During the last Senate Estimates, I questioned ARENA about their massive spending of taxpayer money. The numbers are staggering – they’ve now committed $2.15 billion in subsidies to supposedly “cheap” renewable projects.
Despite claims that solar is “the cheapest form of electricity generation in history,” Australians’ power bills tell a different story. The reality is they don’t account for all the extra costs of firming, storage, transmission lines and general unreliability. This is what happens when government agencies focus on pushing unreliable renewables instead of ensuring affordable power for Australian families.
We used to have some of the cheapest electricity in the world, but these massive subsidies and failed green energy policies are driving up costs for everyone.
The net zero fantasy is already hurting our regions, ruining small businesses, and driving up the cost of living across Australia. It’s time to ditch these wasteful subsidies and return to reliable, affordable power.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: Do you ever think about how much taxpayer money your agency has spent on net zero policies, only for power bills to continue to get more expensive?
Mr Miller: Senator, that doesn’t occupy much of my time. We’re working on innovation to help lower the cost of the core technologies that go into lowering power bills in the long term. And, as you would appreciate, this innovation cycle takes a while. We’ve obviously seen the success of solar PV, which was maybe written off many years ago, but has come through as the lowest cost form of generation in history, as we’ve noted in past conversations. I’m very confident, actually, that wind technology, solar technology and battery technology, which is coming down the cost curve rapidly, combined at scale will actually reduce energy costs for Australians.
Senator ROBERTS: Is your job to bring down power bills or give money to solar and wind energy? How much does the Australian Renewable Energy Agency currently administer in deployed capital in terms of loans or equity stakes?
Mr Miller: The objects of ARENA, the agency, are set out in the act. They are to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies, increase the supply of renewable technologies and support Australia’s decarbonisation emissions reduction objectives. You’d be aware that we’re a granting agency, so none of our funding is provided through debt and equity. It’s all through the provision of grants. In some circumstances, those grants are recoupable based on performance of the projects, and we make that decision on a case-by-case basis.
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you. How much did ARENA issue in grants in the most recent year?
Mr Miller: I can get you that in a minute or two. My colleague Mr Faris could probably find that number in the pack. When we think about the progress of our work in terms of project projects, we look at approval rates, which is the key milestone for ARENA when I, under my delegation, or our board, or the minister—
Senator ROBERTS: Getting a project to approval stage.
Mr Miller: When we provide an approval, we then, in most circumstances, are working through to a contract, which ultimately lands to be grant money flowing. But that can take months and years in some cases. But I think in the last financial year we provided approvals of $497 million, and I think in the year before it was $540 million. So, per our annual report: funds approved in 2023-24 total $445 million, and contracts written, which is a later stage, were $392.5 million in that financial year.
Senator ROBERTS: So what did you call your key measurable indicator?
Mr Miller: Approvals. Well, it’s one of many, but, yes, that’s an important one.
Senator ROBERTS: What do you categorise as an approval?
Mr Miller: An approval is a decision by the CEO, the board or the minister, with respect to their relative delegations, to provide funding to a particular project in that amount.
Senator ROBERTS: Approve the funding?
Mr Miller: Approve funding, yes.
Senator ROBERTS: Do you know what your total budget allocation is over the forward estimates, the next four years?
Mr Miller: That will be in the PBS, and we will get that number for you if we can. Otherwise, we’ll take it on notice and provide it.
Senator ROBERTS: Is that located in one area? Are all the different components of the money located in one area?
Mr Miller: It’s an aggregation of various programs and funding pools that we have been provided with by the government over time. Well, let me say governments because we were well supported by the coalition government a number of years ago, and have been even further supported by this government. But it relates to what we call our baseline funding, which is the money that is provided to ARENA where ARENA’s board, essentially, is the primary decision-maker on policy and programmatic objectives. And then, in addition, there are about a dozen programs that ARENA is running, with specific funding amounts, and with specific instructions through the policy instruments, and we’re managing all of that through the funding. But it all gets amalgamated, ultimately, into the forward estimates amounts. So I’d be very happy to read you the figures in the forward estimates for each year, revenue from government, if that would help you. The current year’s revenue from government is $425 million. The budget for next year is $709 million. The year after that, it is $735 million. Then we’re at $1.1 billion, and then we’re at $1.117 billion for the final year of the forward estimates.
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you. That’s a lot of money.
CHAIR: Last question, Senator Roberts.
Senator ROBERTS: Ever since ARENA came on the scene—when was that?—you’ve been issuing grants and loans in solar and wind. Have people’s power bills actually got cheaper?
Mr Miller: It’s not my jurisdiction to talk about power bills, but we came on the scene on 1 July 2012, and as I—
Senator ROBERTS: In 2012?
Mr Miller: Yes, 2012, and, as I mentioned before, we don’t do loans. We do grants.
Senator ROBERTS: You don’t do loans—well, issuing grants then. So you’ve been spending billions of
dollars, and power bills have gone up.
Senator Ayres: Well, Senator, you should—
Senator ROBERTS: I’m asking Mr Miller. You don’t need to—
Senator Ayres: Yes, and I’m entitled to drop in from time to time. It’s one of the inconvenient bits of
estimates for senators who ask questions. If you go and talk to your constituents in the main street of a country town somewhere in Queensland—
Senator ROBERTS: Which is what I’ll do.
Senator Ayres: Yeah, I know. We saw you beaming in. But if you talk to them and then listen to the answer that they give you—engage in a conversation—what you’ll find is that many of them have solar technology on their roofs, which substantially decreases their electricity costs.
Senator ROBERTS: Well, I actually was talking to a shopkeeper yesterday, and she said—
Senator Ayres: Fascinating as that is, I am just going to keep answering your question.
Senator ROBERTS: power bills have gone up tremendously.
Senator Ayres: That is technology that was invented in Australia. All of the IP in solar panels all around the world—it’s Australian, right? It’s something that we should be proud of as a country—invented here, substantially reducing costs for households, with some of them earning a quid because they are under residual agreements.
Senator ROBERTS: Without your subsidies, without your energy relief, the costs would be higher than ever.
CHAIR: Okay. And we are running out of time.
Senator Ayres: They are substantially benefiting from that technology. Now, it’s different for different households. Our job as a government is to make sure that the lowest-cost technology is in the system, and also to make sure that more of those Australian inventions are commercialised here in Australia and manufactured in Australia, and Mr Miller and ARENA’s work is to make sure that more of that technology is commercialised in Australia, and they’re doing a very good job indeed.
Senator ROBERTS: Your policies are driving up prices
How stupid do they think the people of this once the best country in the world are they need to stop the madness once again and stop with corruption and the lies and tell the truth about how they rigged the elections by bringing in Chinese who had no idea what to do got paid to just stand there and hand out how to vote papers and Tony Bourke muslims why were they allowed to vote Albo should definitely be stod down for not putting his hand on the bible while being sworn into power why is all this being swept under the carpet we want our AWESOME COUNTRY BACK WHERE IT BELONGS IN THE TRUE AUSTRALIANS HANDS STOP LYING TO ALL OF US AND STOP THE BLOODY HIKES IN THE WORST FOOD WE HAVE BEEN SENT TO OUR GROCERY STORES WOOLWORTH AND COLES PEOPLE UP NORTH QUEENSLAND CANT AFFORD THE PRICES AND THE FOOD IS ABSOLUTELY ROTTEN YOU WOULDNT FEED IT TO THE PIGS THATS HOW BAD IT IS
Like all of these bozo’s backing renewable energy they have an answer for everything . The only way to get the truth from any of them would be to strap them to a chair and methodically electrically jolt them .
“Renewables” have proven they are NOT ready for regional, state or national use. Time to get back to what actually works and focus on agendas that actually protect & serve our country
Well all I can say is that the People who Voted the PM back in Will Regret It and very soon.
History Repeats.
Bring back coal fired power stations !!! We could have built dozens and more for the wastage spent on this renewable hoax that is sucking the very life out of the economy . Somebody sooner rather than later must step in , stop it , enough is enough .
Are rogue governments permitted ruination of a country ,,,??? Surely not !
It’s called “ kleptocracy “
As usual Malcolm, I fully agree with your analysis on renewable energy, wind and solar are very expensive ways of generating electricity-mostly when demand is low in the middle of the day. For householders with Solar the benefits have been obvious for a decade, but decent cheap batteries are still not available or are dangerous like Chinese versions.
WE have too much rooftop solar in SE Qld for grid stability so some will automatically be taken off line when the grid demands it. In reality the Queensland government should foster HELE rebuilds for the older coal fired plants, to gain stronger baseload and strengthen our grid security, thus allowing more solar into the system, but wind farms should be scrapped ASAP.
As for subsidies they should also be scrapped, if generating systems can’t pay for themselves- such as industrial solar, wind and pumped hydro, we shouldn’t be supporting them-good money going after bad!
Please keep up the fight on this, the public must know the cost of these senseless power policies chasing the mythical climate dragon that’s going to burn us all up soon -not!