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19 World Energy Congress, Sydney, Australia September 5-9, 2004
Opening Ceremony
Welcome Speech
Prime Minister
The Hon John Howard MP
Thank you very much Mr Philip Aiken, Mr Del Rosaria, Ian Macfarlane the Federal Minister for
Energy, Mr Frank Sartor, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen. May I
welcome all of you who have come to Australia to the city of Sydney and to the
Commonwealth of Australia. And might I start particularly in addressing our friends who have
come from the Russian Federation to this gathering and I now express on behalf of all present
our sense of horror and revulsion at the terrible terrorist event, which overtook the Russian
people and the Russian nation over the past few days. It is a terrible reminder of the
challenge of terrorism around the world and of the very uncertain environment in which the
world operates. And it is a challenge to all decent nations to work together to overcome the
challenge and the evil of terrorism.
In welcoming all of you to Australia I join in particularly welcoming you to the city of Sydney.
As a native of this city I never cease to extol its virtues. It is a lovely city, I hope you partake
of its many benefits and delights and enjoy yourself in the time that you are with us.
You come to a nation of 20 million people, a nation strong economically and strongly engaged
not only with our region but engaged around the world. The Australian economy is enjoying
its best conditions since the end of World War II. We have an enviable growth rate for a
developed country of four per cent, we have low levels of unemployment, low levels of
inflation and we have a very low level of national debt. We are also a nation, which has been
blessed by providence with very large reserves of energy. And I want to say something about
the role that Australia has in mind and has executed over the years in relation to those
reserves of energy. Australia is a strong and reliable supplier of energy. Australia is the
world’s largest exporter of coal and it is a large exporter of LNG. We are very proud of the
partnerships in energy that we have developed over the years with our friends and close
partners in the Asian Pacific region. And I take this opportunity of paying tribute to a number
of those partnerships, in particularly I acknowledge to the many delegates that have come
from Japan the very long energy partnership between Australia and Japan. It’s meant a great
deal to us and I know it has meant a great deal to the utilities and the people of Japan. It’s a
partnership and a relationship that we value very dearly. Likewise our very close relationship
and partnership with Korea is of equal value and importance to Australia. And in more recent
years of course we have developed a very close energy partnership with China and we look
forward to supplying the energy needs of China and of the other nations of our region years
into the future.
We bring to that partnership, or those partnerships, a commitment both as a Government and
also as Australian companies. We are a nation that welcomes foreign investment, we are a
nation that believes in the reliability and the constancy of supply. We are a nation and we
have companies that understand that timely delivery on the right price and without industrial
interruption is absolutely essential to the maintenance of a close and enduring energy
partnership.
I recognise as Prime Minister and as somebody who was very directly involved in the
negotiations, along with the Australian companies and the Western Australian Government of
the contract concludes with the Guangdong province of the importance of governments
working in close partnership with companies in order to see through successfully negotiations
with other nations and the utilities of those other nations. We are a Government that believes
of course very strongly in the market sector, but we also believe in the facilitating role of
government consistent with the right of companies to make their own commercial deals.
There are of course great global opportunities for reliable energy suppliers. There are also

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19 World Energy Congress, Sydney, Australia September 5-9, 2004
great global challenges and the bouncing price of oil, which is imposing a great deal of
uncertainty around the world is a stark illustration of that.
In recent times my Government has turned its attention to a long term energy policy and we
recently released an energy white paper which was designed to build on the natural
advantages that Australia has in certain energy areas. Australia as I mentioned earlier is the
world largest exporter of coal. We have very great natural advantages in what you might call
the traditional sources of energy and we committed ourselves in that white paper to invest
large amounts of money in bringing forward the study of technologies to reduce the
greenhouse emission effect of traditional sources of energy. We do not see the energy
debate as being a choice between traditional sources of energy and renewable sources of
energy, we believe in both. We see the debate as being a debate between low emission uses
of energy and high emission uses of energy. We are all believers in low emissions and we
see one of our roles at a national level to work in partnership with industry to explore new
technologies in order to reduce the effect of greenhouse gas emissions. And as a result of the
energy white paper we’ve committed ourselves in partnership with industry, industry
contributing $1 billion and the Federal Government contributing $500 million to a technology
fund to find comprehensive ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That white paper
also addressed many of the infrastructure challenges that were mentioned earlier and we’re
going to spend some $50 million to protect critical infrastructure from interruption. We are
committed to maintaining our status around the world, our very high status, across a range of
risk factors.
We understand the importance of stable markets, we understand the importance of a reliable
economic framework. We know that the thing that is most attractive not only to companies
but also to overseas customers is strong economic growth, a stable legal framework and the
constancy of government policy. We have an attitude on the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol,
which I know is at variance with the attitude of many countries around the world. Although we
are committed and we will achieve I believe the emission target set for Australia by the Kyoto
Protocol, we are unwilling to sign the Kyoto Protocol in its present form because it will impose
obligations on Australia which will not be imposed on other large emitters around the world
and if we were to sign in those circumstances that would distinctly disadvantage Australian
industry and cost Australia jobs. We will work to achieve an alternative outcome, we will fulfil
our obligations in relation to the greenhouse emission targets of Kyoto, but we are unwilling to
sign a protocol, which will work distinctly to the disadvantage of Australian companies and the
disadvantage of Australian employees.
In welcoming all of you to Australia, let me say that we are very proud of what we have
achieved as a nation, as a great energy supplier. We intend to use our energy resources
intelligently, we intend to bring forth as best we can alternative sources of energy. Part of our
energy white paper was to invest some $75 million in a solar cities trial, which is likely to
involve areas of Sydney and Adelaide. We believe in a partnership between the various
sources of energy, we do not see them competing one against the other. And we see the role
of government to find policies and outcomes that overall reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It
is not a choice as I said earlier one against the other, but rather a choice between energy
uses that involve lower greenhouse gas emissions as opposed to those that involve higher
greenhouse gas emissions.
So in welcoming all of you to Australia and to Sydney and in declaring this conference open
can I say again that you come to an economically strong united nation, a nation committed to
playing its role, not only in the region but around the world as a strong contributor, not only in
the energy sector but to the solution of so many of the rest of the world’s problems. Welcome
to Australia, I have great pleasure in declaring this conference open. I hope you find it
rewarding and I hope you go from our country with fond memories, not only of the city of
Sydney but also of the friendliness and the welcome of the Australian people.