Australians and New Zealanders have been promised lower power prices, cleaner energy and cheaper electric cars under a new deal inked between the two countries.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Energy Minister Chris Bowen signed the agreement alongside Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Climate Change Minister James Shaw in Wellington on Thursday.
The two governments have agreed to work closely together to seize the economic opportunities of the transition to renewable energy and accelerate climate change action across the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Dr Chalmers said the deal would signal to Pacific neighbours Australia and New Zealand’s commitment to climate action as well as reassure investors eyeing off the clean energy industries in both nations.
Under the agreement, Australia and New Zealand will also use their “collective purchasing power” to support the supply of cheaper electric vehicles in the domestic market, including in government fleets to help bolster the second-hand market.
“This agreement will mean more electric vehicles, more jobs and more investment in the transformation to cleaner, cheaper energy in both nations,” Dr Chalmers said in a statement.
“It’s a big step forward in our strategy to ensure Australian industry and Australian workers are best placed to benefit from growing demand for cleaner, cheaper energy and the opportunities that will create.”
Speaking to reporters in Wellington on Thursday after the deal was signed, Dr Chalmers brushed off suggestions Australia and New Zealand were in fact competing to access the same limited supply of electric vehicles.
“It’s more common that we co-operate than compete. And that’s because we see each other as force multipliers when it comes to this big, economic transformation that we both want to see in our economies,” he said.
Dr Chalmers said New Zealand and Australia were each ahead of one another in some aspects of the clean energy transition but the two countries had “a lot to learn from each other”.
“We want to attract investment in the clean energy transformation. And one of the ways that we do that is we better inform our markets, we make it easier for investors, particularly big investors, to do the right thing,” he said.
“And that’s by making it easier with taxonomies and other agendas for people to make good, informed choices in markets. And that is to our mutual benefit, and that’s how we see it.”
Asked by reporters at the same press conference what the deal meant for domestic vehicle manufacturing, Mr Bowen appeared optimistic there would be at least electric vehicle components built in Australia if not complete vehicles themselves.
“I’m forward leaning about the opportunities certainly for Australia in manufacturing in the renewable supply chain, including electric vehicles,” he said.
“Whether it’s full electric vehicles or one particular type of electric vehicle like last-mile delivery vans.”
Mr Bowen said there was “a lot of interest” in Australian manufacturing and pointed out the Tesla chairwoman was an Australian, which he said “we’re very proud of”.
“So we’re very forward leaning on this — electric vehicles or components of electric vehicles … considering we are home to nine out of the ten critical minerals necessary for a battery,” he said.
“We want to add more value, do more processing, more manufacturing. Solar panels, we have one solar panel manufacturer in Australia. We can do better than that.”
The Albanese government in April announced plans to impose a fuel efficiency standard on new cars and encourage electric vehicle uptake including by improving charging infrastructure as part of its new electric vehicle strategy.
But the government is yet to set targets for the uptake of electric vehicles or specify what the fuel efficiency standard will look like.
The traditional Australian car manufacturing industry folded in 2017 with the last General Motors Holden after being gradually wound down.