'Made in Australia' budget to stress-test election pitch

A centrepiece of the 2025-26 Budget will be the “Future Made in Australia” policy suite to support the clean energy transition and future-focused jobs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a caucus meeting Tuesday night’s budget would deliver for working people who want wage growth and cost of living relief.

“We are kicking with the wind because we have a coherent set of values that are not about us but are about a plan for Australians,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will outline an alternative plan in Thursday’s budget reply, but has already pledged not to block energy bill relief.

Expert view - Jarrod Leak, CEO, Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity

Inflated prices for leading commodities coal and gas are expected to curb the scale of the deficit, but the budget also comes amid further market uncertainty with another round of US tariffs looming and the Trump administration dialling back on net zero.

Pre-budget announceables have included a $1.8 billion relief extension for small businesses and households for an extra $150 off bills and $900 million for a national licensing scheme for the tens of thousands of electrical tradies needed for constructing a future economy.

Expert view - Luke Menzel, CEO, Energy Efficiency Council

Muddying the push for green steel and hydrogen, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has flagged immediate support for existing steel and aluminium production hit by tariffs.

The already announced $500 million from the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund will support the use of local steel and aluminium in renewable energy projects.

Unlikely allies on gas

Tasmania’s Jacqui Lambie and independent ACT Senator David Pocock want urgent measures to divert export gas to the domestic market.

“This is not about digging up more gas. This is not about ‘drill baby, drill’. This is about prioritising where our gas goes,” Lambie told reporters in Canberra, calling for a “common sense” gas reserve policy of 15 per cent to bring energy prices down.

Pocock said much of Australia was getting on with the essential job of electrifying homes and businesses to take advantage of renewable energy but industries that were finding it harder to electrify needed affordable gas, he said.

“Australia doesn’t have a gas shortage problem; we have a gas export problem,” he said.

Blow for New Zealand’s decarbonisation

An independent panel’s decision to reject a NZ$1 billion wind farm in New Zealand on environmental grounds is a “significant” blow for the nation’s energy transition.

Contact Energy’s proposed 330MW Southland Wind Farm would have helped to conserve stored hydro generation for periods when hydro could be used to displace thermal generation that would otherwise be needed to meet peak demand.

The context

To achieve the government’s goal of doubling renewable energy by 2050, New Zealand must build 9-15 GW of additional renewable electricity capacity over the next 25 years. A mere 2.9GW was built over the last 25 years.

Contact Energy, New Zealand’s second-largest generator after Meridian Energy, made a commitment in 2024 for net-zero generation by 2035, and the Southland Wind Farm was identified as an important step in achieving that goal.

It could also have helped to power future green hydrogen production or green metal production from New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter at nearby Tiwai Point, owned by Rio Tinto.

However, renewable energy is not recognised as a matter of national importance under New Zealand’s Resource Management Act, making it a big ask for developers to tip the balance in their favour when up against the resource consent panel.

CATCH UP

Projects

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Squadron Energy completed landside commissioning of its Port Kembla Energy Terminal, making it Australia’s first LNG import facility. The company has yet to announce any supply contracts. The regassification terminal converts the liquefied contents of a carrier into natural gas and then pipes it 12kms to Kembla Grange.

Renewables developer Equis said it had secured the first merchant BESS debt financing in New South Wales, with a $260 million package for its Calala BESS. The two-pronged project is already under construction, with one battery underpinned by a long-term offtake agreement with Smartest Energy and the other a merchant BESS utilising Tesla’s Autobidder. It’s expected to be fully operational by 2027.

Gas explorer Amplitude Energy announced a joint venture with Israeli company OG Energy to drill for gas off the Victorian coast. The $400 million plus project will aim for first delivery by 2028, subject to regulatory approval.

Policy

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China’s almost complete dominance of the solar PV and battery manufacturing supply chain together with the rapid reduction in the cost of components means Australia must ‘thread the needle’ and partner with China to safeguard its national interests, say the authors of a report from think tank Climate Energy Finance. They join others like Ross Garnaut’s Superpower Institute arguing Australia can power an expansion of value-added clean technology manufacturing and processing to replace the loss of royalties, corporate tax and employment from the progressive decline of fossil fuel exports.

Research

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Global energy demand grew by 2.2 per cent in 2024 – faster than the average rate over the past decade, the IEA said. While energy demand growth was predominantly driven by developing economies, electricity demand alone reached a new high in advanced economies, driven by increasing cooling demand resulting from extreme temperatures, growing consumption by industry, the electrification of transport, and the expansion of the data centre sector. Growing generation to meet this demand saw solar PV and wind increase by a record 670 TWh, while generation from natural gas rose by 170 TWh and coal by 90 TWh.

Random

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An eight-metre high inflatable “radioactive waste” barrel on the Parliament House lawn will confront Budget 2025-26 attendees, Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigners say. The display is an initiative of the Don’t Nuke the Climate project that recently published plume maps showing the potential contamination impacts of a Fukushima-style accident at the seven sites where the Coalition is proposing nuclear reactors.

What's on

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The federal budget will be handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers at 7.30pm AEDT today, followed by the National Press Club post-budget address in the Great Hall at Parliament House on Wednesday March 26.
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Strategist Viktor Shvets, Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki, and Co-CEO of Responsible Investment Association Australasia Estelle Parker will speak at the 2025 Impact Investment Summit on March 26-27.

Peter Nattrass, Principal Industry Development in the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining will speak alongside James Choi, Honorary Ambassador for Foreign Investment Promotion at the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at the Green Iron and Steel Forum in Perth on March 26. Fortescue General Manager Strategy Tijana LaBianca will deliver the keynote address.

Energy Queensland Chief Customer Officer Michael Dart will speak alongside Master Electricians Australia CEO Kate Raymond, Brisbane City Council General Manager Major Projects Stephen Hammer and Queensland Renewable Energy Council Katie-Anne Mulder at the Solar and Storage Live event in Brisbane on March 26. Quinbrook Senior Director James Allan will speak on day 2 of the conference.

Malcolm Turnbull will address the National Press Club in Canberra on “Sovereignty and Security - Australia and the new world disorder” on April 1.

Angus Taylor will deliver his Post Budget Reply Address at the National Press Club in Canberra on April 2.

Donald Trump will announce major changes to US trade policy on April 2.

NEM review Chair Tim Nelson and SEC Board Chair Simon Corbell will speak at the Clean Energy Council’s Clean Energy Investor Forum in Sydney on April 3. Other speakers include CEFC Chief Investment Officer - Renewables and Sustainable Finance Monique Miller; ENGIE Renewables Australia MD Laura Caspari; Aquila Clean Energy ANZ MD Dennis Freedman; Tilt Renewables CEO Anthony Fowler; and Potentia Energy CEO Werther Esposito.