ANGUS TAYLOR: It's fantastic to be here with the teams of AGIG and AGN and of course my colleague, the Minister for Energy from South Australia.

It is absolutely brilliant to be at what is a very important announcement.

I should also acknowledge James Stevens here, who is a local member in this area from the Federal Parliament.

A very important announcement because as part of our focus as we look to driving down emissions in Australia and right around the world over the coming decades.

Our focus on technology and the role that technology can play in solving one of the world's hardest problems, one of our great challenges both for Australia and for the world, which is to reduce emissions whilst maintaining a strong economy.

That's what this is all about. It’s what this initiative is all about. The Australian Hydrogen Centre is all about finding ways to do that.

We think hydrogen is central to achieving that.

Along with Dan and other state and territory ministers from across Australia, late last year we announced the Australian Hydrogen Strategy.

We've committed over $500 million to that strategy and I know the South Australian Government has also made very significant commitments to it.

This, working with ARENA - great to see Darren Miller here - this particular initiative is about taking advantage of that opportunity in hydrogen.

Now, there's a lot of ways we can do that.

One of those ways is to start to feed hydrogen into our gas networks and up to five or 10 per cent in our gas networks we think it's feasible - working out how to do that and working out how we go beyond five to 10 per cent to 400 per cent hydrogen ultimately in our gas networks is a real focus for the Government.

This project that we're announcing today, alongside the centre, is an important step in that direction - $1.28 million from the Federal Government to focus on that.

We're doing a very similar project in New South Wales with Jemena looking at getting up to 10 per cent hydrogen into the gas networks there.

We're also announcing today alongside that an important initiative of almost $1 million in looking at producing ammonia in Western Australia from green hydrogen.

This will be for the fertiliser industry.

Now, one of the industries that we know that will lead to decarbonise over the coming decades is agriculture.

Central to that is ammonia and fertiliser in particular that can be produced with much lower emissions and green hydrogen is critical to achieving that.

So this is a very, very important focus for the Government.

I'm absolutely delighted that we're here in Tonsley today in South Australia.

South Australia is becoming a hotbed for innovation in the energy sector and I know the South Australian Minister, who'll speak in a moment, is passionate about the opportunities for the energy sector in South Australia.

It has been a state built on great energy achievements and I think it's a state, I know it's a state that will continue to be built on great energy innovation in the coming years.

It's my great pleasure to launch this centre today and this particular initiative, and I look forward to seeing a lot more innovation and technology development in the energy sector in South Australia in the years to come.

ENDS