CORRESPONDENCE between Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Paul Broad have been made public through a Freedom of Information request, throwing more light on Mr Broad's final months as chief executive of Snowy Hydro.
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As the Newcastle Herald reported at the time, Mr Broad resigned on August 25 last year from the job he had held since 2013, after articles by this masthead raised doubts about the practicality of Labor's promise to have the Kurri Kurri gas turbine run on 30 per cent green hydrogen.
At the same time, The Australian reported that the Snowy 2.0 project had blown out by $2.2 billion, and Snowy Hydro chair David Knox told a Senate estimates hearing in November that Mr Bowen and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher "were unhappy about being surprised" by the media coverage.
IN THE NEWS:
The correspondence released under FOI runs to 76 pages and includes a range of emails in which Mr Broad discusses confidential briefings to Mr Bowen and Ms Gallagher about Snowy Hydro 2.0 and the Kurri turbine.
Mr Broad told the Herald after the estimates hearing that: "There was no lack of communication, it was rather that Chris Bowen didn't want to hear what I had to say."
The FOI correspondence appears to support this, with an email from Mr Broad to Mr Bowen on August 22, his final week in the job, saying that Snowy Hydro had "shared" its responses to the Herald and The Australian with his office.
The chain of emails and letters starts on June 3, with arrangements for an "incoming government briefing" on June 7, attended by Mr Broad and two other Snowy Hydro executives.
Referred to, but not included in the bundle, are commercial-in-confidence briefing notes and operational reports to Mr Bowen, sent on June 10.
On June 20, the two ministers wrote to Mr Knox about Snowy Hydro's "pivotal role" as a significant government-owned "market player" at a time of "significant challenges" to the National Electricity Market.
A June 29 email from Snowy Hydro to Mr Bowen's office refers to a "business case" for operating the Kurri turbines (the Hunter Power Project) on 30 per cent hydrogen, but the case itself was not part of the FOI release.
On June 30, Mr Knox wrote to the ministers saying a strategic plan and a corporate plan required by that date were subject to a "substantial rewrite" because they were "based on a range of assumptions as at May 2022 that are no longer applicable or accurate given the impacts of the recent energy crisis".
Mr Bowen had criticised Kurri from opposition and had proposed terminating the contract before pivoting to support the project provided it ran on 30 per cent green hydrogen from the start.
On August 1, Mr Broad emailed Mr Bowen, attaching "a short sharp summary", on video, of Snowy 2.0.
"We are also making good progress on the proposal to build our own solar plant at Kurri to support hydrogen generation and I'm looking forward to finding some time in your diary to provide you with a briefing in due course," Mr Broad wrote.
Yesterday, Mr Broad said that various difficulties including the lack of a green hydrogen market meant the only way to supply it was to have it made on site.
On August 19, Mr Broad emailed Mr Bowen "our board-endorsed hydrogen strategy and business case" to get Kurri to 30 per cent hydrogen "as soon as practicable", emphasising the corporation's hydrogen R&D.
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
