RICHARD GLOVER, HOST: Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister joins us now on Drive. Prime Minister, good afternoon.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. Good to be with you.
GLOVER: We were intrigued. David Speers was just telling us about this battery project that you've announced for Tasmania. Can you tell us whether it really is an answer to our energy security problems?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's very exciting. We have today announced the biggest new energy announcement since Chifley announced the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme. There's a range of elements to it. One is the Marinus Project, which essentially is like a big power cord, it was described to me, across the Bass Strait. We know that Tasmania currently is 100 per cent renewable energy. They have a target of 200 per cent. And what that means is them exporting clean energy. In addition to that, we've announced a project in Victoria that will ensure that energy can be transferred from that right through and up to New South Wales. It's about fixing the national grid. The problem we have is that we now know that clean energy, renewable energy, is the cheapest form of energy. But it doesn't all fit into the grid. The grid isn't fit for purpose. It's the old grid, fit for the last century. And as we move to more and more use of renewables, the problem has been the reliability. Now what this will do is increase reliability, as well as the Battery of the Nation project in Tasmania will really provide that energy security to make an enormous difference. More needs to be done. But it's a very exciting project.
GLOVER: You're talking, of course, to an audience in New South Wales. Your government has already been criticised by our Treasurer for giving us a billion dollars compared to much more money for the Victorians and the Queenslanders, Labor states of course. This is more salt in the wound, isn't it? More money for Victoria and Tasmania, nothing for New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Treasurer is being tongue-in-cheek, frankly. He knows that he forgot to mention the $1.4 billion for the M1 in Raymond Terrace, more than a billion dollars for the Coffs Harbour Bypass, almost a billion dollars for the Milton-Ulladulla Bypass. We're paying for half of the Western Metro Line, North-South, that will go through the new airport at Badgerys Creek in addition to the $5 billion that has gone into the Western Sydney Airport. And there's much, much more right around the state of New South Wales. I think Matt Kean knows that. You can tell when there's a state election coming because people play politics. But the truth is that New South Wales is getting certainly its fair share of infrastructure investment.
GLOVER: Anthony Albanese is here, the Prime Minister. There was mentioned, of course, the battery elements to this, the long power cord is as you described it, but also the fact that there'll be more pumped hydro and more hydro energy produced by Tasmania. Does that mean there's an environmental side to this? That there's the possibility of more damming of rivers like the famous Franklin?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's a matter of making sure that the pumped hydro works effectively, so that there's more pumped hydro and grid firming projects in Tasmania. But no one's about to dam the Franklin. What this is about is sensible projects, making sure that it can fit into the grid. The missing element has been our Rewiring the Nation program. Now, just as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has funded good projects that have produced a return – that's actually produced a positive return to government, that is government is making money out of the investments that are put – the Rewiring the Nation program is based upon the Australian Energy Market Operator, the regulator nationally. It has an Integrated Systems Plan that it's worked at for many years, all of the energy experts have worked on this. What they have lacked is the policy framework that the government's lower emissions target has provided and they've lacked the investment vehicle to provide that upfront capital costs with low-cost financing that has meant this project will now go ahead
GLOVER: Anthony Albanese is with us with two minutes until news time. Can I just briefly ask you about the announcement on Israel and the embassy, you'd accept the Opposition criticism that it was pretty poorly handled? No consultation, put on the website before Cabinet had even had even decided it finally.
PRIME MINISTER: We've had this policy since 2018. And in 2018, because there was a by-election in Wentworth, the Morrison government said that they were going to move the embassy to Jerusalem and they would recognise Jerusalem as the capital. The previous Australian policy under Labor governments, Liberal governments, across the world before Donald Trump changed the US government's policy, has been that the status of Jerusalem would be the subject of the talks between the Israeli side and the Palestinian side for a solution which is peaceful, that creates two states in the Middle East.
GLOVER: I’m not asking about the decision, PM, more the method of its announcement. There was clearly an error made by some person within the department announcing it, changing the website before the timing had been chosen by the government. You would accept that that's a problem and it could have been done better?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, some things can always be done better. But the truth is that we have been very clear about what our position was. Indeed, the former government was duplicitous. They said that the embassy would move and, of course, it didn't move. So they made an announcement, and once the byelection was over the embassy didn't move. There hadn't been any effective change, the Australian Embassy remained in Tel Aviv.