JOSH BURNS
MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC MELBOURNE

FRIDAY 10 MAY 2024

SUBJECT: Future Gas Strategy

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: There's growing unrest on Labor's backbench over the federal government's newly unveiled gas strategy. The plan would say new gas fields open to boost exports to Asia with gas making up a larger share of our own energy mix while we transition to renewable energy, but a number of MPs have said they're frustrated with the flat the plan and they they feel blindsided by yesterday's announcement. Josh Burns is a Labor MP who has already voiced his frustration. And he joins us on breakfast, Josh, good morning.

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Good morning, Patricia.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: So when you heard about it, what was your reaction?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Look, I didn't get into politics to be a support mechanism for the fossil fuel industry. When I got into parliament, I was one of the youngest MPs in the House of Representatives, I'm still relatively young. And I feel a sense of responsibility that I stand up for not only my generation, and the generations after me and my daughter, that we do everything we can to try and transition our economy from high emissions, fossil fuels to low emissions technology, and that needs to happen as soon as possible. Now, obviously, you know, we're the Labor Party, we have to bring people with us, we have to ensure that people have jobs and that they're supported in all of this. And I'm under no illusion that we have a responsibility to make sure that Australians have electricity, that they have power that they have affordable power. But also, what are the levers the government has? And how do we use them to ensure that the transition to low emissions future is happening as quickly as possible? And that is my focus. And that is what I believe the Labor Party needs to focus on as well.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Has there been some coordination in you all voicing your concerns?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Well, look, we you know, we speak to each other, obviously, we're colleagues. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: And there's quite a few of you.I mean, this is the biggest revolt I've seen since covering your government?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: I would say a couple of points. One is that there are a lot of my colleagues who care deeply about this issue. And feel just as I do that, my responsibility is to be a strong voice for Macnamara in government. And I take that responsibility extremely seriously. I think everyone in government knows that both myself and my electorate wants stronger action on climate change. And that's something that I'm not going to be shy about prosecuting, including publicly if I need to. So we talk to each other. And I think the most important conversations are often done behind closed doors. But it's important to tell people that actually, this policy direction that we want to see is one where we're transitioning our economy.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: What's actually wrong with the plan that the government has announced? What are the problems in it?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Well, I think I think the open endedness is the biggest issue. The, the timing of, you know, how long we want fossil fuels to be around? It doesn't have an end date. And I think that what we actually need to do is think about…let's reverse it, what is the timeline that we need, and then we're going to set ourselves in order to be able to transition the economy and transition key industries from what is currently now high emissions technology to low emissions technology. Now, there are examples like green hydrogen, where that is still in production, in development. And we're not there yet. So that's, you know, we have to live in the real world, we will. I'm not under any illusion that at the moment in Victoria, we still have over half our electricity from coal, coal fired generation, but we need that electricity to power our hospitals. So this is not something that we can flick a switch in. We can't power our cities with ideology, we need to be real. But I think that the biggest focus should be how quickly can we transition and be part of the international efforts for ourselves, for the Pacific Islands, for all of our friends and future generations to transition our economy from, from the current high emissions and fossil fuels to the low emission future.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Josh burns, have you spoken to the Prime Minister about this?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: I haven't, in the last 24 hours. But I've obviously been…

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: …reached out to your colleagues about bringing you together. I mean, that they're on the cusp of delivering their budget and there's a backbench revolt on a key issue.

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Well, I know that the Prime Minister has been speaking to colleagues and he can speak for himself. I don't know exactly who is spoken to but you know, we do talk about this. We do talk about issues in government. And I think that's what people expect when I'm not here to be a rubber stamp. I'm here to stand up for my electorate, and that's something that's I'll continue to do and I know my colleagues will continue to do for their electorates.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: And at the last election, the greens won nearly 30% of the primary vote in your seat does this? Does this help your competition this government policy?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Patricia, there's always politics and everything. But I I'm motivated by, you know, you have to give you a life up to, to be a member of parliament. And obviously there is politics that dictate how long you're in that place. But to do the grind, and to work in government and to stand up for your community, you can't do it just purely because of an election every three years, you have to do it, because you believe in it. And you have to do it because you want to represent the people in your own electorate. And that's the motivation that I've gotten. I also have a young family and a young daughter. And I want her to know that, in my time in politics, I did everything I could to try and set up Australia and be a part of the generation that takes climate change and the climate emergency extremely seriously.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: So given all of that, and what you describe there, do you expect the government to reverse its decision? Do you want them to?

JOSH BURNS, MEMBER FOR MACNAMARA: Look, we'll continue to have conversations about the policy direction, I know that there is a lot of really important policy that's coming up in the budget and, and in in future weeks and months, and Chris Bowen has done an incredible job thus far, where he's helped, and he and Tanya Plibersek have help, really fast track renewable energies into electricity grid and across our economy. The number of renewable energy projects has skyrocketed, as well as the amount of renewable energy in our electricity grid has gone up by about 25%. So there is good work that's happening. It's incredible work that's happening.