PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: We need real government leadership. We need to set a target within the next 10 or 20 years which will allow us to start exploiting some of these renewable and non polluting sources of energy and use them as the backbone of our minerals processing economy. These seem like radical ideas now but the sort of things five years ago what we are talking about today seemed unbelievably radical.
Just to come back to coal, the Australia I grew up in rode on the sheep's back. Where is the sheep today? The economy has changed and it will change again in future. I'm convinced if we plot the right trajectory Australia's prosperity will agree as we move away from coal.
TONY JONES: Let's go to the radical solution. You've actually advocated for Australia closing down all coal-fired power stations and going to power rationing, creating a joint national scheme, like the Snowy Mountain scheme, to exploit geothermal power from the South Australia Cooper Basin. How would it work?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: I haven't talked about power rationing. I think that we do need to ultimately close down those coal-fired power plants but first we need to build the bridge to the new energy future. There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia's economy for the best part of a century. They are not being fully exploited yet but the technology to extract that energy and turn it into electricity is relatively straightforward.
TONY JONES: Is it there? I mean, is it there at the time? I know there are pilot plants in the Cooper Basin. How much of an effort, a national effort, would it take to take that further as you pointed out, and make a grid starting from there, spreading out to the rest of the country?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: If we started off on a raw footing, so this is the big investment in our future, the big Snowy Mountain scheme, to secure our future as the world’s mineral processor and mineral extraction area, I think we could probably do a very large amount of that within a decade. We've got the north-south railway now. We simply need to build on that, we need to reorient our grid, but first and foremost, we need to prove up these technologies. So we need a large investment in both solar-thermal and geothermal technologies, because both have huge potential in this area to produce abundant cheap electricity and they don't have the sort of problem we have with nuclear. Part of the issue with nuclear is it is so politically contentious and perhaps that's why it's on the agenda, but it also makes it more difficult to use in Australia to move forward, and frankly, I think there are better options.
TONY JONES: I've got to ask the obvious question: in your position, you're going to get the chance to put the chance to put these sorts of arguments to those directly in power and those who want to be in power. I presume you've done that to some degree already. Is anyone in the political scene thinking carefully about this proposal?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: I suspect that some people are. The big challenge for those people will be bringing their party with them.
TONY JONES: Do you think - I mean, I've got to ask this question. Are you talking about in Government or in Opposition?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: I think for both.
TONY JONES: There are people on both sides who listening to these ideas?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: Yes.
TONY JONES: Why haven't they entered the national debate? You are basically saying, “Here is something that would solve our power problems a hundred years into the future”.
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: People are thinking about late 20th century solutions that might have been appropriate 10 years ago, and people - we haven't caught on to the extent to which the problem has grown and the urgent need now for much more widespread solutions. It is not just securing our energy future, it’s getting the gas out of the air and Australia can play a leading role there too.
TONY JONES: Tim Flannery, you'll have a unique opportunity as Australian of the Year to put these arguments. I'm glad you've had the chance to do it on this program tonight. We'll see how you go. It was obviously a provocative choice by the committee, putting you in this job. It's an interesting time for you to be there. Thank you for joining us.
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: Thank you. I don't know if I'll thank them in a year's time, but thank you.
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