Mr BOWEN (McMahon—Minister for Climate Change and Energy) (12:00): by leave—I want to acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of this land. The National Climate Risk Assessment told us this year that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would experience unique impacts from climate change. Since the last annual statement, the Australian government has released the first-ever First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. I was also proud to recently appoint a key architect of this strategy, Dr Kate George, to the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—the first Indigenous person to serve on the board. We believe that Australia's First Nations must be part of the conversation at the highest levels. As we gather today, something incredible is happening across our country. Over 1,000 Australian households are having a battery installed in their home today—each day. Over 500 households are installing solar panels for the first time each day, joining the one in three Australian households who already have them in place. And around 1,000 motorists are getting into a brand new hybrid electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid each and every day. Never before in our history have so many Australians been able to take control of their energy destiny. I can tell the House that now, as of today, 139,629 Australians have installed a cheaper home battery, equating to 3.054 gigawatt hours of storage for our grid. It's clear that, in many ways, Australian households are leading the charge. That's why this government will keep working to make it easier for households to save on their energy bills and take advantage of clean, reliable power. We're seeing the cheaper home battery scheme bring down the cost of batteries. Their availability is smoothing evening demands, reducing our reliance on expensive gas. In doing so, this is helping bring down bills for everyone. Australia's energy market is in a remarkable transition. Through solar sharer, we're making sure that more Australians benefit from the transition, whether they have solar panels or not. We announced this new retail offer at the start of this month, making it available for all households in the default markets of the regulated states of New South Wales, South East Queensland and South Australia from July next year. I was pleased to recently see that the Victorian Essential Services Commission is also consulting on making it available in Victoria next year too. So, whether it's harnessing free solar or encouraging more people to be part of the energy market with their batteries, bills stay lower for everyone, and our grid becomes fairer—all while doing our bit for the planet. That's what we've done in one term, but there is so much more to do. It's clear that energy prices are still too high. When we entered office, we uncovered that the former coalition government had hidden a 20 per cent price surge until after the election. It was the departing gift from the former coalition government that had failed to do anything to replace Australia's ageing coal. Most of Australia's coal-fired power stations are more than 40 years old. This isn't a secret. All of our independent market bodies and regulators have told us, year on year, that coal power stations are becoming more unreliable and increasingly costly to operate. We need to replace them, and the cheapest way to do that is renewables. The average level of coal capacity that was unavailable due to outages increased by 28 per cent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and that's costing Australians in their bills. When coal goes down, bills go up. The Australian Energy Market Commission has warned: Delaying the connection of renewable generation and transmission into the market would put upward pressure on residential electricity costs. This remains an inconvenient fact for those opposite, who continue to ignore these facts in their internal ideological energy debate. While those opposite are arguing, we are acting. We're acting to make energy more affordable and more abundant at every level. From the household to the market and to energy generation, we're working with households to insulate them from energy price spikes and to put them back in charge of their bills. Wholesale electricity prices fell by a third last quarter. We all know there's more work to do to make sure this flows to retail bills, and we are going to keep going with that work. The world is taking action. 2025 marks 10 years of the Paris Agreement, and the world is making progress. It's dealing with the challenges and headwinds and making a difference, not only reducing emissions but also building more reliable energy around the world, and we are too, setting up for economic success in a decarbonising global economy. The world is doing it and Australia is doing it, including by bringing down, based on emissions, the degree of warming in the world from four degrees to 2.8 degrees. Global investment in clean energy projects will exceed US$2 trillion in 2025, double that of fossil fuels. The national climate risk assessment makes clear that our country has lot at stake when it comes to acting on climate change. We know that by 2050 the annual cost to our economy of floods, bushfires, storms, cyclones and hailstorms for a moderate emissions scenario is expected to be over $40 billion. We are not the biggest polluter or the biggest economy, but our commitment to action on climate change matters. It matters for our neighbours. It matters for our economy. It matters for the country that we want to pass on to our children. The global shift to clean energy represents one of the biggest economic transformations since the industrial revolution, and it presents our country with a remarkable economic opportunity. As the Climate Change Authority notes in their annual progress report to me, which I will table today: This global shift presents a strategic opportunity for Australia. By acting decisively, Australia can position itself as a clean energy leader and benefit from emerging markets. They go on to say: But by moving slowly, it would risk losing competitiveness as its raw commodities are increasingly processed overseas using clean energy, driven by other nations' national interests. Australia must be proactive to remain relevant in a rapidly decarbonising global economy. That's why this year we accepted the advice of the Climate Change Authority and we have set our 2035 climate change target at a range of 62 per cent to 70 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels. We are seeing good progress when it comes to curbing climate pollution. Emissions for the year to June 2025 were 47.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is a decrease of 2.2 per cent or 9.9 million tonnes compared to the previous year to June. Or another way of putting it is that in one year Australia has reduced emissions equivalent to the entire domestic aviation sector in Australia thanks to this government's policies. This represents the largest financial year fall in non-land emissions on record outside of the COVID lockdowns. Emissions fell in electricity, chemicals, metal sectors, fugitives, agriculture and stationary energy, reflecting record renewable generation, abatement technology improvements and reduced fencing. This was partly offset by increased transport emissions, an area in which we continue to see long-term opportunity through our new vehicle efficiency standards and low-carbon liquid fuel developments. There's more to do in transport. Australia's 2025 emissions projections, which I'll table today, show that with currently implemented government policies Australia is on track to achieve our 2030 target in budget terms and is very close to achieving the 2030 point-in-time target as well. Emissions projection shows additional work will be needed to get to the 2035 target. The 2035 target is ambitious and achievable, but it is not yet being achieved. Several pre-existing policies are not included in the emissions projections, such as support to accelerate the developments of Australia's green metals industry, projects funded under the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and new government purchases of ACCUs under the Powering the Regions Fund. The emissions projections do not include new policies announced alongside our net zero plan in September as well as future potential policy changes arising from scheduled reviews such as the safeguard review and the new vehicle efficiency standard reviews. We know that the 2035 target reflects Australia's highest possible ambition, because on this side of the House we back our nation's ability to rise to challenges. This target is grounded in science and a credible contribution to global efforts to keep warming well below two degrees and to have 1.5 degrees within reach, supporting a safer environment for future generations, because we think our shared future is one worth fighting for and because there's opportunity for all of us in taking up this fight. We'll meet it by implementing, strengthening and building on the strong policy foundations we've laid over the last three years. It's normal for there to be a gap between projected emissions and a target 10 years into the future. That's why you set a target. As new policies are developed and implemented, the emissions outlook improves. That's what a target is for—to drive new initiatives and work. We're making good progress. The first time our national grid got to over 70 per cent renewables in any 30-minute period was in September 2023. That was the first time ever. Since the start of September this year, renewables have been 70 per cent or more for at least 30 minutes in a day on 65 days, or 81 per cent of days, including today. In October, renewable energy was half of our national grid, and with this month we are continuing this trend. That's the first time that's ever happened. October this year—the first time renewable energy has supplied half of our energy. In the last 12 months, Australia has produced over 100 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity, enough to power every household more than 1½ times. We've seen over six gigawatts of new large-scale battery capacity entering the national grid. This has allowed battery discharge to increase by a massive 150 per cent, and the pipeline remains strong. To date, we have competed five of the 15 expected capacity investment scheme tenders. We have over 16 gigawatts of projects under contract or in negotiations. Of these, we expect around 11 gigawatts will have reached financial close by the end of 2026. The Australian energy markets operator's latest connection scorecard shows the development pipeline for the main national grid has ballooned out to 275 projects, representing a massive 56.6 gigawatts in generation and storage capacity. 23.2 gigawatts of earlier stage projects are finalising contracts or under construction, up 43 per cent from the same time last year. We've made good progress, and the deniers and the delayers are losing the climate fight. As momentum continues, they seek to disrupt the transformation by disrupting the debate with mistruths, with falsehoods, distortions and deceptions. So it's worth stating 10 simple facts. One, climate change is real, and it's driven by humans, but we also have the tools to respond. Two, the world has already made good progress, but there's so much more to do. Three, net zero by 2050 is the absolute bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Four, Australia reducing its emissions matters. It matters for our own future, our economy and our standing in the world. Five, renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. Six, what's good for the planet is good for your pocket. From home batteries and rooftop solar to cleaner, cheaper-to-run cars, it's our suburbs and regions that are leading the way. Seven, ageing, unreliable coal-fired power stations are driving up prices every time they break down. Eight, Australia has the best solar and wind resources in the world, ready to be taken advantage of. Nine, nuclear won't work for Australia. It costs too much and takes too long. And, 10, Australia has everything it needs to become a top global destination for clean energy investment. With those facts in mind, we must seize this opportunity. We can't pretend that climate change isn't real. We can't ignore it. We can't give up and say it's all too hard. Climate change is part of our lives, and how we adapt and limit the worst of it matters. Now is the time to seize the opportunities of a clean economy. Failure to do so would be to act out of step with Australia's national interests, particularly the interests of those who will come after us. Today we take stock of the progress we've made, and we keep going. I present a copy of the 2025 annual climate change statement, the Climate Change Authority's 2025 Annual progress report, Australia's emissions projections 2025, Quarterly update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: June 2025, Australia's net zero plan, Australia's second nationally determined contribution covering statement and a copy of my ministerial statement.