Thursday, 15 August 2019

 Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (09:57): This morning I would like to congratulate Australian Carbon Innovation (ACI) chair Gerry Morvell and CEO Brian Davey along with Federation University, Churchill, for hosting a very insightful forum last week entitled ‘Hydrogen forum—A pathway to environmental and regional prosperity—Where to for Gippsland?’. The forum brought together specialists in research and development, industry, the CSIRO and many interested members of our local community.

The keynote speaker was Australia’s chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, who outlined the opportunities for Australia and Gippsland in hydrogen production. Dr Finkel told an interested crowd how hydrogen, including that produced from Latrobe Valley coal with carbon capture and storage, could be part of the global solution for reducing emissions while providing energy security to the world. Dr Finkel, refreshingly, stressed his view that the future does not have to be either coal or renewables but that a diverse mix of both will be required to transition to a zero-emissions future. Part of that future is also in relation to the Regional Carbon Innovation Centre, and I look forward to supporting Brian Davey, ACI and Federation University to work through the production of new technologies to make use of our valuable resources into the future.