“Retooling our economy”: Nicolette Boele on AUKUS, environmental law, and the future of Australia

Just across the street from Lindfield station, the office for the former “shadow member of Bradfield” is in the final stages of packing up. The move to the official electorate office is almost complete for Nicolette Boele, the first non-Liberal candidate to claim the seat in its 75 year history.

As I walk into Boele’s headquarters, she jokes that the team is still keeping it around “just in case we need it for a by-election.” 

The final results for Bradfield were only called on June 4 and involved an official recount. A tense few weeks followed the May 3 election for both Boele and Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian, as the distance between the would-be Bradfield representatives waxed and waned before settling at a difference below 100 votes, triggering a recount. 

The recount, undertaken in Asquith, eventually found Boele to be the winner of the seat with just 26 votes the difference. Kapterian has 24 more days to dispute the final count and challenge it in the Court of Disputed Returns.

But in her Lindfield office on Wednesday afternoon, Boele seemed chipper, her sights set on the future for both Bradfield and Australia.

North Shore Lorikeet: How has the process been since you took office in Bradfield?

“It’s like starting up a small business,” said Boele.

“The Prime Minister hasn't given us the staffing allocation yet, and we're five weeks behind other people who found out on the night whether they’d been elected.” 

Along with preparation for the first sitting of federal parliament, the member for Bradfield also has the task of catching up on the previous five weeks of governance, working through “a backlog of constituent questions and queries”.

“Anything from issues with visas, to family domestic violence concerns, through to ‘my mum's turning 100 and would love a congratulatory message from the Prime Minister.’”

Next on Boele’s busy schedule is “parliament school”, a two day induction session in Canberra for all newly elected members of the House of Representatives. She’ll be joined there by the likes of Ali France of Dickson and Mary Aldred of Monash.

Murray Watt has said that the EPA (Environmental Protection Australia) is very high and immediate among Labor’s priorities. Do you buy that?

“No.” Boele said. “They had the opportunity last term to do it.” 

“For someone who has worked for the last 35 years in finance, climate and clean energy, it's really disappointing that the EPA has not been set up, because there are so many renewable energy projects stuck in the courts.”

“If we had just one federal EPA who could set the expectations around projects that are renewable, we wouldn't even have proponents trying to put wind farms next to world heritage areas like in Queensland, that just would never happen.”

“Parliament hasn't sat yet, and we already have Murray Watt approving the extension of Woodside’s Northwest shelf by 45 years. A long time. So I have to say, that does not give me confidence.”

“This is a party that I thought understood the science of climate.”

What would the EPA and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) reform need to garner your support?

“We were hoping, after the review, that the EPBC Act would have a greenhouse trigger,” said Boele.

What is a greenhouse trigger?

A greenhouse trigger, or climate trigger, refers to a mechanism which triggers a formal assessment of a fossil fuel project with a certain amount of greenhouse emissions.

Currently, Australia’s environmental protection laws require any new fossil fuel projects to be referred to the Minister for Environment for approval if they could impact any of a list of nine “matters of national environmental significance”. 

These matters include things like world heritage properties, water resources, threatened species, or any nuclear related activities such as uranium mining. 

Significantly, climate change is not listed as one of these matters. The climate trigger proposes adding it. 

“These are instrumental bits of law that helps set the expectations for business and helps to also protect investors and proponents, who want to be part of a solution, to do it effectively and efficiently,” said Boele.

You've spoken out twice now about the need for a parliamentary inquiry into the AUKUS deal. If such an inquiry were to take place, what specific parts of the deal do you think really deserve scrutiny?

“People in defence who have briefed me have questioned whether the goal that we thought we had a few years back —when we committed — is still the same one, [whether] things have shifted and changed.” Boele told me.

“There's a muddiness, I think, between the proposed AUKUS plan and what it's trying to achieve, right?

“If it's deterrence, putting all our eggs into this basket doesn't seem — from what I've been briefed — a really good strategy.”

 “That small investment in an inquiry is definitely prudent at this stage.”

As you prepare for your first sitting of parliament, what other issues are on your mind?

“I see a massive opportunity for retooling our economy.”

“I'm not talking about 100% renewables. I'm talking about 600-700% renewables, because I want us to be an industrial base for renewable energy so we can actually help decarbonise the region through exporting goods and services that have clean energy embodied into it before export.”

“The Future Made In Australia Act … that the Labor Party put through in the 47th parliament: good economic policy, but I want to make sure it gets implemented.”

What is your favourite bus route in Bradfield?

After admitting she was, in fact, very much a train and metro person, Boele told the Lorikeet that the 194 bus, travelling from St Ives to Wynyard, was her favourite route.

Image Credit: Nick Fiennes