ALISON BYRNES MP
MEMBER FOR CUNNINGHAM

 

Thank you for that warm introduction Simon (Kersten), 

 

I too would like to acknowledge the Dharawal people as traditional custodians of the land that we are meeting on, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

 

Thank you to the Urban Development Institute of Australia Illawarra-Shoalhaven Chapter for the invitation to be here today, and to talk about the proposed Illawarra offshore wind zone which is currently open for consultation.

 

I understand that this has been a difficult conversation for our community.  Despite the proposal being announced in August 2022, this has come as a shock to many people.  Whilst there are many offshore wind operations overseas, offshore wind is a very new concept to so many people in our community. 

 

Unfortunately, some in our community have used this as an opportunity to spread misinformation about the offshore wind industry. A repeat of a pattern we have seen overseas.  

 

According to Greenpeace,

“The manufactured hysteria is the result of fake news promoted by politicians, big oil, and their cronies to save the oil and gas industry, which is fuelling the climate crisis, destroying biodiversity, harming people’s health, and hastening social injustice. We must not allow baseless accusations to stall the transition to green, renewable energy or address the true threats to whale populations.”

 

Change is hard, and transforming our economy to a net zero emissions economy is hard.

 

Now before we get into the detail, lets cover what is proposed.

 

The proposed offshore wind area, and it is still only a proposal, is 1461 square kilometres running from Wombarra in the north to Gerringong in the south. The proposed zone will be 10 km from shore, out to 30km at Kiama with the potential to generate up to 4.2GW. This would be enough to power up to 3.4 million homes.

 

As many in this room would already know the journey of an offshore renewable energy area is not a concept that has been sprung on the Illawarra community overnight.

 

One of the reasons that I support the proposal of offshore wind is local jobs. 

 

When I was growing up, dad was a coal miner who was in and out of work during the tough economic conditions in the 80s and 90s.  We nearly lost our house on numerous occasions.

 

I don’t want to see any coalmining, steel working or manufacturing family go through what my family went through. 

 

We have to do all we can to ensure that our local industry has a good source of clean energy to power our local economy – both business and households.

 

Our local union movement has been advocating from an investment of this kind for over 15 years, Business Illawarra have been advocating an investment since 2021, Paul Scully and NSW Labor secured the Illawarra as a Renewable Energy Zone in 2021 and the Albanese Labor Government announced the plan for an offshore wind zone in August 2022.

 

Earlier this year, we saw NSW Ports put out their plan for offshore wind at Port Kembla Port.

Since my election as the Labor Member for Cunningham in 2022 I have not shied away from speaking to the community about the opportunities and challenges that face us as we seek to decarbonise our economy. 

 

Considering an Illawarra offshore wind zone and how we prepare for the close to 2,500 construction jobs and 1,250 ongoing jobs that could come with such a proposal it is part of that discussion.

 

There are flow on impacts beyond the jobs themselves, the questions of skills, education, procurement, housing as well as trade and export opportunities to consider.

 

This is not an endeavour that is going to spring up overnight either – it’s likely to be over a decade.

 

And our community will be consulted - before any construction even commences and there will be at least three more opportunities for the community, including local businesses, to provide feedback.

 

Much research and planning will need to occur before we even see a turbine launching into the water, we will need to undertake detail and localised environmental studies to better understand bird flight paths and the marine environment.

 

Many people have raised with me concerns about the potential of windfarm being in conflict with whales and other large marine species.  And this concern is justified.  We must undertake the proper and localised research to understand what the impacts may or may not be. 

Offshore wind projects will be subject to the requirements under Commonwealth and State environment legislation, including the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

 

Approval under the EPBC Act includes an assessment of any impacts on mammals, fish and birds. As part of the licence application process, developers must demonstrate that they have implemented measures to avoid, manage, and mitigate any potential environmental impacts.

 

Due diligence must be applied and our strict EPBC requirements for new developments will be adhered.

 

Unfounded and false information about whales cannot be allowed to become a political football.

 

Greenpeace which has been campaigning of for the protection of marine environment since the 1970s made a clear and definitive statement about the coexistence of offshore wind and whales.

 

Just this week (31 Oct) Richard George from Greenpeace Australia Pacific told Win News:

“We came together 50 years ago to protect whales and we are still fighting to protect whales today, and having looked at all the evidence we think this project is so much better than alternatives like offshore gas or offshore oil which can be really harmful for our marine environment and cause climate change as well.   

There are no studies anywhere in the world that show windfarms killing whales, what we do know is that there are some impacts of offshore wind, of marine activity, anything we do in the sea has some impact."

 

When it comes to other environmental factors like the beach or surf conditions local and coastal geomorphologist and professor at the UNSW, Rob Brander, said:

“the good news is that the wind farms will have absolutely no impact on our surf, or on our beaches. All thanks to our wave climate and fundamental wave behaviour.”

 

He goes on to say, 

“What we should be worrying about is what climate change will do to them with rising sea levels and potentially more damaging storms.”

 

In Wollongong we call ourselves a City of Innovation, one that uses the world’s best science together with industry collaboration to overcome the challenges we face.

 

I believe that with this endeavour we will be able to demonstrate that we are still that place; a city of steel, energy and manufacturing harmoniously coexisting with stunning ecology, tourism and the marine environment.

 

The arrival of cruise ships here in the Illawarra prior to COVID saw the tour of BlueScope as one of the most popular tours for our cruise ship visitors.

 

One of the primary factors for me in this proposal, and why I campaigned for the Illawarra to be considered, is the economic benefits. 

 

I want local Illawarra families to have good, secure, long term and well-paid jobs and to be able to live right here without the need for long daily commutes.

 

Building offshore renewable energy will not only provide opportunities for our local businesses – big and small, in manufacturing and construction it will also provide cleaner, cheaper energy, attract new investment to our region and provide job security.

 

Strong and reliable renewable energy will help to drive investments in our region for things like the next generation of steel manufacturing and entirely new industries like hydrogen manufacturing and production, which has already commenced in Port Kembla with Hysata’s new hydrogen electrolyser facility.

 

But these are not just jobs in the construction, but jobs in all the industries that will benefit from strong, reliable, and renewable energy.

 

BlueScope steel recently said that they will need fifteen times the current amount of electricity to transition the Port Kembla steelworks to make the same volume of steel using hydrogen-powered direct reduced ironmaking (DRI) technology.

 

BlueScope currently uses 750,000 Mega Watt Hours (MWH) of grid supplied electricity across the steelworks per year – this equates to the usage of about 150,000 households. For context, in Wollongong we have approximately 130,000 households.

 

As I said the offshore wind proposal for the Illawarra – if implemented at the current size – would generate enough electricity to power 3.4 million houses.

 

BlueScope will need about two thirds of that amount of energy to keep our local steel works open and producing green steel in the future.

 

BlueScope currently employs 3,500 people directly in the Illawarra and is responsible for a total of 9,000 jobs in the region including contractors and suppliers.

 

There are endless opportunities for local manufacturers with the rollout of offshore wind, just in the steel space it is anticipated the floating structure of one turbine would need 6,000 tons of high-quality steel. 

 

BlueScope’s currently yearly output is 400,000 tons of domestic plate.  That means BlueScope’s total output would produce enough steel to manufacture 66 platforms a year. But we are going to need hundreds of these platforms across the country and the region. 

 

As a region the Illawarra is uniquely placed to use our existing capabilities to build and end to end offshore wind industry not just for our region but planned offshore wind infrastructure around the country and even into Asia and the Pacific.   

 

I am strongly of the view that there must be a community energy dividend incorporated into the licencing structure of any proposal. 

 

Communities like the Illawarra who may take the load of generating the power for the nation must receive benefit for that generation. 

 

Community leaders like Saul Griffith have called for similar proposals like a Community Benefits Subsidy. The program could be modelled on the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund which had specific program streams focused on community infrastructure, business infrastructure and environmental infrastructure.

 

I recently went to UK and Denmark to learn about the industry and the supply chains supporting it. 

 

Associate Professor Voyer joined me on the Denmark leg of the trip, which included representatives from across Australia from state government, universities, industry clusters, research organisations, media outlets and First Nations Land and Waters organisation.

 

And for full disclosure my trip was self-funded, apart from the Denmark internals which were covered by the Danish Embassy in Canberra.

 

After seeing how Denmark and Scotland have transformed their grid with offshore and built entire industries in the processes, it became very clear that this endeavour that is not only filled with opportunity, but also challenges.

 

Just like here, Scotland and Denmark are facing a skills shortage, too much work and not enough boilermakers, electricians, maritime workers and crane operators. 

 

Additionally, many of the suppliers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) already have heavily subscribed order books. 

 

So that means to build want we want to build and in the time frame we need to build it in, we are going to have to do the heavy lifting.

 

We are going to have to train the workforce to build and operate this renewable generation.

 

We are going to have to invest in the businesses, grow our capabilities to be able to supply components like the floating structures. 

 

The size and complexity of this national endeavour is not lost on me and is not lost on the institutions in our region like BlueScope, the University of Wollongong, NSW Ports, i3Net and Business Illawarra, the South Coast Labour Council, Wollongong City Council and our State Labor representatives.

 

Organisations who are already starting the planning of how we build a brand new industry for this region and the nation, educate and train the workers that are going to make it happened, and find the homes where they are going to live and the schools that their children will attend.   

 

Offshore wind is also backed in by the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, Saul Griffiths, Tim Flannery. 

 

This is a large endeavour, one with many moving parts but one that we can achieve and in doing so cement the Illawarra and our role as a renewable energy powerhouse for Australia, our region and the world.