RICHARD KING: One of the planks for achieving zero emissions or certainly lowering our emissions is carbon capture and storage. It's one of five priority areas for investment under the Government's Technology Investment Roadmap, it was unveiled last year. We spoke to both our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor, our Energy Minister and emissions control minister, late last year when they visited our neck of the woods and certainly we’re crowing the benefits of gas. In fact, predicting that gas would lead us, the economic recovery, out of the pandemic. And a big announcement today and with more on that, joining us now is our Energy and emissions control Minister, Angus Taylor, who's on the line. Good morning, Minister.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Morning, Richard. Thanks for having me.

SHANNA BULL: Minister, what's the purpose of your visit to our region today?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, look, we're announcing the opening up of this $50 million fund for carbon capture and storage. So this is an important technology which can allow us to reduce emissions, and at the same time, ensure that we have that industry that's been so critical to the Hunter region, and to Newcastle for so long. It allows the development of those critical industries and at the same time a shift towards lower emissions, obviously. It's one of five priority technologies, as Richard said in the opening, that we're focussed on. $18 billion of investment in low emissions technologies over the next 10 years we've already committed. This is a real priority for us. I'll also be visiting the Kurri Kurri site for the gas generator that we're working on and we're prepared to step up on depending on whether private sector finish up on their replacement plan for Liddell.

RICHARD KING: When we're talking about mining, and certainly the carbon capture is more generally associated with power generation plants, coal and gas. Look, basically, it’s you capture the carbon dioxide and inject it back underground, is that basically what happens?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yeah, that's one way of doing it. It doesn't need to be injected underground. It can also be used in materials or find other uses, put in building materials and so on. There's a range of different ways that carbon dioxide is being used, but it can also be geosequestered, as they say, which is put on the ground. But it's not just electricity generation. That's one application. It's also industry. So if you're producing fertiliser or ammonia nitrate, of course, that's produced in the Newcastle region, then that produces carbon dioxide. Those are important industries for Australia and for the world. And you can store the carbon dioxide through those processes as well.

RICHARD KING: Alright. Look, I'll play devil's advocate here. A couple of headlines. One from the Sydney Morning Herald last month, “WA’s Gorgon Project fails to deliver on pollution deal, adding million tonnes of carbon a year.” And on the same subject, it was a couple of weeks earlier in The Guardian, “Western Australia LNG plan faces calls to shut down until faulty carbon capture system is fixed.” Now, this is Gorgons big project that's happening on Barrow Island in WA. Part of their consent agreement was to geosequester the carbon, but it hasn't been a raging success. And as I understand it, the Federal Government's already put $60 million into that project, which I believe has cost the company over $3 billion. It took three years to get started. It was supposed to start, I think, in 2016. It didn't start until 2019, and hasn't been a raging success. And I believe that it is not- if it's not the largest, it's one of the largest carbon capture projects in the world, but not exactly a raging success.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, there's more than 60 of these around the world, Richard. The majority of which or over half of which are in the United States and most of them are working pretty well. Look, it is new technology, so with new technology always comes challenges. But we know, across this broad portfolio of projects happening around the world, there have been great successes. We know Gorgan is actually capturing a great deal of carbon dioxide, and will continue to. But look, the important thing here is that this is a technology that the IEA, the International Energy Agency, says we need to focus on. The IPCC who, of course, provide all the underlying science for the Paris Agreement and commitments around the world, strongly recommends carbon capture and storage, and says it's a critical technology if we are to continue to bring down emissions globally. So it is a technology we have to invest in, we've got to get it right. There are always challenges with new technologies, but they’re challenges that we can meet and that's why we're investing $18 billion, which we expect to be scaled up to about $70 billion of investment in Australia on low emissions technologies over the next 10 years.

RICHARD KING: Your coalition partners, the Nationals, and a number of other people - in fact, I think even Bill Gates mentioned the possibility of nuclear power being the only way that we can achieve zero emissions by 2050. Is it on the discussion agenda?

ANGUS TAYLOR: It is. It's in our Low Emissions Technology Statement. Obviously, Australia hasn't had nuclear generation - there's no plans to change the moratorium. But there's emerging technologies, small modular reactors they're called - much smaller nuclear generators, which hold out great promise for higher levels of safety and lower costs. It's a relatively new technology. Three have been built so far, none in the developed world, but there's a lot on the books that have been built or being planned - and we'll be watching that technology very, very closely. As I say, it's early days yet, but there's great, great hopes. But look, at the end of the day, something like nuclear can't happen without bipartisanship. And ultimately, the question for Labor will be will you join us in continuing to explore the prospects for this technology?

SHANNA BULL: Yeah. You’re going to Snowy Hydro later today, Minister, and I believe some work is already underway?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yes. Yes. Look, we're not we're not holding back on this one. We're getting on with it. If we're to meet the deadline of Liddell's closure, we have to have a replacement. And so we would very much like the private sector to step up and replace Liddell, but if it doesn't, then we'll do it. And so we're getting on with the job so that we can meet those deadlines.

RICHARD KING: Alright. Well that deadline, I believe, was that April, I think?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yeah, that's right.

RICHARD KING: Yeah, alright.

ANGUS TAYLOR: So, we're working closely with the private sector now. But look, as I say, we just can't leave a big gap. I mean, we know what happens if you have a big coal-fired generator closing and it's not replaced with dispatchable generation. We saw it in South Australia and we've seen it in Victoria. It leads to a spike in prices and a loss in reliability, and we're just not going to stand by and see that happen. So we're working on this project and we're ready to go if we need to.

SHANNA BULL: Look, Minister, I have to ask you this one - it has been a hot topic and it still is in the wake of the rape allegations. In your opinion, is there a cultural problem at Parliament House? And if so, what do you think should be done about it?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Obviously, the allegations that have been made are very, very serious and need to be taken very seriously. For my part, I've spoken to my team and made sure that they all understand that if there's anything, they see their concerns them, they need to speak up. It's critical that they do. Obviously, any criminal allegations need to go to the police. These things need to be dealt with like any other workplace. And of course, we see issues of this nature across workplaces across Australia. They need to be dealt with very appropriately and seriously, and that's exactly what I always endeavoured to do.

RICHARD KING: Alright. Thank you very much for having a chat with us this morning.

SHANNA BULL: Thank you.

RICHARD KING: And enjoy your visit to our neck of the woods. And have you had the COVID jab yet?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I haven't yet, but I'm looking forward to it and I certainly will when I get the opportunity.

SHANNA BULL: Fantastic.

RICHARD KING: And you won't, you'll wear a t-shirt like the, rather than rip your shirt off like some world leaders have done?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I’m not sure I’ll be doing it on camera, [laughter] but I’m certainly looking forward to it when I get the opportunity.

RICHARD KING: Thanks again for having a chat with us this morning, Minister.

SHANNA BULL: Thank you.

ENDS