KIMBERLIE SMART - FORMULA CHEMICALS: We're very grateful to have both John and Angus here today to come and make an announcement. So, I'd like to pass over to John.

JOHN ALEXANDER: Well, thank you, Kim, and for hosting the Minister. It is fantastic to be here in West Ryde and we welcome our minister Angus to West Ryde.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks. Thanks, JA. Well, it's fantastic to be here at Formula Chemicals with Kim and Lee and of course, the local federal member, hardworking local federal member, John Alexander for an important announcement. We are absolutely focused on helping businesses and households get their electricity bills down, get their energy costs down, and of course, keeping the lights on and keeping the wheels of industry like Formula Chemicals here, keeping those wheels turning. Over recent days, we've made a series of announcements about driving down electricity prices, default market offers, making sure that the most vulnerable households and businesses get a fair price for electricity, bringing extra supply into the market both through Snowy Hydro and Battery of the Nation in Tasmania. Today, we're focused on helping businesses and community organisations to drive their bills down through energy efficiency, through finding ways to reduce the usage of energy in their business whilst actually getting - squeezing everything out of the energy they have. We know there's enormous opportunity in this area and in related areas like making sure that our buildings, whether commercial and residential are energy efficient. So today, we're announcing that the Government will be committing $67 million to energy efficiency initiatives across Australia with a focus, in particular, on the Energy Efficient Communities Program of $50 million, which will help businesses and community organisations reduce their electricity bills. This will be over 2500 grants across businesses and community organisations right across the country, helping them with grants of up to $25,000 for businesses and $12,500 for community organisations to reduce those bills. Now, that could mean helping them to find equipment that's going to reduce the bills - a different type of refrigeration for instance or air conditioning. It could mean better monitoring their energy use and of course, evaluating their energy use and finding ways to reduce it and reduce their bills.

This program will be open to businesses from the beginning of next year from 1 January 2019 and it will be available for community organisations whether they be a Men's Shed or a Rotary Club to be able to make applications. So, they have time to get their applications right and work towards some successful applications. We know there's enormous opportunity in this area. We've seen it again and again - whether it's a cafe, restaurant, a manufacturing business like this great business here at Formula Chemicals - there is enormous opportunity to help businesses and organisations to get their electricity bills down. We also know that this program will reduce our carbon emissions by 63 million tonnes, 63 million tonnes, contributing to the remaining abatement required to breach our international obligations - 328 million required. This will contribute about 20 per cent of that and so it's a very, very important program to meet our international obligations. Now, we are and have laid out exactly how we will reach those international obligations - the 26 per cent emission reduction target. Labor has not shown how they're going to reach their targets of 45 per cent. That's well over 1.2 billion tonnes of abatement they've got to find.

This is a target which is four to five times higher than ours and they haven't laid out how they are going to do it. Well, we know from independent modelling that the cost of reaching their target, their abatement target will be off the charts - off the charts. Independent modelling has shown that it will impact the average worker's wages by $9,000 a year, a loss of jobs of 336,000. So they're either lying about reaching the target or they're lying about the impact this will have on the Australian economy, on businesses, hardworking businesses and households as a result of these policies. It's time for Bill Shorten and Mark Butler to fess up - to fess up on the impact of their targets. We're taking sensible initiatives like this one, working with sensible, hardworking Australian businesses and households to find energy efficiencies, to use the technology that's available to get the best possible outcomes. Labor is pursuing reckless targets which will be a wrecking ball for the economy.

JOURNALIST: Minister, a lot of your colleagues don't like subsidies for renewables. What's your message to them?

ANGUS TAYLOR: This is not about subsidising renewables, this is about helping businesses to get their energy costs down. We're seeing record investment in renewables across the economy right now, the next three years over $25 billion of investment, that will dramatically reduce emissions in Australia, but it needs to be firmed up and that's why we need to have power that's available when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. That's why in recent days we've committed $1.4 billion to Snowy Hydro and committed to continuing work on Battery of the Nation in Tasmania - these are important, important initiatives. One thing we can all agree on, everyone in Australia should be able to agree on this, we should help great businesses like Formula Chemicals to be able to reduce their energy bills to find better ways of actually using energy to do the great things that they do every day.

JOURNALIST: Minister, if you don't mind on other topics, the Government promised a review of the way motorists are taxed for road use two years ago but hasn't done anything about it. What is the Government doing?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well we continue to work on the issues in heavy vehicles and reform to heavy vehicles is a focus, and we have to deal with heavy vehicles before we return to light vehicles. I know the Deputy Prime Minister is very focused on this. This is an important area of focus, but the focus for the moment will be on heavy vehicles, that's where the priority has to be.

JOURNALIST: Minister, the Coalition wants to change the rules around the use of office expenses so that TV and radio ads can come out of electoral office budgets. Do you support this change?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I absolutely do. When you're in a regional electorate as I am, you need to be able to explain to the people in your electorate, to households and businesses, what government policy is, what it means for them and how they can make best use of government policies exactly like this program - this program, $50 million program to help small businesses and community organisations to reduce their electricity bills. You have to be able to explain that and in regional and rural areas in particular TV and radio advertising is really crucial to be able to speak to those people and explain to them the opportunities they have to work with government to improve their businesses, to reduce electricity bills and to be able to invest more, create more jobs in the local economy. So I'm strongly supportive of this, it's a good initiative and as I say in regional areas in particular this is crucial. Now Labor has turned their back on regional areas, they are not supporting this initiative and every, every person living in regional Australia should take note that Labor simply doesn't understand or care about the people in the regions.

JOURNALIST: Thank you Minister. Kim, just a question for you, you might like to come closer to the microphone. What's the impact of energy prices on your business? And, will you be engaging with this program?

KIMBERLIE SMART: We are one of a small manufacturing company still left in Australia, a lot is going offshore right now because it is cheaper in other countries to manufacture. So any cost savings for local manufacturers here in energy would definitely be welcomed. It is a big impact. We are running machinery here all day long, and so any, any cost reductions would be definitely welcome.