the economy. But for mining, the Safeguard Mechanism is the way that the mining industry is addressing emissions and we’re making sure that that happens. If not, there’s a cost given associated with it.

STEVE PRICE: Given the state of the economy, I mean, I think the last thing you want to be doing is trying to put more regulation and cost on top of big mining for a start. And you make an excellent point that, you know, somebody who’s driving around in a Ford Ranger or a VW Amarok being forced to go and buy more expensive ethanol-type fuel, that’s just a cost that they were going to pass on to the consumer.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Oh, that’s exactly right. We expect that any sort of changes here are probably going to be inflationary. We have a cost of living crisis. We cannot do more than what we are doing at the moment. The country cannot bear more than it is currently facing. So these sorts of schemes need to be voluntary, and if there are industries that want to go into these schemes, then they should be able to.

But the mining industry, we expect that we’ll be able to reduce emissions and are reducing emissions where it’s appropriate across our whole industry. We’d like to get to electrification, particularly on mine sites, we’re some while away from that. But the Safeguard Mechanism is the way that we are reducing emissions right at the moment. With this low carbon liquid fuel scheme, it is very much an overlap with the Safeguard Mechanism and again, that is a problem that the industry has pointed out already and will be pointing out in this consultation phase.

We’re also concerned about the government picking winners at this time by mandating the use of waste, cooking oils, canola. So, they’re very much picking winners where industries should be able to find a pathway that suits them if they want to go through this voluntary mechanism. So, there are so many flaws with this at the moment and I must say we are in a consultation phase but the industry is concerned about what we’re seeing at the moment and we don’t want to have our competitiveness attacked.

STEVE PRICE: I was going to ask you, I can see you sitting there in Canberra. So, the consultation phase is obviously active, is the government, and more particularly Minister Bowen, listening?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, we’re at early stages and we’re putting forward our views, we would expect to be heard. The mining industry, to be fair, has never had a problem accessing Minister Bowen’s office and putting our views forward. Whether they are acted upon, that is another issue altogether. But our position, as I said, will be one of a voluntary scheme, as opposed to it being mandated. There’s already been a phase where the government has put forward supply side measures and money has been allocated to a low carbon liquid fuels industry to get the industry up and running. But just imposing a mandatory scheme is totally inappropriate.

STEVE PRICE: Yeah, I hear you. You’re absolutely right. Good on you. Thank you, Tania. Nice to speak to you, Tania Constable.

ends