Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 4:53:08 to 4:57:18
Senator McDonald inquires about which agency is responsible for tracking jobs, salaries, and economic value within the emerging green economy.
Topics: Employment, Emissions reduction
Speakers: Susan McDonald, Ms Kushla Munro, Hon Tim Ayres, Unknown Speaker
>> all right. So um I also have got questions around the transition of Australia's economy to net zero emissions by 2050. um how many uh agencies are involved within this department on reporting on that transition of the Australian economy specifically around um there's been the government has made projections around the size of the renewables and the green economy. Um we I know that we track emissions and employment numbers and salary numbers for coal mines, for gas companies, uh for energy companies. What what agency within this department or what section within this department is tracking jobs and salaries and value for the green economy.
So Senator um again I think that goes to uh sort of the first question you asked about the you know the entities that you know that this department is responsible for or in the portfolio uh which we took on notice. I think more broadly though um the the government uh produces an annual statement and uh reports on that uh every year and the the next one will be coming out actually before the end of the parliamentary year and that is where we provide the most comprehensive uh update on uh what is happening across uh the uh I guess the economy that's relevant to both the energy transition
to understand is who in the department is responsible for measuring and tracking that data.
>> So I guess in the department uh we do have a central policy area um that you know that uh looks at a number of indicators uh in terms of what is actually happening uh across the economy. Um just as an example uh you know we will look at and use data in terms of what's happening uh with the the sales of EVs. What does that look like for EV charging? So there's a whole raft of of different
>> specifically what I'm looking for is that there's been a whole lot of commentary on the number of people employed in coal and gas mining. I've got analysis under the Treasury Department of the of the decline of that industry and I'm just seeking to understand what what data is being collected and managed and by whom on the number of jobs and the salaries that are being generated in the uh in the clean
there are set of uh kind of categorization issues there that I think uh so I mean I'm thinking about my own department's work in this area right so not sure it actually >> to the extent that to to the extent that I mean this this department's role is to essentially guide the development of a new electricity system and deal with you know future investments in critical minerals production that are electrified count as green jobs? I don't know. I don't
>> Well, somebody should know, Minister,
because you keep it's not I don't think it's very useful. I mean, what I think is it's about new industrial jobs. Uh, and um, I don't get too hung up on the kind of porative labels for these