E&OE
PRESS CONFERENCE
COOGEE, WA
13 JUNE 2026
Subjects: New ARENA Community Batteries in WA, One Nation, Electoral funding, Pilbara industrial action, WA school terms
JOSH WILSON: Good morning. It’s great to be here in Coogee, on Whadjuk Noongar land, with my ministerial colleague, Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation, Amber Jade Sanderson, and Acting CEO of Western Power, Gair Landsborough. And we’re making a big announcement today: 18 new community batteries. We’re standing with a community battery behind us that we delivered last August, and 10 months later, we’re announcing another 18 batteries in partnership between the Albanese Labor government and the Cook Labor government from our side funded through ARENA, nine and a half million dollars out of what is a $25 million spend. Those 18 batteries, five in Bunbury and 13 through the metro area, will add nearly seven megawatts of additional storage capacity, 16 megawatt hours, as part of the work we’re doing to transition the energy system Australia-wide, but certainly here in Western Australia to a cleaner, cheaper, more self-sufficient, more stable energy system. Storage is a big part of that, because we need to capture abundant solar energy, particularly in the middle of the day, and redeploy it at that evening peak.
And the most significant thing that I think Western Australians, and Australians more broadly, should hold on to is that Australia is fast becoming one of the leading nations in the world when it comes to the deployment of storage systems. We are the third highest nation when it comes to battery deployment, behind China and the US. On a per capita basis, we are number one, and that is really critical. And within Australia, taking that leading position, Western Australia is the leading state or territory jurisdiction, which is significant when you consider the circumstances of WA not part of the national grid, operating the SWIS and the NWIS, the southwest and the northwest systems, without being part of that national system, without having the benefit of deep storage in the form of hydro, so wanting to be a leader and achieving that status as a leader when it comes to battery storage. It’s putting downward pressure on prices. It’s helping our system be more stable, and it’s time-shifting energy, so it’s taking that cheap, abundant solar energy and redeploying it at the evening peak to bring down prices. We’ve seen this battery revolution over the last several years through the work of the Albanese Government, backing in the work that was already underway by the Cook Labor Government, making a big difference.
Batteries are the fastest growing single source of energy within our system. Batteries are setting the price more often than any other source of energy in the NEM, putting that downward pressure on prices, and we’re starting to see some really great outcomes. Obviously, over the summer, when we had a hot summer, we had new demand records. We nevertheless had renewable energy records. We went beyond 50 per cent renewable energy. We saw renewable energy out-generate coal fired power for consecutive months for the first time. We saw the contribution that coal fired power makes to energy in Australia drop to the lowest level ever in Australian history, and gas, the contribution that gas makes, dropped to the lowest level in 28 years. That is progress. That’s what Australians want to see as we make the necessary transition to our potential as a renewable energy superpower and a clean industry powerhouse. We first of all transform our energy system, take control of our energy future, and deliver cheaper prices, because renewable energy is the cheapest form of new generation. We then translate that into decarbonised, clean industries, developing the products that the world needs, as we tackle dangerous climate change. Batteries are a big part of that. We need to do that at every level. We’re seeing it in big batteries, as we already have here at Collie and Kwinana, that will be delivered shortly in Muchea and Merredin, and the three additional batteries that Minister Sanderson and I announced as part of the tenders five and six under the capacity investment scheme a little bit more than a month ago, another three big batteries through that program. We’re seeing it in medium-sized community level batteries, like the one behind me, and the 18 new ones that are being announced today, and of course, we’re seeing it in home and small and medium enterprise batteries. Just since the first of July, 45,000 of those batteries delivered in Western Australia, more than 450,000 nationwide, thanks to the Albanese Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program and the rebate scheme that the Western Australian government has in place. That is progress, that is the future that we want to build here in Western Australia, and for Australians across the board in the 21st century. WA is playing a leading role in that remarkable endeavour, and I’ll hand over to Minister Sanderson to explain some of that work.
AMBER-JADE SANDERSON (WA MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND DECARBONISATION):Thanks, Josh. It’s a day like today where rooftop solar isn’t going to be firing on all cylinders, and that’s why we need this storage capacity in our system to ensure system reliability and security for West Australians. Community batteries like this sit on our network and act as a shared storage in neighbourhoods. It soaks up all of that excess solar energy that’s produced during the day when demand is low and the sun is shining, and then dispatches it out at peak times when demand is high and the sun is setting. So these are really critical pieces of infrastructure in our energy system now. And Western Australia is leading the nation in utility-scale batteries. We made an early investment many years ago in $2.2 billion in large scale batteries in Collie and Kwinana, and they have been making a huge contribution to meeting increasing peak demands in our warming summers and our warming climate. These community batteries spread across from Bunbury through the metropolitan area will help support even more firming capacity across our grid. West Australians support renewable energy. West Australians are taking up solar energy, and residential batteries at a huge rate, and they have been early adopters of this technology. So, we welcome this partnership and this contribution from the Commonwealth to put more firming capacity on our grid. These batteries are also made in WA, they’re made by a great local company, PowerTech, and we are very, very happy to be able to support our local manufacturing industry and sector with our renewable energy transition, and make sure that we’re making more things in WA driven by cheaper, cleaner energy. I’ll hand over to Josh, and if there’s any state issues, I’m happy to take them.
REPORTER: How did you choose the locations for these batteries?
WILSON: Well, Western Power would be best placed to explain that, but broadly they’ve been chosen because of the needs of the system, where we have abundant solar that can be soaked up and where it can be redeployed, but taking in all of the usual considerations about system stability and transmission capability, those kinds of things.
REPORTER: On gloomy day like today, how much power can it be getting back to homes, I guess in a practical sense?
WILSON: Each one of the community batteries can support the needs of probably 130 to 150 households. They’re not dedicated to households specifically. They are providing that storage capacity into the grid as a whole, but as I described before, something like 6.6 megawatts of storage capacity across these 18 batteries. That’s sort of relatively small if you consider what a big battery alone would do, and Minister Sanderson’s already described the way that WA was ahead of the curve in the deployment of those big batteries in Collie and Kwinana, and then there’s a sequence of bigger batteries, or just as big, and in some cases bigger batteries coming at the same time as we see that that distributed battery revolution. I mean, the significance of the Cheaper Home Batteries program, and the way that it has worked together with rebate schemes, as there is here in WA, the 450,000 cheaper home batteries nationwide has provided 13 gigawatt hours of storage into the system. That is a huge amount of stored energy potential, and as the regulator’s already acknowledged, when you add that storage potential, and you’re able to redeploy very, very cheap midday solar into the evening peak, you do get downward pressure on prices, and we’re seeing that.
REPORTER: You say 150 homes, how long is that for?
WILSON: I don’t know exactly how many hours, and often they’re expressed in, like the bigger batteries are expressed in terms of sort of four hours of generation capacity, the smaller and medium batteries don’t operate in exactly that way, but in any case, that storage capacity is not applied to a particular set of homes, it’s part of the entire system health.
REPORTER: How much of a price difference this is making? Like, is it actually translating into people’s power bills?
WILSON: Well, it certainly is, if you look at the Default Market Offer, which is one of the best ways of looking at it. That doesn’t apply in WA, because it’s a standalone system, and there’s significant public ownership in the energy system here, which is not the case in all of the other eastern jurisdictions. But those default market number offers that we saw recently are showing a decrease in prices that varies across those states where they have the Default Market Offer, but it is significant at a time of cost of living pressures, when every decrease is welcomed by households, but it’s more about that direction of travel, it’s more about having confirmed for us what we would expect, which is that if you bring in cheaper energy in the form of renewables, you’ll see downward pressure on prices.
REPORTER: There’s been five in Bunbury, as you mentioned, the south, you know, there are here in WA particular issues with power security outside of this. Are you’re looking to further introduce these community batteries to more sort of regional areas, like Kalgoorlie, for example?
WILSON: Delivering more battery storage will continue for some considerable period of time, we’ve made huge progress in Australia. I mean, to go to number one on a per capita basis worldwide is quite an achievement. I think it’s something that Australians would be proud of, and that Australians are actually showing their appetite for. Like, first and foremost, we’re the leader when it comes to distributed solar. We’re on our way to becoming a leader when it comes to distributed batteries. That’s actually ordinary Australians, not just households, but businesses voting with their feet and showing common sense, because in every one of those instances people find immediately that they are taking control of their own energy circumstances and getting really, really significant cost benefits. Needless to say, we need to go further. We got to the point where we’re at 50% renewables, you know. The target nationwide is 82% renewables by 2030, so we’ll keep going on that path.
REPORTER: There’s a $25 million total for this project. Is $9 million essentially from the Commonwealth and the rest from the state government?
WILSON: The nine and a half million dollars from ARENA is the Commonwealth contribution to the 25, that’s right.
REPORTER: I guess, how does this community battery kind of interact with homes that already have their own batteries? Is there any difference of how those homes get the power?
WILSON: People who have home solar home batteries are nevertheless connected to the grid, there’ll be some people, if you just have solar, there’ll be some part of the time when you are nevertheless drawing on grid power, but the grid itself is both decarbonising and increasing in the quantity of renewable and green stored energy that’s being placed back, and everybody benefits from that, and that’s really important. We understand that as you make this transition, we want to do it in a fair and equitable way. And there will be households and businesses that, at the moment, haven’t gone and been able to take up the benefits of solar or battery themselves, but they are getting a benefit of community batteries, large scale batteries, large scale wind and solar projects, those benefits are being shared by everybody.
REPORTER: Those 18 new ones, have they been installed now, or when will they be installed?
WILSON: So, the five in Bunbury, my understanding will be operating before this next summer, and the 13 that will be distributed in the metro area will be deployed in the course of 2027. I think, by the middle or sort of Q3 2027.
REPORTER: Obviously, you’ve been a big week here in WA. What did you make of Pauline’s visit to the West?
WILSON: Politics is a colourful space, and people will move around doing what they do. I guess it’s for Pauline and One Nation to explain where they go and why. Yeah, I guess I don’t spend a lot of time focusing on what other political parties do. You know, we’re focusing on addressing the needs of the Australian community. It’s a tough time. It’s an uncertain time. We’ve got a global fuel crisis. We are focusing on dealing with the challenges that we know are real. We know people are under pressure. That’s why we halved the fuel excise. We know that housing has become unaffordable. That’s why we’re taking this courageous, ambitious move to reform tax settings, so that house prices don’t drift further and further away from ordinary Australians, and particularly young Australians. I think there are parts of the political world that would prefer to play the blame game, that would prefer to amplify division and be less courageous in terms of tackling the real problems, and be more inclined to point the finger, but at the end of the day, that’s for them.
REPORTER: Despite those efforts, I guess you know, are you increasingly worried that you know people are turning away from the major parties due to the cost-of-living crisis that we’re being faced with?
WILSON: When you’re fortunate enough to be asked to by the Australian community to have the responsibility of tackling the issues that Australia faces, that’s what you focus on, and that’s what people would expect us to focus on, not to be concerned about the politics, but to be concerned about the substance. So, I feel very fortunate and grateful to both represent my community, but to do so as part of an Albanese Government that recognises people are doing it tough. That’s why we’ve supported and delivered increases in the minimum wage, increases in real wages, the longest sustained period of low unemployment in this country, cheaper medicines, more bulk billing, Medicare urgent care clinics. The reforms that I’ve just talked about, you know, some of these things are hard, but the Australian community expects that when you’re in government, you don’t take the easy path, that you don’t just sit on your hands and let these challenges be someone else’s problem, that you take them on, and we are taking on some of those things, however difficult they might be, for the longer term benefits. I think there are parts of the political world that would prefer to shake their fist at the sky, and try to amplify the problems, and then find people to blame them on. I personally don’t think that that’s the sort of the sensible or responsible or courageous or Australian way of dealing with those problems. I think it’s about being real and being honest with the Australian people, and saying we see those difficulties and those challenges, and we’re going to take them on, and certainly you know, you talk about One Nation, this is a party that has consistently opposed increases to the minimum wage, imposed opposed improvements to working conditions, opposed cost of living relief. So, I always encourage Australians to it’s a free country, it’s a democracy. People make their choice in a free and considered way. I encourage people, though, when they consider the challenges that they’re under, to look at parts of the world that are being serious about the challenges and parts of the world that are playing a kind of a coconut shell and thimble game, because I reckon there’s a fair bit of that going on too.
REPORTER: A One Nation supporter was calling for a return to white Australia at last night’s event. What do you make of that?
WILSON: Look, I don’t think there’s any place for that sort of division or prejudice in modern Australian life, and I know that the vast, vast majority of Australians would take that view. I mean, if someone’s expressing that as part of a political event, it’s really for whomever is hosting that event to make a response to that, so that’s probably something for the One Nation leadership to respond to. If, as you describe it, was just a person attending the event, then that’s one thing, but there’s no place for that, that division and prejudice in Australian life. It’s not our way, it doesn’t reflect the sort of cohesive, compassionate, sensible, courageous nature of Australians to punch down to try to find ways to divide ourselves, to try and indulge in that kind of prejudice, and it’s not the answer to the challenges that we face. People who want to go down that path, they should be seen for what it is, you know, for something that is essentially divisive and purposeless when it comes to actually making life easier and better and more peaceful and more stable and more cohesive in this country.
REPORTER: When Miss Hanson was over here, she named a couple of your colleagues’ seats, Madeleine King and Ann Aly’s seats on her hit list. Should they be worried about the threat of One Nation?
WILSON: As I said before, I suspect for my colleagues, you know, we don’t spend all our time thinking about politics, we think about what we can do with the responsibility that we have to make things better for people in our communities, and for our state, and for our country. I know that that’s what my colleagues will be focused on. If other people want to kind of play politics and come up with hit lists, and those kinds of things, people will judge that for themselves. I know that both of those people, Minister Madeleine King and Minister Anne Aly, they spend all day, every day working hard for the communities they represent, for the state of Western Australia, and for Australia, making it stronger and better, and more sustainable, more cohesive into the future. I think that’s what Australians want to see. They don’t want to see people running around making up hit lists as if this is some sort of game.
REPORTER: 56,000 of those Australians, though, have committed financially to pulling to One Nation’s fundraising campaign, the Fire the Liar campaign. I guess they’ve raised three and a half million dollars so far. What does it say that there’s that much anger against the Prime Minister across the nation?
WILSON: Well, I just wouldn’t interpret it in the way that you’ve put it. Politics is politics, and that’s the great thing about our country is that people can be part of a debate and they can take interest in different candidates or different parties, that’s a good thing, and how that occurs over time, I guess we will see. All I come back to is what I’ve said, we are focused on the needs of ordinary Australians at a very difficult time. I think other people are more focused on their political advantage, and they’re prepared to go about pursuing their political advantage in some ways that I don’t think Australians really rate. I don’t think Australians rate people who want to advance their own political position by punching down, who want to advance their own political position by whipping up division by trying to find things to blame, and I would just hope that whatever your perspective in Australian life, whatever political flavour you come from, or whatever are you interested in, consider what the issues are, and then look at who is being serious about the solutions. The Albanese Labor Government is trying to lift people’s wages. We’re trying to make sure that tax cuts go to working Australians. We’re trying to make medicines cheaper. We’ve made big changes to aged care. We’re making the largest investment to Medicare in a generation. We’ve delivered two budget surpluses. You know, we are getting on with the hard work of trying to make Australia stronger and fairer into the future. We’re not playing those silly games, we’re not focused on ourselves, and we’re certainly not punching down on our fellow Australians.
REPORTER: A report in the Saturday Paper shows one nation will get $50 million after the next election from the cash for votes changes, where parties now get $5 for each vote. Does that worry you? And has that increased backfired on Labor?
WILSON: Well, it’s sort of a hypothetical situation, because it’s casting forward to what might be the case beyond the next election. As I say, that’s probably two years away, and we’re focused on today. We’re focused on delivering more batteries, on the transformation of our energy system, on creating jobs on delivering tax cuts. We’re focused on those things. We have a mixed sort of public-private funding system in Australia, and that’s a good thing, because it means that politics in Australia is not just for those who can afford it. It’s actually for all of us, and having some public funding in the system is actually healthy. Every time Labor has been in government, we’ve tried to improve the quality of the electoral system, we’ve brought down the disclosure thresholds, we’ve made it more transparent, we’ve tried to control how private funding comes into politics, because we think our system should be something that everyone can participate in, and that shouldn’t be something that you have to ask yourself, ‘well, can I afford to be part of it,’ or is it being swayed by by corporate interests or big money, which is the case in some other systems. We’ve always made those changes in government, we’ve made some of them this time around, but we’re not worried about some hypothetical future. We’re worried about the challenges that exist right now, and delivering some ambitious and difficult and courageous changes that are in the long-term interests of Australians.
REPORTER: Just on the strikes up in the Pillbara. How concerned are you about the impact on For the WA economy?
SANDERSON: We urge all parties to come back to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith. We know that the best outcomes for workers and employers are found at the bargaining table when everyone negotiates and is able to come to agreement. That’s what we’re urging all parties to do, and that’s what we expect.
REPORTER: Do you know how much of an impact it might have on the budget bottom line?
SANDERSON: Look, it’s an entirely hypothetical question. We haven’t seen the nature of any particular industrial action at this point. My understanding is the port is well prepared, should that be the case, to minimise any disruption. These are resilient industries that deal with cyclones and extreme weather and global circumstances and global uncertainty. So, we have confidence that port operations will continue, but again, we just urge all parties to come back to the bargaining table, bargain in good faith.
REPORTER: [inaudible] comments from your federal colleague Madeleine King back in the unions in yesterday?
SANDERSON: Oh, look, Madeleine was urging everyone to get back to the table and negotiate. That’s the purpose of having a robust industrial framework. This is under the federal industrial relations framework, and I support everyone getting back to the table, negotiating in good faith, and importantly respecting the independent umpire.
REPORTER: The Premier also earlier in the week said that the workers should fight for the best wages and conditions they can. Do you think some of these comments have, I guess, spurred on the union for this action?
SANDERSON: Look, I’ll let others make that determination. As I’ve said, this government is focused on creating jobs for West Australians, growing the economy, so that West Australians have good opportunities, that their kids have good opportunities, and that they’re able to earn a good wage. When it comes to particular employment arrangements, that’s a matter for those employees, those unions, and those employers. Sit down at the bargaining table and make sure that you get agreement.
REPORTER: Is the government open to Alinta energy offering residential electricity here in WA?
SANDERSON: Look, no, we’re not. There are absolutely no plans for the state government to open a contestable market for small-use customers. I’ve been very clear with Alinta about that, and there are no plans to do that. There’s no evidence, there’s no evidence from those markets in the eastern states that benefits consumers. The best thing that we can do for consumers is keep Synergy and Western Power in public hands. And Western Australian families and households have been shielded from some of the steep price rises in energy bills in the eastern states because we own Synergy and Western Power. We intend to maintain the market, and we intend to maintain public control of Synergy and Western power
REPORTER: On calls to reduce the number of school days for students. Do you think that might have some benefits?
SANDERSON: Look, as a working parent, I think the school holidays are long enough, and I think the term time is busy, and I think there wouldn’t be broad support from the community to make the school holidays longer.
REPORTER: They say it could improve academic performance, would it help out your children, you think?
SANDERSON: Well, my son is here, and I’m sure he has a strong view on whether there should be more school holidays, but as I said, as a working parent, I don’t support longer school holidays. I don’t think most working parents would support longer school holidays. Term times are also really busy. There’s a lot packed in to term times terms as it is. Teachers are already busy, classes are already busy, so I think we’ve got the right balance, and we’ll leave it at that.
ENDS
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