Mr. Stephen Douglas:

I thank Senator Higgins for her questions. It is definitely an important issue for the industry. The investments made are made over a very long period, spanning 25 to 40 years. Obviously, one is seeking to recover the money one has put in and to generate a profit over that time. At present, we are in transition. We are moving from a brown system to a green system. That is happening perhaps even faster than we would have expected, with the increased climate action ambition.

First, from an industry perspective, those costs need to be known. We need to be aware of those costs and we need to compare them to the counterfactuals in terms of whether we can use those assets and optimise them. We must consider whether we can abate carbon in a conventional generator or whether we can use the gas network for something else. We are asking those questions at the moment but the time for decisions is now, because we also need to make new investments. That is a conversation that we need to have right now.

I welcome Senator Higgins's point. It is something that our association thinks about a lot. We will take that away to reflect on.