Industry Climate Change Conference

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (14:18): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier inform the house about the recent Industry Climate Change Conference?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:18): I am delighted to inform the house about the Industry Climate Change Conference—the inaugural conference that was held a couple of weeks ago, with 900 delegates in the end. We hoped for maybe 600, and it was a terrific overachievement as is typical of anything I think that Martin Haese is associated with. He has tremendous energy and networks, and he brought both of those to bear in coordinating the conference.

The intent of the conference was to provide an opportunity for businesses in South Australia, particularly small businesses and non-government organisations, to engage in discussions about ways in which they can facilitate decarbonising their own businesses and also take advantage of the way in which South Australia has been leading in many areas in reducing the impact of climate change and make sure that they are able to capitalise on the shifts that are occurring, particularly through government policy, such as renewable energy and hydrogen, as was canvassed by the Premier earlier.

There were several speakers who made enormous contributions, I think, and were very well received. Martin Haese was the MC and coordinated the conference, and we had Chris Bowen come over and address the conference in the morning. The Premier addressed the conference, as did Jon Dee (who has done many things, including establishing Planet Ark) and Tim Jarvis (sometimes known as an adventurer who has recreated Shackleton's experiences down in Antarctica and who has also been a leading light in environmental campaigning). They were significant contributors to the conference. I thank my colleagues the Minister for Small and Family Business and also the Minister for Planning for participating in panels.

A survey was conducted after the conference to determine the reactions of the participants and what they would like to see following. There is a very strong view that we should continue to hold such a conference. The intention at this stage, although not yet settled, is that we will do that every other year and make sure that we continue to expand the subjects that are provided.

We did receive a lot of feedback about the kind of information that was valued and the kinds of issues that have been addressed. One of the issues was, of course, the way in which we can have co-benefits for carbonisation—for example, better agricultural productivity from revegetation and storing carbon in soils, investment opportunities of capturing new markets and new customers, innovating and safeguarding against obsolescence, reducing life cycle costs for businesses and construction, and also better health outcomes from low-carbon travel choices.

It was very clear that there is an awareness of the need to adjust business to address decarbonisation and the opportunities of the world decarbonising, but also a need for detail and how that will occur. This conference met a need that existed within the business community but had not yet been fully expressed: the ways in which they are able to capitalise on these changes, understand them and also manage the risks associated with them.

I think it is with a combination of government effort, large business effort and small business working together that we will start to see a dramatic shift, because although South Australia has done extremely well in reducing its emissions we have still greater ambitions that are shared across the chamber to hit even more significant targets. We will only do that by operating in a cooperative way across government, across business and the community sector generally.