Hydrogen Headstart Program Consultation

Response to the Hydrogen Headstart Consultation Paper

Introduction and about the First Nations Clean Energy Network
The First Nations Clean Energy Network welcomes the opportunity to provide a response to the
Hydrogen Headstart - Consultation Paper.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network is made up of First Nations people, groups, community organisations, land councils, unions, academics, industry groups, technical advisors, legal experts, renewables companies and others - working in partnership to ensure that First Nations share in the benefits of Australia’s clean energy transition.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network is led by a Steering Group of First Nations leaders.

Australia’s rapid transition to renewable energy will require access to vast areas of land and waters, including for thousands of kilometres of new transmission infrastructure. Enabling and empowering First Nations to play a key and central role in Australia’s renewable energy transition goes beyond just social licence issues - it presents a unique opportunity for Australia to design a system that is fair and just and which can also positively impact and result in other social and economic benefits for First Nations.

As a national, First Nations-led coalition, the First Nations Clean Energy Network aims to enable and empower First Nations to participate in, benefit from, respond to, and shape renewable energy projects that impact their communities, land, waters and Sea Country.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network’s approach is built on three pillars:

● Community The First Nations Clean Energy Network supports First Nations
communities to shape the design, development and implementation
of clean energy projects at every scale

● Industry The First Nations Clean Energy Network acts as an innovation hub,
partnerships promoting best practice standards and principles that companies
should adopt and investors should require before committing capital
to a clean energy project

● Policy reform The First Nations Clean Energy Network advocates to lift significant
federal and state regulatory barriers and stoke government
investment, removing regulatory barriers to energy security and clean
energy generation
Designing a renewable energy system and hydrogen industry that is inclusive of First Nations rights, interests and responsibilities
There is a massive global and domestic renewables energy transition underway that is driving generational shifts in energy systems. First Nations people can, and should benefit from this revolution, whether from small community-based projects, to large scale, export-focused initiatives - and the development of new supply chains and industries.

With many First Nations communities at the forefront of the devastating impacts of climate change and struggling with unreliable and expensive power, coupled with the substantial rights, interests and responsibilities (through traditional ownership, cultural heritage, native title and land rights schemes) held by First Nations across Australia’s land and seas, now is the time to position First
Nations as co-designers and drivers of systems, policy, legislation, and projects needed to facilitate the transition.

Put simply, by including and embedding First Nations as partners in the transition, and the right to
Free, Prior and Informed Consent in systems, policy, legislation, programs, funding arrangements and projects, the transition can be fair and just, occur at the pace necessary (and avoid legal contestation), and will deliver mutual cultural, social, economic and environmental benefits to people and country.

The Hydrogen Headstart program presents an important opportunity to take practical steps to include and embed First Nations in the development of Australia’s hydrogen industry. Our suggestions below in Attachment A set out some ideas about how this could occur.

With the Federal Government committing to enshrine a First Nations voice to Parliament, now more than ever is the right time to ensure First Nations play a central role in, and benefit from the opportunities that the transition will establish. Through the First Nations Clean Energy Network, we’re excited to bring together First Nations people, industry and government leaders to help chart this way forward.

We also appreciate that there are real challenges to getting this right.

While there is broadly goodwill from the renewable energy industry, we must translate this into action, working in a respectful partnership.

Engaging early, and in a genuine manner, will be critical - we don’t want Traditional Owners hearing about projects for the first time through the media or on schematic diagrams on government websites. Companies and the industry could do well to listen to and learn from traditional knowledge and culture about proposed renewables sites - we need to consider what the benefits look like over generations.

We also need to make sure that First Nations organisations are properly resourced and equipped to engage with the industry and the pace and scale of the transition, and that opportunities can be realised as they become available - we should be developing now the programs, policies and funding arrangements to support First Nations to take up the economic development opportunities associated with the transition.

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Best Practice Principles to inform renewable energy developments
The First Nations Clean Energy Network advocates for the development of a clean energy sector which supports the aspirations and objectives of First Nations people across Australia, and an active network of Traditional Owners and First Nations representative entities, businesses, organisations and groups engaged in the clean energy sector.

To assist in shaping such a sector, the First Nations Clean Energy Network has developed and launched a set of Best Practice Principles for Clean Energy Projects.

These Principles place First Nations people and their communities at the centre of the development, design, implementation and opportunities for economic benefit from renewable energy projects.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network has developed the Principles anticipating they will aid governments with the design of policy and regulatory frameworks and also assist industry in its efforts to engage and partner with First Nations in the development of renewable energy projects -
- we recommend the Principles as an aid in the development and design of the Hydrogen
Headstart program.

Opportunities to develop systems for renewable energy projects that respect First Nations’ rights to self-determination and which implement principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent
Systems that presently exist in Australia and which regulate access to land, waters and resources for activities like mining, oil and gas, pastoral, infrastructure etc. typically establish by design an adversarial relationship with First Nations and First Nations rights and interests.

The tone set by these existing (Commonwealth, State and Territory) policy and legislative systems presupposes First Nations opposition, invites legal contestation, and ultimately generates additional and unnecessary project risk for proponents. This is counterproductive, particularly in an age where ESG metrics are increasingly important and where markets and the finance sector wishes to understand the impacts of projects and capital on host communities, and particularly
First Nations.

For clean energy projects too, designing an inclusive system that respects First Nations’ rights makes additional sense, given the opportunity to attract First Nations as active participants and supporters.

Accordingly, rather than the present system which is adversarial by design, we have the opportunity to design policy and legislative systems that enable and empower First Nations to participate in, make real decisions about, and benefit from activities that will impact on First
Nations’ land, sea, waters, rights, interests and responsibilities.

Our further comments in response to some of the specific issues raised in the Hydrogen Headstart
Consultation Paper are set out in Attachment A.

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Attachment A: First Nations Clean Energy Network – Comments on the Hydrogen Headstart -
Consultation Paper

Issue First Nations Clean Energy Network response

Issue 1: The Hydrogen Headstart program is intended to The First Nations Clean Energy Network considers that the following are
stimulate the development of Australia’s hydrogen industry. important matters that should be clearly addressed and included as
“Competitive Round Objectives” for the Hydrogen Headstart program so as to
The hydrogen industry has the potential to significantly impact
focus proponents on First Nations outcomes and associated risks and
First Nations in Australia. Accordingly, it must embed
opportunities:
objectives, processes and mechanisms in the design of the
program to ensure partnership and engagement with First ● support Traditional Owners to make decisions based on principles of
Nations. Free, Prior and Informed Consent particularly for projects requiring
access to land and waters (e.g. large scale renewable energy
The “Competitive Round Objectives” accordingly should focus
infrastructure and facilities for generating hydrogen)
proponents on risks and opportunities and include specific
objectives about First Nations outcomes, including Free, Prior ● facilitate engagement and participation by First Nations Australians in
and Informed Consent. (and benefit from) large scale renewable energy infrastructure
developments and facilities for generating hydrogen, including as
The hydrogen industry will require access to large amounts of
project owners
land and waters.
● create employment, supply chain and business opportunities for First
Genuinely including and embedding First Nations in processes
Nations Australians in large scale renewable energy infrastructure
and mechanisms that stimulate the hydrogen industry is
developments and facilities for generating hydrogen.
essential to avoid legal contestation and delay.

Issue 2: The proposed merit assessment process must include As described in the consultation paper, the Government’s $2 billion investment
requirements for applicants for funding to meet mandatory in the Hydrogen Headstart program is “to accelerate development of Australia’s
Issue First Nations Clean Energy Network response criteria about broader economic and community benefit hydrogen industry, catalyse clean energy industries, and help Australia connect beyond just economic return to the project proponent. to new global hydrogen supply chains, to take advantage of hydrogen’s immense
jobs and investment potential”.
Critically, these criteria should include requirements for proponents to develop strategies for First Nations partnership, Clearly, there are outcomes envisaged beyond just stimulation of the hydrogen engagement, participation, procurement and employment industry through this program funding, and to realise outcomes beyond just outcomes. economic benefit for the project proponent, there should be mandatory criteria
included in the merit assessment process that recipients of the Hydrogen
Headstart program must be required to meet.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network suggests the following be considered
as mandatory criteria for proponents to respond to in order to be eligible for
funding or assistance through the Hydrogen Headstart program:
1. A demonstrable commitment to principles of Free, Prior and Informed
Consent (as established by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples) for Traditional Owners where any access to land
or waters is required, and a comprehensive strategy for articulating how
the proponent will ensure these principles are applied in practice
2. A comprehensive strategy for ensuring First Nations participation and
partnership in the project, including through opportunities for equity
participation
3. A comprehensive strategy for how the proponent will partner with First
Nations through the life of the project, which should include:
a. how the proponent will approach benefit sharing with
Traditional Owners
b. the proponent’s targets and objectives for First Nations
participation in the project (jobs and supply chain

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Issue First Nations Clean Energy Network response

opportunities) and how these targets and objectives will be
achieved.:
As mandatory criteria, the responses must be considered by decision-makers
when determining the allocation of funding and support through the Hydrogen
Headstart program.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network notes that inclusion of such criteria
already exists in certain Australian Government financing mechanisms,
including the Investment Mandate Director for the Northern Australian
Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).

Issue 3: Support, assistance and funding for First Nations The injection of $2 billion through the Hydrogen Headstart program will organisations to participate in the hydrogen industry and stimulate new industries and supply chains.
properly engage with proponents.
The scheme should consider its role in ensuring that genuine First Nations
participation and engagement is built into the development of the hydrogen
industry and the clean energy sector.
To ensure this occurs, First Nations and their representative organisations must
be properly resourced and equipped (skills, capability and capacity) to engage
with the hydrogen industry and the clean energy sector, so that good decisions
can be made, opportunities realised, and risks minimised. Organisations that
are poorly resourced, under-staffed and lack the skills and capability to engage
will be unable to respond efficiently and effectively to risks and opportunities,
which undermines the whole system.
Some of these opportunities for resourcing and support are being discussed
and identified in the development of the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network considers that there should be strong
coordination between the development of the Hydrogen Headstart program

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Issue First Nations Clean Energy Network response

guidelines and criteria and the risks, opportunities and priorities identified by
First Nations Australians in the development of the First Nations Clean Energy
Strategy.
For areas of high prospectivity for clean energy projects and the hydrogen
industry, the First Nations Clean Energy Network also notes the potential for
Renewable Energy Country Plan Roadmaps to play a key role in enabling First
Nations participation and engagement with the sector. These roadmaps have
the potential to establish a plan and framework for how each Traditional Owner
group would take advantage of feasible and valuable opportunities from clean
energy and hydrogen infrastructure projects on their lands and water. The First
Nations Clean Energy Network envisages this country planning exercise would
include:
● recognition of rights and responsibilities of Traditional Owners and
other Aboriginal people to land, waters and cultural heritage
● assessment and identification of areas within that Traditional Owner
group’s country that have potential for generating and exporting
renewable energy
● realising opportunities and identifying potential pathways and
opportunities for Traditional Owners to invest in own or co-own clean
energy infrastructure developments and facilities for generating
hydrogen
● building on the aspirations and future priorities of Traditional Owners:
o identification of opportunities for the provision of goods and
services by the Traditional Owners to potential large scale
renewable energy infrastructure developments and facilities for
generating hydrogen

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Issue First Nations Clean Energy Network response

o identification of job opportunities (and required skills
development requirements to access job opportunities) likely
to be available in large scale renewable energy infrastructure
developments and facilities for generating hydrogen
● identification of pathways for members of the relevant Traditional
Owner group to have greater access to affordable, clean energy
generated from their lands and waters
● development of investment and economic development policies and
tools to guide investment decisions and to support that Traditional
Owner group achieve its long-term aspirations
● identification of opportunities and pathways for renewable energy
infrastructure developments and facilities for generating hydrogen as a
means for achieving other outcomes for Traditional Owners, including
energy security and energy access, environmental stewardship and
cultural heritage protection.

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