Interview with James Glenday, ABC News Breakfast

JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: But first, we want to take you to this other story this morning, that the Albanese Government’s rebate scheme to install home batteries has passed a milestone. This morning the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, is announcing more than half a million have been installed, and Chris joins us now. Minister, welcome back to your program.

We’re working with a little bit of a delay this morning, so I am just going to dive in. Where are we seeing these batteries being installed? MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY, CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, James.

Yeah, well, we just have passed half a million batteries installed since 1 July - 506,000, as of yesterday. And mainly it's an outer suburban regional story. Where I am speaking to you from today, my home, my electorate of Western Sydney, Mitchell, which is in the Hills area of Sydney, is the highest take up in New South Wales.

And we're seeing some electorates with more than 10 per cent of the houses now having cheaper home batteries. The electorates of Hume, Mitchell, Greenway and Macquarie in New South Wales; Wright in Queensland, Mayo in South Australia. So a really strong take up of people in the suburbs and regions who want to reduce their bills very substantially and reduce their emissions.

And they're also helping put bills down for everyone because we're gas use reach historical lows at night and gas is very expensive. So that's driving down wholesale bills for everyone. This scheme, of course, has proven several times more expensive than first thought, which has led to a lot of political debate about its future and its impact.

You've already moved to curb some of these rebates. That then led to a surge in installations. Should taxpayers be bracing for a further blowout in the coming years, do you think?

MINISTER BOWEN: No, we've adjusted the scheme sensibly as we said we would after we'd had lived experience. It’s true that it's been extraordinarily popular. I see that as a good thing.

I see that as managing strength, not a bad thing. I'd be rather managing a highly successful government program than one that wasn't popular and being taken up. The opposition just doesn't understand it and scores points about it and they don't get that a policy can be very popular.

I understand that that's a concept which is a bit alien to them when it comes to energy policy. But, you know, here's a policy where the government is providing support but Australians are embracing it with great enthusiasm right across the board regardless of political persuasion. There's a poll out showing people support this policy regardless of who they vote for, because they understand that it's sensible to give families a bit of help to reduce their bills permanently.

This is not temporary bill relief, which sometimes is necessary in an extreme situation, but once you've done this, you reduce your bills permanently and you reduce the bills for everyone else, even those without solar and batteries, because as I said, you're driving gas out of the energy system at night, which is reducing bills for everyone. We calibrated it last year, that's the only change that we've needed to consider and it has worked because what it's done is really made sure that people are getting the right size battery for their needs.

OK, you paint a very positive picture. Some of our viewers will have seen this story on the ABC yesterday about Solar Power Nation, an installer that's under investigation. A lot of customers have made complaints about various installers as well.

Do you need to have stricter rules in place to ensure that operators are not taking either advantage of the scheme or leaving customers potentially in the lurch when it comes to battery installation? MINISTER BOWEN: Yeah, I watched the story, James, and obviously I've been aware of that particular company. Let me make a couple of points.

Firstly, when you're installing half a million batteries, the vast majority have been outstanding success stories, happy customers, all done safely. That's a great tribute to the industry. Where you've got some bad apples, they've got to be dealt with the full force.

We've increased the powers of the Clean Energy Regulator, the state consumer affairs bodies that have powers here. In relation to Solar Nation, I can tell you that the Clean Energy Regulator issued them with a show cause notice in effect as to why they shouldn't be kicked off the scheme. We have zero tolerance for people who are not doing the right thing.

You can only get paid for the battery as an installer if you can prove that it's been successfully installed. Actually, Solar Nation hasn't generated that many certificates under the scheme because they have been able to do that, but they've clearly- you know, been brought to the attention by consumers to the Clean Energy Regulator. The Clean Energy Regulator has issued that notice to them.

There's natural justice, as I think our viewers would understand. The one thing, I thought that story was fair enough, James. I thought it was all very legitimate.

I thought it was a good and fair and balanced story. What disappointed me was to see the opposition leap on it and then slander an entire industry. I mean, there's more than 8000 battery installers across the country, 2000 companies, and for my shadow minister to come out and say the industry has a problem rather than one installer, I thought was an insult to the entire industry and shows the opposition does not support this vibrant part of the economy.

Minister, I'm just going to jump in because we will run out of time. Have you spoken to the Prime Minister? Are you aware what he spoke to President Donald Trump about overnight?

MINISTER BOWEN: Not this morning, James. I haven't spoken to the PM this morning. I spoke to him at length yesterday.

I knew that the call was happening, but I haven't spoken to him this morning. I'm sure he's going to update the Australian people on the call very shortly. I'm sure it's going to happen soon.

And just one other issue before I let you go. The Foreign Minister today is going to say that talk of monoculturalism is bad for national security. That seems to be a reference to One Nation, which, of course, in recent months has been claiming that it could even win your seat in Western Sydney.

Why do you think some people in your part of the world are attracted to One Nation at the moment? MINISTER BOWEN: It's an important speech by Penny Wong. Multiculturalism is an important part of our country and you can't claim to love Australia if you don't love all elements of it, including the contribution made by people who've come from many, many lands.

You know, people might be attracted to populist politics because they want change. And we agree with change, and we're delivering change, real change. And some of that's controversial, like the changes in the budget.

One Nation, the Liberals and the Nationals, are happy with the level of housing affordability and happy that first-home buyers were having so much trouble getting in. We weren't, and we're not, and we're changing it. I'm used to speculation about my seat and seats in Western Sydney.

There's been many attempts over the last 20 years. I work very hard in my electorate. I live in my electorate and spend, you know, every waking hour in my electorate.

I don’t see many One Nation politicians traipsing through my electorate. Haven’t seen them over the last 20 years. We’ve been building a great, vibrant fantastic multicultural community based on people who come from around the world, started small businesses, worked their guts out.

There’s multiculturalism, that’s multicultural Australia. You’re not worried about One Nation at all where you are? MINISTER BOWEN: I’ve never taken a single vote or a single election for granted.

I don’t intend to take the next one for granted. You know, I saw opinion polls at the last election saying that I’d lost my seat on the front page of The Australian. I’m used to all that sort of speculation.

The people tend to have a different view at the end of the day. Chris Bowen, thank you so much for joining our show this morning. MINISTER BOWEN: Good on you, good on you, James.

Have a great day. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.