Australian companies get first shot at green energy cash

www.theage.com.au
23 May 2012

AUSTRALIAN companies will be guaranteed the chance to pitch for business flowing from the Gillard government's $10 billion clean energy fund that Labor will announce today in an effort to sell the benefits of green jobs at home. Climate Change Minister Greg Combet will announce today that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which will provide grants and government investment to green projects, will require candidates to show they are giving local firms a fair go to supply parts and services. The announcement comes as a government backbencher launched a scathing parliamentary attack on the Greens' rejection of Kevin Rudd's carbon plan, saying the delay had caused pollution equal to 1 million cars each year.

In a sign that Labor is seeking to distance itself from the Greens and reclaim the environmental badge for itself, MP Andrew Leigh told Parliament that Greens senators ''chose self-interest over the national interest'' when they blocked the original Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009. Mr Combet, meanwhile, will introduce today legislation to set up the $10 billion corporation, to be chaired by respected businesswoman Jillian Broadbent. It will require candidates for funding to have Australian Industry Participation Plans, which are a key part of the government's broader manufacturing strategy.

Under these plans, which are already used by the resources sector in return for tax breaks, projects have to demonstrate they have given Australian firms ''full, fair and reasonable opportunity''. A wind farm, for example, might have to show it has offered Australian firms the chance to supply the turbine towers. ''The CEFC will drive investment in innovative renewable energy, low pollution and energy efficiency technologies to ensure our economy continues to grow while we reduce carbon pollution,'' Mr Combet said.

Mr Leigh, an economist, told parliament the new carbon tax, which becomes a floating-price emissions trading scheme in 2015, will be similar to Mr Rudd's original CPRS, but the delay since 2009 has added $1 billion a year to the cost of slashing carbon emissions. Five million tonnes each year could have been cut from Australia's emissions-equal to 1 million extra cars staying on the roads, he said. ''For all their claims to be 'green', the Greens party has a brown tinge,'' he said.