Thursday, 4 May 2023

Motions

Energy policy

Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:47): I move:

That this house notes the overwhelming support at the 2022 election for the Victorian Labor government’s plan to:

(1) bring back the State Electricity Commission;

(2) reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035 and net zero by 2045;

(3) install 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria; and

(4) create 59,000 renewable energy jobs.

I am absolutely delighted and proud to speak on the nation-leading agenda in energy and climate action here in Victoria. Victorian people endorsed this program and this set of policies at the last election: bringing back the State Electricity Commission of Victoria; our ambitious and achievable emissions reduction and renewable energy targets; and our absolutely wildly popular commitment to neighbourhood batteries. These are all commitments Victorians enthusiastically embrace. We have not wasted a moment in delivering on our ambitious and achievable election commitments, including bringing back the SEC.

Last week I was delighted to release the SEC Pioneer Investment Mandate. This will deliver the first SEC projects by the end of the year, accelerating the renewable energy transition and ensuring Victorians get their fair share of the profits of this massive investment in our zero emissions future. The project will be in Victoria and will be at least 100 megawatts, powering around 60,000 homes. A week after we announced that pioneer investment mandate, the registration for interest is now well and truly open. We are looking for projects and partners as the SEC accelerates the build of new renewable energy to meet our 95 per cent renewable target by 2035 – and this is only the beginning.

Back in February the Premier and I announced the interim expert advisory panel, which will provide governments with expert energy and financial advice, and they have been doing a wonderful job in that. They are developing their advice for the SEC’s 10-year strategy and ongoing investment mandate, which will be released later this year. The SEC will accelerate the delivery of our ambitious renewable energy targets: 65 per cent by 2030 and, as I said earlier, net zero by 2045.

The State Electricity Commission will play an absolutely pivotal role in helping to deliver 59,000 more jobs for Victorians by 2035. Through the publicly owned SEC we will be delivering 4.5 gigawatts of renewable power, the equivalent replacement capacity of Loy Yang A; the new SEC centre of training excellence; and 6000 positions for apprentices and trainees. And we will be holding the SEC energy jobs forum in June, bringing together unions, industry and training providers to ensure that we have a strong and sustainable pipeline of workers in safe, secure and meaningful jobs.

We will enshrine the SEC in the constitution this year, protecting the SEC from those opposite, whose only record on energy is selling off our public power assets to for-profit companies, their mates. When Kennett sold the SEC, prices increased, workers were sacked, energy companies made huge profits and power bills skyrocketed. And we saw record disconnections – people in homes, vulnerable people, losing power connection because of a heartless private sector that controlled our energy assets.

The SEC will push wholesale energy prices down by bringing on 4.5 gigawatts of new power, the equivalent replacement, as I said, of Loy Yang A, through renewable energy projects – 100 per cent renewable. Because the government will own this, the State Electricity Commission will not be run for shareholder profits but for Victorians. Three decades later the modern Liberal Party that we have opposite – and I use that word very, very advisedly and very loosely – is still hungry to privatise anything and everything, including the SEC. They are addicted to privatisation, already committed to selling off the SEC. They have learned nothing. They are still defending the decisions that they made 30 years ago.

Victoria is unequivocally the nation’s leader in climate action and the transition to renewable energy. In 2022, 35 per cent of our energy here in Victoria came from renewables, more than three times the 10 per cent we inherited in 2014, and we will be making sure that we keep building renewable energy with our 95 per cent renewables target by 2035. That, through the SEC, will accelerate the creation of 59,000 more jobs, driving billions of dollars of investment and delivering lower power bills.

We are decarbonising at the fastest rate in our country, and since this government was elected at the end of 2014 we have cut emissions by more than any other state in the country. These things do not happen by accident. They happen when you have got ambition and you have got a plan and you have got the guts to do it, and that is exactly what we have been doing – and we are not going to be sitting back and allowing others to do nothing. We have got the strongest climate change legislation in the country, and Victorians voted overwhelmingly for the next steps in our ambitious agenda.

Our targets of reducing emissions by between 75 and 80 per cent by 2035 and of course bringing forward our net zero emissions target to 2045 align Victoria absolutely with the Paris goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. These targets are delivering the most rapid reduction of emissions in Australia, unlocking billions of dollars of investment and creating thousands of jobs. We know that being early movers in decarbonising our economy, done well with always a very clear eye and ensuring that people do not fall through the gaps, which only a Labor government has ever committed to doing, ensures that we get the economic benefits of that to be shared across our state.

We are investing almost $2 billion in programs to reduce emissions. We have set a nation-leading offshore wind energy target that will see at least 2 gigawatts of offshore wind energy coming on line by 2032. We are doubling that to 4 gigawatts by 2035 and more than doubling that again, 9 gigawatts, by 2040. We have announced six new solar projects that will help us power 100 per cent of government operations on renewable electricity by 2025. In two years time every police station, every hospital, every Metro train, every tram and every government operation will be run on 100 per cent renewable electricity.

Supercharging renewables is key business for this government – unlike those opposite, who have voted against every climate and renewables target that we have brought forward into this place. Every single one of those targets was voted against by those opposite. We know what they are interested in. It is not renewables, it is not a decarbonised energy future, it is about taking Victoria back to the days of being a backwater where no-one wanted to invest, jobs were lost to other states and people fled the state because they were embarrassed to have those opposite run a government that effectively ran our economy into the ground. That is not our way. Proudly, Victoria is not just leading the country – we are absolutely showing international leadership when it comes to renewable energy creation, the jobs that come with it and decarbonising our energy system. That 75 to 80 per cent emissions reduction target is not only nation leading, it is world leading.

Those opposite turned their backs on the car industry. They talk about manufacturing – what do they care? When they were in government, they saw a passing parade of job losses and closures, and all they said was ‘We have sympathy for people’. They did not lift a finger or stand against their mates in Canberra who dared the car industry to close down – you dared them to close down, and they did exactly that, because you are not interested in people. They never have been, they never will be – and that is not our way. In terms of some of the comparisons, if you like, in terms of their lack of genuineness when it comes to growing renewable energy – because we know it is good for the planet, we know it is good for people’s bills and we know it is good for the economy and jobs, absolutely – the opposition repeatedly promised that their policies would bring down power bills, including the then opposition leader of course, who claimed that he would deliver $1000 off bills, simply saying that our renewable energy targets were reckless and were actually going to increase bills. There is absolutely no logic there. They said it was going to risk all these jobs – well, all I can see is jobs, jobs, jobs being created through our policies. The member for Caulfield had to walk back comments made by his own leader and say that there was no commitment to lower prices under their policies. All the opposition knows how to do is sell, sell, sell – sell off, sell off, sell off – increase bills, increase disconnections and hurt ordinary Victorians. That is their way. They do not care. They never have and they never will, because it is in their DNA.

During the election the only solution those opposite put forward was to open up the state for fracking. Fracking, fracking, fracking – that is what their commitment was, and they should be absolutely ashamed. They did a dirty deal with their mates in the gas production sector: ‘Come in, mates. Come in. It’ll be all yours. Just open up. Bring in your wells, bring in your drills. Frack away. Frack away. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of gas.’ If you frack it, there is plenty of gas, but we know that if you do not frack, there is not much gas onshore – none at all that we can find; no-one can find it. So that is their way. They announced that they would turbocharge gas production in Victoria. There is only one way to do that. The member for Bellarine knows very, very well that there is only one way you can turbocharge gas production onshore in Victoria, and that is if you frack your way to it. And that is exactly what they were offering Victorians, but Victorians saw through that. They saw absolutely through that. The science backs it up. We know that our way will lead us to more jobs, greater prosperity, lower carbon emissions and a clean energy future. The other way is basically saying yes to people making more profit on the back of carbon fuels that will only benefit one group of people – and it ain’t Victorians, it will be the gas producers that they have chummed up to.

Who knows when they cooked up that plan. How many years back did they cook that up? ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. We’ll say we’re not supportive of fracking, but don’t worry, we get through. We’ll just leave it.’ But then: ‘There’s plenty of gas there. Go for it.’ That is the way they have always done it. Victorians are enthusiastic about the agenda that we have got, embracing our renewable revolution, and the election outcomes showed that: they are embracing new and emerging technologies. Our neighbourhood battery program shows just that, and that is absolutely exciting, because we know that no matter where people are in Victoria, they want to be part of this revolution. They can have solar panels on their roof, a battery in their home or solar hot water, or they can have neighbourhood batteries or they can have large solar farms and wind farms in regional Victoria creating those fantastic local supply chain jobs that are benefiting Victorians right across the state. Victorians are champing at the bit to have their own neighbourhood battery, joining of course Fitzroy North – that community has got a fantastic battery – Tarneit and Yackandandah. The list goes on, and it will go on under this government, which is why we are absolutely excited about delivering on our election commitment to install and create 100 more neighbourhood batteries across the state. We will invest $42 million to install those, tripling the number of homes with access to batteries and providing crucial extra storage capacity for local communities. Everyone will have the benefit of these technologies. These neighbourhood batteries will return power into the hands of local communities.

Increasing storage capacity will mean more households can reap the rewards of returning surplus solar-generated electricity to the grid through feed-in tariffs. It means more households will have access to cheaper renewable energy, even if they do not have their own solar panels. We know of course that there are a number of homes that do not necessarily have an independent roof – they may be apartments – which then constrains the opportunities for people. But these types of policies and programs are designed to make sure that Victorians, no matter what their circumstances are, can be part of this revolution – and it is indeed a revolution that they are loving.

I do want to say a few more things. The neighbourhood batteries will store clean, cheap energy when it is abundant, during the day typically, and feed it back into the grid when it is needed at night, keeping the lights on and power bills down. These things cannot be separated out. The future is renewable, a decarbonised energy system, and we have got the programs and election commitments to ensure that we can deliver the transition so that it is of benefit to Victorians no matter where they live. We have built the biggest battery in the Southern Hemisphere in Geelong.

A member interjected.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: The Victorian Big Battery, that is the name of it. Why wouldn’t you call it the Victorian Big Battery? Because that is exactly what it is, and in fact it is the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest battery.

Paul Edbrooke: Energising Victoria.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Absolutely, energising Victoria. And that was only made possible by our government assisting with the procurement of that installation, which is providing additional support as we transition our energy system to 95 per cent renewables by 2035. Not only that, we have given over 13,000 home battery rebates to help families buy household batteries through the Solar Homes program, and of course we have delivered more than 215,000 solar panel rebates altogether for Victorians. We have launched the world-leading energy storage target of 2.6 gigawatts of energy storage by 2030 and we are then moving that to 6.3 gigawatts of storage by 2035 – enough renewable energy to power around half of Victoria’s current homes at their peak energy use. But we know that it is more than that. It is about providing that security of supply, that stability of electricity that complements renewable energy so that everyone can be confident that we have got a plan that we are implementing that will not just keep the lights on but get us off coal-fired power generation by 2035 and it is about creating the jobs and decarbonising at the rapid rate that we are. This government has hit the ground running, and we are not taking our outstanding support from the Victorian people for granted. Our renewables and our climate action agenda show that we are delivering.

I do want to finish on this: the SEC is an entity that has absolutely struck a note in every heart, in every Victorian. It may be that the younger generation may not have necessarily been alive when the SEC was at its full flight, but they certainly know about their mums and their dads or their grandparents, their uncles – whoever – being supported by the SEC, knowing that it is an essential service. The provision of electricity is an essential service. Reflecting on the fact that there is a lot of unhappiness today – a lot of unhappiness and dissatisfaction – and a lack of fairness generally speaking from what was the country’s biggest privatisation experiment back in the 1990s –

Paul Edbrooke: $22 billion.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: $22 billion left our country to overseas businesses that were mates with those opposite that sold off these assets. They sold them off, and Victorians paid for it through increased bills. They paid for it through record disconnections. I mean, how obscene – an elected government was more than happy to let it rip and have people turn their heaters off, struggle during the cold, bitter winters and ultimately not be able to stay connected to their power and then just without any heart whatsoever allow these companies to disconnect people from an essential service such as electricity. Shame on them. If they had the chance to do it again, they would do it with bells on, because we believe never on any day – on all of these days that have transpired between the Kennett years and now – have they ever said ‘We’re sorry’, ‘We were wrong’ or ‘We went too far’, never. In fact it was only very recently that they said they had no regrets and it was the right thing to do. Well, the right thing maybe by your donors and your mates in the big energy companies but not for those Victorians who had to suffer and be harmed by your policies.

Through our ambitious agenda of growing more renewable energy – those billions of dollars that will be invested, those 59,000 jobs that will be accelerated through our 95 per cent renewable energy target by 2035 – the SEC will ensure that Victorians will have a stake in, an ownership of, electricity creation into the future. They will have their own dividends coming back for Victorians – 100 per cent renewables, the SEC acting on their behalf for Victorians, renewable energy for Victorians, the SEC owned by Victorians. We will be releasing our 10-year strategy towards the end of the year, our long-term investment mandate, and there is so much to come.

I really wonder what those opposite really think about that failed global experiment of privatisation when they are stuck on the margins of debates in our community, when they are off with whatever strange, weird, side agenda that they have got – trying to repeat the golden years of coal and gas and their mates and the privatisation of essential services. They had a plan. They went to the last election with a plan to sell off our water authorities and our sewerage system. That is what they did, because they are addicted to it. They are absolutely addicted to privatising our essential services, harming Victorians as they go, because at the end of the day they do not give a damn – they never have, they never will. That is the case. We are bringing back the SEC – the 100 per cent government-owned SEC investing in 100 per cent renewable energy, a stake in the future. We know that we are going to be creating thousands of giga –

Members interjecting.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Sorry, thousands of megawatts, absolutely, of new energy generation. We want to make sure that Victorians have a stake in that – a stake in the future that they own, that is for them, owned by them, one that they can be proud of, knowing all the while that the SEC is coming back. We are going to be providing those 6000 apprenticeships and traineeships. We are going to be putting people’s interests first, ahead of profits that go to the big corporations and global interests, which have sucked away – how much was it, member for Frankston?

Paul Edbrooke: Twenty-two.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: $22 billion left our shores since they killed off the SEC and ripped the heart out of Gippsland, ripped the heart out of the Latrobe Valley. We have got a great deal of work to do. We have done the figures: $22 billion has left our shores.

Danny O’Brien: No, that’s Bruce Mountain’s figure. They’re not yours.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: What, you sold off a dud? You sold off a lemon, did you? You did not sell off a lemon. You sacked how many thousands of workers in the Latrobe Valley? You forced people’s power bills up. You have got no plan for new energy. You have got no plan. We know that essential services, when they are sold off, harm Victorians. We are about creating the energy supply of the future. The more energy we create, the more downward pressure there is on prices, and the cheapest form of new-build energy is renewables.

They went to an election not all that long ago committing to build a new coal-fired power station. That is what they did. Fancy what that is going to do to our emissions. Yet they claim they support emissions reduction. There is a pea and thimble trick happening over here. I do not know who has got the pea. I have not seen the pea yet. It does not appear anywhere, because it is all an illusion and it was all to get them through an election. Victorians saw through that. They saw through that loud and clear. They knew that an elected Liberal–National government was simply going to be fracking its way through Victoria, privatising our sewerage system – our water system, effectively. That was the foot in the door for that, and that is what they do. They have learned nothing. They are committing themselves to oblivion. They are tearing themselves apart. They are dealing with issues on the fringe rather than trying to work out –

James Newbury: We’re dealing with it. That’s what we’re doing.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Oh, you are dealing with it internally? What happened at 2 o’clock? Have they issued the writs yet?

A member: A bit more bullying today, or what?

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Exactly. This is a motion that is absolutely important to Victoria, very important to Victoria. This is what our economy is built on. The Victorian economy was built on affordable power for many, many decades, and I will always be the first to say this: our manufacturing base in this state was built because we had a philosophy that governments had an active role to do good for community – and I dare say that previous iterations, a long time ago, of those opposite had an inkling of that, had a semblance of that. I think it finished when Rupert Hamer left. You have gone downhill since then, I can tell you now. There was an inkling of that, but we also had a really strong manufacturing base. We were the manufacturing base for the country because we had cheap power, and we had cheap power because we had an abundance of brown coal. But those days are gone now, and we have to accept that for the good of people’s health, for the good of our environment, for the good of the planet and for the good of future generations. Doing nothing or holding on to the past will actually cost us more than taking the actions that we are taking, and that is why we know that this mission that we have got, this authority that we have been given by Victorians, will be about what is good for our economy in Victoria: building our economy, the future economy of Victoria, on clean, affordable power. The more of that we can produce, the better off everyone will be.

The electrification agenda is so critical to that. We will clean up our electricity system, 95 per cent by 2035, and at some point of course we will need to deal with the other 5 per cent. But definitely our commitment is 95 per cent by 2035. Electrification will mean right now people’s bills will go down, because gas, which is their solution – fracking gas – is more expensive. They want to increase power prices by fracking. They want to increase energy prices by fracking because gas costs more than electricity. What is good for the economy, what is good for people’s bills – whether they are households, small businesses or medium or large manufacturers – is to electrify and seek those decarbonised fuels. That is the best way to support our economy for the future. That is why we support renewable energy, that is why we support electrification – because it is good for people’s pockets. It is good for their pockets, it is good for jobs, it is good for decarbonising our energy system and ultimately also giving us a planet that we can actually support and save.

All of these things are important to feed humanity. We are not individual economic units. The Liberals and the Nationals would like us to think that politics and government are only about divvying up whatever is good in an economic unit way – that we are all just individual economic units: ‘What’s for me, or what’s for my mate that will give me a donation?’ Right? That is right. That is why the policies that we brought to government and the motion that we have got in front of us go to the very heart of a good economy, a good state, one that is supported and one that has a good, prosperous future to be shared by every Victorian no matter what their circumstances and where they live in this state. An energy system that supports economic development and an energy system that supports affordability, lower bills and produces renewable energy, clean energy, is good for everybody, and everyone wants this. That is why I am absolutely proud to speak in support of this motion. It is a motion that will sustain us into the future and will help us drive the change and the energy transition that we need. We have an obligation to not just this generation but future generations, and it is only forward-thinking governments that are prepared to lead and make hard decisions sometimes that need to be made that will actually deliver this.

David HODGETT (Croydon) (15:17): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the motion by the Minister for the State Electricity Commission. I had thought that this motion might come up as part of an MPI, a matter of public importance, but given the government has run out of business and has not got much on the agenda it has come up as a motion. It is one that I am pleased to be able to make a contribution on and certainly put the record straight on some of the things we just heard. There are certainly some things where we have common ground here, so I will certainly mention those, but I will also use the opportunity to correct the record and put some facts on the table to address some of those outrageous claims that the minister made in her contribution.

First and foremost – we might as well get off to a good start – Minister, I do note in your motion ‘the overwhelming support at the 2022 election’. It did get support. There is no argument there. It was a very clever policy politically. You can even look at the media release; some of the language was perfectly written:

A re-elected Andrews Labor Government will bring back government ownership of energy – delivering cheaper power bills and lower emissions while putting power back in the hands of Victorians.

Very appealing; who could argue with that? The media release talks about the cost of living. It talks about how in the past:

… sold off public power assets to private, for-profit companies.

An appeal to the emotions there.

… sent much of the profits offshore …

…

We’re at a critical point …

the media release says, and that the plan was

… to keep the lights on, bring bills down and create thousands of jobs in renewable energy –

all reasonable things. And it says it will

… bring back public ownership …

The media release goes on to talk about:

Unreliable, privatised coal will be replaced by clean, government-owned, renewable energy.

There is a theme littered throughout the media release on that:

… deliver cleaner, cheaper energy, with all profits invested back into the network – making sure it’s the Victorian public, not offshore coal companies, who enjoy the returns.

…

… deliver more renewable energy, lower power bills and reduced carbon emissions – it’ll also create jobs.

Of course the media release took every opportunity to go on about greedy energy companies. The media release ticked all the boxes. All that language was very colourful. Ask anyone if they want cheaper power bills, ask anyone if they want to lower the cost of living – all the language was brilliant. It was well crafted, it was clever, it was cunning. It was Machiavellian. It was calculated language to appeal to the voters, and it did. It did get support, no doubt about that.

We are all for renewables – where we differ is on the path to getting there, and I will come across that in my contribution. But at the end of the day, it is –

Lily D’Ambrosio: When you work it out, let us know, okay? Because we haven’t seen it yet.

David HODGETT: Well, when you work it out, Minister, let us know, because this brings me to my next point: where are all the details? It was a clever policy, thought up, scribbled down on the back of an envelope and announced without any details at all – zilch, none whatsoever. The government just thought, ‘Here’s a great policy. It’s going to appeal to people. Let’s put all the colourful language in a well-crafted media release. If we go out there and ask people if they want cheaper prices and lower cost of living, what do you think the answer’s going to be?’ But of course there were no details. Like the Suburban Rail Loop, Labor’s SEC has no date, no realistically known costs and no business case. Labor’s record net debt position means it has no real plan to fund its SEC. Private equity will be vital, and I will come back to one of the things the minister said late last year. Without realistic funding or a business case, the thousands of jobs promised from Labor’s SEC will never be delivered for the Latrobe Valley; they will never be delivered at all. Fifty-nine thousand jobs – I think the only figure that has come out from the minister’s office is that there might be 5000 or 6000 jobs by 2035. Just give us some detail on where the 59,000 jobs will come from. We are all for jobs, we are all for apprenticeships, but where is that all coming from? Where is the detail other than a couple of pages of media release?

The Premier claims that the SEC will deliver cheaper power prices, but with Labor’s record of cost blowouts on major projects, how can Victorians trust that it will not lead to higher power prices? Give us some evidence of how you are going to deliver this and how it is going to deliver cheaper power prices. Labor’s financial statement 2022, released two days before the election day, allocated only $20 million of recurring funding for bringing back the SEC over the next four years, with no date provided for the commencement of construction. This is typical of Labor. They have got some good people involved, I must admit; I looked at the list of the people that are involved, and they have got some good people. But they open the office, they run the flag up the pole and they paint the picture that they are open for business. It is all about the optics: ‘We’ve brought back the SEC. We’ve got an office open. Here we go.’ And then nothing much happens at all until people start to cotton on that nothing has happened or the government has got no details. It is all about the optics with this government, to show that the SEC is back by just putting a few million dollars in, getting some good people around and opening up the office.

Since then the government has indicated an investment of a billion dollars in capital, which will be used to leverage private sector capital. An independent costing of this election policy has not even been undertaken. Again, it was written on the back of an envelope and announced pre election with no details. No recurring funding for the SEC is allocated in 2026–27, which indicates that Labor has no plan to deliver meaningful progress on the SEC before the next election. It will be one of those announcements they trot out again at the next election: ‘We’ve got the office open in the Latrobe Valley. We haven’t delivered cheaper power prices, but we’re going to do it. We’re going to bring back the SEC.’

We all want to see cheaper energy bills for Victorian households and small business. Without doubt, cost of living and energy costs are front of mind for everyone. We spoke about it a lot earlier this year when the companies indicated what price increases we would all be facing. So it is front of mind. We all want cheaper energy bills for Victorian households and small business, to reduce their costs. But now we want to see the details of it. A number of questions have been asked. How much will the SEC thought bubble really cost? How will this ultimately be funded with the government’s growing net debt position? I am sure the Shadow Treasurer, the member for Sandringham, if he gets to speak on this, will certainly make some comments around that. How will it ultimately be funded with the government’s growing net debt position? And how is the proposed ownership structure of the SEC going to work with 51 per cent government ownership and 49 per cent private equity share? The minister could not even get that right.

Back on 20 December the election policy was announced: the SEC was going to work with 51 per cent government ownership and a 49 per cent private equity share. Then on 20 December in this house, not even a month after the election, we asked the minister in question time about this. When asked if the Andrews Labor government would guarantee that energy prices would not continue to rise, the minister stated that the SEC would be 100 per cent publicly owned and that it would be operated for profit. But both of those statements have proved to be untrue. The Andrews Labor government has stated that the SEC will be 49 per cent owned by superannuation funds and it will not be operated for profit. So which is true? You have had two different positions on this. If your minister cannot get the basics right, how on earth will she successfully run a multimillion-dollar energy company?

And then they have flipped again. The government has flipped again. Yesterday the minister launched the SEC Pioneer Investment Mandate and said that they have been in discussions with potential investors. Well, who? Is it going to be 100 per cent government owned, or are there going to be investors? Is it one or the other? At least you could get that right or perhaps provide details along there so that industry, business, the public, the voters and the Parliament all have confidence in what the government is proposing to do. That is the ownership structure we are trying to get the details around. How is this SEC proposal going to guarantee supply and put downward pressure on prices? What is the time frame? When can we expect the Andrews Labor government to take action to ease energy prices for all Victorians? They would love to know that. When can we expect cheaper energy prices – a reduction in energy prices? They have said it is going to deliver it – so when? Everyone wants to know how the government is planning to intervene in the retail energy market with a government-owned electricity retailer.

How can the government be trusted, as I said before, to manage this project, given the delays and overruns on every one of the government’s projects? And there is a long, long list that is not part of this motion, but one example is the North East Link. It was promised for $5 billion. A Victorian Managed Insurance Authority evaluation of the current North East Link Project is $18 billion, so the current budget blowout is $13 billion. The government said it would be $5 billion. Its current blowout is $13 billion and counting. So how can the government be trusted to manage the SEC project? It gives no confidence to anyone.

We really need to see more detail. Who will be allowed to invest? What will the rate of return on the projects be? Will taxpayers underwrite the rate of return, particularly in the early, loss-making years? These are long-term investments. They need to be supported and they need to be explained before you can ask the Victorian taxpayer to pay for them. That is a reasonable position.

A mix of energy sources will continue to be needed as we move to a non-fossil fuel environment. We need to keep the lights on and bills low as we transition to renewables. As I said at the outset, I do not think you will get much argument from anyone in this place about moving to renewables, where appropriate and where suitable, but it is the transition there. The government seems to just want to force that process or speed up that process by turning all the power off and turning the lights off – so hurry up and get the renewables up and running. But we believe there is going to be a longer road in that transition, and I will come back to speak a bit more about that. But we certainly support a mix of energy sources, and they will continue to be needed as we move to a non-fossil fuel environment.

We want to see the fine detail of this project and how the government intends to deliver it on time and on budget. I do not think they have ever delivered a project on time and on budget. Certainly, they cannot manage money and they cannot manage major projects, so we have no confidence in that. But if we could see some fine details of the project, we might get an idea of what that might look like. There are serious concerns and questions regarding the government’s intervention in the Victorian energy markets that will likely crowd out or discourage private investment. The minister would know this. She is talking to companies at the moment. There is uncertainty about investment and about some of their long-term decisions because they have got no idea of what this might look like and what the government’s plan is. Who is going to invest? I have already said that – who is going to invest? To date the Andrews government has failed to secure support from both the federal government and superannuation funds for its SEC plan, so who is going to invest?

The government’s planned investment of the so-called billion dollars as flagged at the state election will amount to only a fraction of the total investment required for the 4.5 gigawatts in renewables capacity that the government has indicated. Based on the cost of recent projects – again, the minister’s department would surely have furnished these details to her, rather than others just working out these figures by themselves – it is estimated that $10 billion or more could be required for such a planned increase in renewables capacity. The government’s ideological demonisation of gas, as the minister went on about before, is staggering. As recently reported in the Australian Financial Review, a study of three leading universities, including Melbourne University, Princeton University and Queensland University, has found that to meet net zero Australia will need to double its gas-powered generation capacity as a firming measure for when renewables are not viable – that is, no wind, no sun, and batteries only have a limited, short-time supply capacity.

Lily D’Ambrosio interjected.

David HODGETT: Well, I am happy to table an article written by Mark Dunn back in November, Minister, that talks all about gas, which disputes everything that you have said in your contribution today. This study supports not only the Liberal and Nationals position that gas is a vital transitional energy source, it supports it as a long-term requirement. Victoria has significant new gas reserves that need to be tapped to support the state’s transition to renewables – to support the transition to renewables, not to replace it and not to go down the renewables path, but to support it. No-one is suggesting delaying it at all, but supporting it. Yet the Andrews Labor government’s only plan for gas is to shut it down, and that is where we differ. As I said before, we still see gas playing a part in that transition to renewables, and I think the government is kidding itself that it will not be a part of that.

Labor is all spin and no answers on these energy prices. They have failed to answer one simple question: when and by how much will their SEC plan lower power prices? We know this year Victorians are facing energy cost increases of up to $1000, adding further cost-of-living pressures to already stretched household budgets. And again, when asked directly in Parliament back on 7 February, Andrews government ministers could not give a date of when or a figure as to how much energy prices would fall under their promised $1 billion SEC plan. I think Victorians deserve a simple answer to a simple question: when will power prices be lower? The fact that the government cannot come clean on this demonstrates they are making it up as they go along.

I want to talk a little bit about privatisation, because as my colleague the member for Gippsland South interjected during the minister’s contribution, the government is hypocritical when it comes to talking about privatisation – or anti-privatisation, however they want to talk about it. So let us get some facts on the record. I know the member for Narracan, who I think is down to make a contribution on this, will raise this in his contribution should time permit and he gets up to speak today. He raises this at every opportunity when the matter is raised of privatisation of electricity assets. Firstly, let us have a look: Labor and the Premier and the government are hypocrites for characterising themselves as anti-privatisation. You look at a handful of Labor privatisations, which my colleague here mentioned: this government privatised or sold off the Port of Melbourne 50-year lease for $9.7 billion; the land titles office, a 40-year lease for $2.9 billion; VicRoads modernisation program, a 40-year partnership for $7.9 billion; and Victoria’s share of the Snowy Hydro, a federal buyback of a 29 per cent equity share for $2.1 billion.

Joan Kirner’s Labor government also started the privatisation of electricity assets when she sold 51 per cent of Loy Yang B in 1992. Those opposite either refuse to believe this or just take for granted what they are told by their ministers or the Premier. I am happy to make available the media release from the office of the Premier of Victoria dated 11 June 1992. I am happy to table it.

Danny O’Brien: Who was the Premier?

David HODGETT: It was Premier Kirner – Premier Joan Kirner. It is in the Parliament of Victoria library, dated 12 June 1992, ‘Loy Yang B Bill Passed by Parliament’:

Legislation paving for the way for an historic partnership between the Victorian Government and U.S. power company Mission Energy passed through State Parliament late last night.

The Loy Yang B Bill authorises the Government to enter into a contract with Mission Energy for joint ownership of the new Loy Yang B power station in the Latrobe Valley.

The Premier, Ms. Joan Kirner –

who was Labor –

said the successful passage of the Bill provided the framework for an exciting future in Victoria’s power generation industry.

“Loy Yang B will be a state-of-the-art power station,’ Ms. Kirner said. “It is required for the energy requirements of Victoria in 1993.

“The Victorian Government’s decision –

it should have been the Victorian Labor government’s decision –

to involve private investment in this new project is essential to our energy future.

“The presence of Mission Energy in the Latrobe Valley will ensure Loy Yang B is completed on time and on cost …

something the government knows nothing about.

“There are enormous benefits for Victoria as a result of this sale – particularly, continued reductions in the real price of electricity to Victorian customers and improved customer service.”

Ms. Kirner said the Government was now moving towards finalisation of contracts and completion of the transaction.

“Following a keenly-contested bidding process, we now have one of the world’s foremost power station operators working in partnership with the State Government –

state Labor government –

to help deliver a more efficient and price-competitive power industry.”

Importantly, the “Gold Book” detailing commercial principles for the transaction has been fully agreed to and signed by all parties – that is, Mission Energy, its banking group, the State Government and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

All outstanding issues with Mission Energy and its bankers have been successfully resolved, Ms. Kirner said.

In particular, the form of State support to be included in the State Agreement between the State of Victoria and Mission Energy has been agreed.

“There have been intensive discussions throughout this and other matters, such as electricity price,” Ms. Kirner said.

“It is indicative of the enthusiasm of all parties involved that these outstanding matters have been worked through successfully.”

Ms. Kirner said the Government expected to launch final contracts for examination by Mission’s banking group later this month, with a view to settlement shortly after.

The Labor government from the office of the Premier of Victoria, 11 June 1992. So when the mushrooms up the back get told ‘Oh no, it was the Kennett government or someone else did this’ and believe that, I would suggest they actually go and do their own research and check out the facts, because they are getting told lies about this and they should not just accept that – they should not do it.

There are a number of things I want to get into my contribution, particularly notes from conversations, information and documents from experts. I might come back to them if I have got time because I do just want to put in a couple of things into my contribution. Let me turn my attention to the Australian Energy Market Operator website. I love to look at it to see what is actually going on around the country. Here are a few examples – it would pay for those opposite to have a look. This is on the website. It is an example of one day, 21 April 2022, where it has the mix by time across the country. On that day solar accounted for 2 per cent of our energy needs. Wind created –

A member: I wonder why you chose that date?

David HODGETT: There are other days, do not worry about that. Wind accounted for 3 per cent. I have got a good example here; I have got a great example here from South Australia. And here is a good day: 28 April. This is a good day. On a good day solar accounted for 3 per cent and wind accounted for 8 per cent. Also on 28 April – the minister would be aware of this – last week, since Liddell shut in New South Wales, New South Wales has been importing power. So you cannot just turn these off and expect renewables and storage and that to pop up overnight. Yes, move in that direction, but have a plan for how you are going to get there. Here is a good example from today – this morning, 4 May. I looked at South Australia, which is held up as a good example here – demand versus generation. Demand was 1542, generation was 1523. It looks pretty good.

Members interjecting.

David HODGETT: Megawatts. It looks pretty good. Then you look at the spot price per megawatt. How much do you think the spot price on that was this morning? Nearly $13,000 per megawatt – $12,922.49, to be precise. Do not take my word for it, get onto the website. If you look at South Australia, this morning at 7:50 am, 4 May, if you look at their total breakdown of fuel used, 74 per cent was gas and 19 per cent was diesel generated to produce that. They have got the blinkers on.

A member interjected.

David HODGETT: Yes, I know. There you go. I will put a few things on record – just conversations. I had a gentleman that wrote to me and said:

I enclosed an article below from the UK, but you could submit it for Victoria or Australia. It is not just shutting down coal-fired generators and stopping gas supply with no adequate backup, we are also loading the electricity grid up with much more demand as we are forced to move from coal to oil-based energy. It is a massive engineering and financial task for which I see no credible transition plan being put forward by our state government as to how we will achieve the transition here in Victoria.

Another comment:

As in no engineering time line how the transition will actually work so we have no energy shortfalls and no financial budgeted cost. And where will the money come from? And no projection as to what the consumer will be paying per kilowatt for our power by 2030 or 2050. All Victorian industry needs gas. Many processing plants in Victoria and small businesses have to have gas. It cannot be easily substituted by electricity.

And this comment:

Enclosed is the annual federal department of energy report as to where we actually derive all our energy from sources. I draw your attention to pages 19 and 20, which show both total energy needs by state and what type of energy is being used by state. Victoria presently has about 90 per cent of its energy coming from oil, coal and gas. This means it is a massive job to transition us away from fossil fuels. I am not arguing that over time it needs to be done, but let us have an honest conversation about how and at what cost and inconvenience to the taxpayer, the consumer and business.

That is a reasonable request to have a conversation, an honest conversation, about how and at what cost – but of course the government does not want to engage in that. The gentleman went on to say:

I would suggest the minister and the Premier have never actually read this report and worked out what it really means to their plans for the transition to wind and solar. We are heading for an absolute energy train wreck in this state, which will also cost us even more money the longer we have. It absolutely terrifies me and keeps me awake.

That is from an expert in the industry. In the time left –

A member: Who?

David HODGETT: Oh, you will know. They have written the same thing to you.

Danny O’Brien: She does not read anything from outside, just from the department.

David HODGETT: No, she does not read. That is right. You could have read it on the plane. As I said at the outset and as I have said during my conversation, we are all for renewables. We need a plan for reliable and affordable energy while reducing emissions. We need real solutions for our climate future – affordable, reliable and clean energy. We need a plan for energy about ensuring reliable and affordable energy while delivering a practical and achievable pathway to reducing emissions, not something just on the back of an envelope and announced in the lead-up to an election that is unfunded, uncosted, without a business case.

Where we differ is how we get there. As I have said, we see a role for both gas and coal-fired power in the transition, a longer role – not to be shut down and have jeopardised security of supply. We think there should be a longer time frame, and I am happy to have that conversation with the government. We are for conventional onshore gas exploration and production. We are for a hydrogen strategy – ever heard of that? We are for modernising our transmission system. We are for solar panels and home batteries and for solar panels across public infrastructure, something you guys would not even consider. And we are for maintaining the current ban on fracking and coal seam gas extraction and reject the government’s continued scare campaign, their lies and misleading of people about fracking. That is a very clear position; let that go on the record.

While I am talking about gas, I will just spend my remaining couple of minutes quoting from Mark Dunn in the media, who wrote an article back in November just before the state election entitled ‘Victoria’s untapped gas supplies could power state for next two decades’:

Victoria is sitting on enough untapped gas to help bolster supplies into the 2040s but unless the reserves are accessed the state will increasingly be forced to rely on imports from Queensland and elsewhere, according to a report commissioned by the Andrews government.

With the end of a nine-year moratorium banning onshore gas developments in Victoria from 2012, a range of exploration wells drilled and geological surveys have identified up to 830 petajoules of untapped gas in Victoria’s Otway and Gippsland basins.

Just one petajoule is enough gas to fuel a population the size of Warrnambool for a year.

While Victoria – the biggest gas user in Australia – consumes about 200PJ per year across two million homes and 65,000 businesses, a report by Ernst & Young for the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions found the onshore reserves would supplement Victorian needs; not hamper the state’s target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050; create 6400 new jobs; provide cheaper gas for regional industry and potentially add $7.6bn to gross state product over the life of production.

…

Despite Premier Daniel Andrews repeatedly calling for a domestic gas reserve – where Australian gas is reserved for Australian consumption before any surplus stocks are offered for export – the Andrews government has taken a hard line against the gas industry and undermined new investment as a result of its Gas Substitution Roadmap that removes all government support for new residential gas use from the end of 2023.

“The best way to put downward pressure on prices is to bring on new gas supply that is close to where it is found because the cheapest gas is the gas closest to the customer – and Victoria is a perfect example of where this basic principle has gone wrong,” …

Gas Energy Australia chief Brett Heffernan said the Andrews government should be backing more gas not just as a transition fuel, for electricity generation as coal exits and as the only fuel that can suit thousands of industrial processes that require heat above 800 degrees C, but also as the sector develops cleaner and recycled gas, such as biomethane.

As I said at the outset, we are all for renewables, we all for decarbonisation. I think where our positions differ is on how we get there. The government has no plan, no details and no budget for how they are going to deliver the SEC.

Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (15:48): What an excellent motion we have before us today. Our Labor government is bringing back the SEC, and my goodness it is exciting: energy back in the hands of Victorians once again, 100 cent renewable energy, 59,000 renewable energy jobs, huge wind and solar projects and profits going back to the people, driving down emissions and protecting our climate. This is exciting stuff – not for the Liberal Party, though, of course. They are not very excited about this. The member for Croydon honestly seemed a little bit baffled about how we are doing this, which is unsurprising from those who could not figure out how to do a single thing when they had the chance. We expect nothing less from the party that would sell off the SEC in an instant if they had the chance, because that is exactly what happened in the 1990s, and three decades later this lot is still hungry to privatise everything they can get their hands on. What happened since our power assets were sold off to big private companies? Prices increased, workers were sacked and these big private companies made huge profits.

Well, our Labor government is turning this around. This year we will enshrine the State Electricity Commission into our constitution to protect it from those opposite. The SEC will massively accelerate our transition to renewable energy. In fact by 2035 an incredible 95 per cent of Victoria’s energy will come from renewables. Consider that in the context of where we came from. When Labor came into government in 2014 we inherited a state in which only 10 per cent of energy came from renewables. Let us not forget that the Baillieu government had dumped Victoria’s emissions reduction target in 2012 as they steadfastly refused to invest in renewable energy or prepare our state to transition out of fossil fuels. Not only that, their huge exclusion zones had ground private renewable energy investment to a halt, so we were basically starting from scratch.

In the space of less than a decade, we have more than tripled our renewable output to 36 per cent, far outstripping even our own targets. We are on track to reach 40 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030. Then, in a little under two decades from when we came into government, we will reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035 – 95 per cent renewables. That is huge – it is huge. It makes us unequivocally the country’s leader in climate action, even a global leader. We now have the strongest climate change legislation in the country, and we are decarbonising at the fastest rate in the country. We have cut more emissions than any other state, and our emissions reduction targets of 80 per cent by 2035 and net zero by 2045 put us well and truly in line with the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.

As you know, Northcote is where I was born and raised, and we are proudly diverse, progressive and climate conscious. We know that there are challenges ahead of us and that at the very base of those challenges is ensuring we have a safe climate for the future. This has always been a priority for me, and I have been proud to push this consistently and use my voice in the Parliament to push for ambitious climate policy and sustainability. Make no mistake, bringing back the SEC is exactly that, and it is exactly what Victorians voted for in 2022. Our community and our state chose a government that can deliver real action and real reform. We chose a government that will deliver for people now and for future generations. We chose security, equality and hope, and we rejected the scare campaigns and the slogans and the relentless pessimism.

The worst enemy of progress is cynicism, and though I have spoken about the damage wrought by the conservatives, there is yet another threat to the climate cause that lurks on the opposite end of the political spectrum, and that is the Greens political party. No-one will ever forget the federal Labor government’s original Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which was defeated by a vote in the Senate by a coalition of conservative and Greens party senators – a vote that set our national climate change response back at least a decade and gave us Tony Abbott. This is not old news, it is the playbook of the Greens, and we almost saw it play out again federally when the Greens sought to sabotage Labor’s emissions reduction plan and safeguard mechanism. In the words of the Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton at the time:

Whenever the Greens have a choice between achieving a real, practical advance on climate change or destructive moralising you can always bet on the path they’ll choose.

Now we are seeing the exact same thing as they seek to block Labor’s $10 billion social housing fund – critical homes for some of the most vulnerable people in our community. It is very easy for minority parties to talk about climate action. Easier still is composing marketing campaigns which simultaneously criticise any steps we take forward while taking credit for them. Harder is doing the actual work that will deliver impactful policy and real change. So as much as I cringe when I see the conservatives push back on every single climate policy that we put forward, I am equally disgusted at the callous and self-serving theatrics of the Greens.

Reform does not happen by chance. It takes years of perseverance, engagement and policy refinement to get the balance right, fairly, inclusively, with the science and without leaving Victorians behind. That does not mean virtue-signalling rhetoric or disruptive vandalism. It does not mean grandstanding media ops or mass email campaigns calling for donations to your party or coming into this chamber to ask showboating questions or blocking progressive bills. Our community deserves more. Victorians deserve more.

Curbing the impacts of climate change is going to take every single one of us, yet right now the Greens are the single biggest threat to real climate action in this country, because their sole purpose is not progress but power. Make no mistake, they will undermine progressive Labor governments to get it. What they do not want us to know, their dirty little secret, is that every time we have a Labor government getting on with the job of our progressive reforms, they become more and more irrelevant. That is their dirty little secret and why time and again they will cynically feed right into the hands of conservatives. I cannot think of a more disingenuous, destructive, dangerous way of doing politics.

Energy and environment policy is a complex space, and it deserves more than simplistic solutions. My community know and understand that if we are going to move forward in climate action, we cannot afford to be dragged into more climate wars. We cannot afford the ideological wrecking ball that leads to progress halting. That just alienates communities and makes it harder to galvanise the support we need for real change. If we are truly going to harness consensus around climate action, we need to bring people with us, and that means people should never be made to feel guilty or, worse, morally inferior just for wanting a job or trying to make ends meet. Transition cannot only be for some and not for others. That is why at the heart of our transition is supporting workers, securing our energy supply, driving down bills and assisting Victorians with the cost of making homes energy-efficient. Our power saving bonus, Solar Homes program and Victorian energy upgrades program are all delivering real cost-of-living savings to Victorians right now at a scale not seen before. Public ownership of renewables through our SEC means we can keep the lights on, drive down bills, grow secure jobs, lower emissions and protect our climate.

The rate and scale of our transition in Victoria is enormous. We are effectively embarking on a wholesale transformation of our energy sector, a shift in our industries, our economies, our transport sector, our homes and our way of life. Take offshore wind as an example: our government’s offshore wind targets will deliver Australia’s first offshore wind farm and a massive 2 gigawatts of energy by 2032. That is equivalent to about 20 per cent of Victoria’s current energy needs, enough to power 1.5 million homes. By 2040 our offshore wind farms will exceed 9 gigawatts, well and truly setting us up to power our entire state with renewables. That project alone is a game changer, and it is not the only one. We have world-leading energy storage targets, the biggest battery in the Southern Hemisphere. We have a circular economy strategy that will divert 80 per cent of waste from landfill by 2030. Six new solar projects will help us power 100 per cent of government operations on renewable electricity. Neighbourhood batteries are going to forever shift the way we power and store energy and how it is distributed. There are urban farming and recycling projects. We are growing more tree canopy and protecting our waterways. As the member for Northcote I will always push for those transitions to happen more comprehensively, more equitably and more rapidly, but none of this progress happens by accident. It does not arise out of thin air or the urgency of a slick slogan. It happens under Labor governments acting to make changes to Victorian law and investing in the transition of our economy and our energy sector.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:58): I am very pleased to rise to speak on this motion moved by the government and to speak on the biggest political con job that has been delivered since 2014, when someone said that a contract was not worth the paper it was written on. I am reminded through this debate so far of Anna Bligh’s comment about the debate on fracking, saying it was the worst debate ever. Well, Anna, I have got news for you: it has been superseded. It has been superseded by the absolute political and policy rubbish that comes from this government when it comes to the commitment to bring back the SEC – which, if you actually knew anything, you would know never went away. It has been there for a long time. It still exists.

Richard Riordan: They don’t even own the logo.

Danny O’BRIEN: They do not even own the logo. But why this is a con is because the government sold the SEC to Victorians who remembered it as being a government-owned system, a system where the government produces all the power, where the government owns the distribution, where the government owns the transmission and where the government owns the retail. But that is not what this government is going to deliver. That is not what the SEC policy of this government is. The SEC policy of this government is to dabble a little bit in some generation. It is an absolute con. We actually heard the minister in Parliament yesterday talking about how private investment was flocking here because we have got such great policies. We heard the member for Northcote just now talking about how there are these great offshore wind farms, none of which require the state to invest.

So I ask the question: why does the taxpayer need to have a single cent invested in this when the private sector is already doing it? The member for Northcote outlined the offshore wind projects, and it is interesting to note how many people are claiming offshore wind. The minister will actually tell you about ‘our offshore wind projects’. I have got news for her: I first met with Star of the South in 2017. There was not a press release from the government about Star of the South, the offshore wind farm, until 2021, and now they are claiming it as their own. The point is, though, there is Star of the South, there is Corio, owned by Macquarie, there is Greater Gippsland offshore, there is Seadragon, owned by Flotation, there is Shell, there is Esso – there are about 20 or 30 companies that have just put in a bid for offshore wind acreage in Bass Strait, all of it, pretty much, off my electorate, and not one of them has said, ‘We wouldn’t be able to do this unless the state government invested with us’. They are doing it anyway, and we do not need the state government to risk taxpayers dollars, because we know that is what would happen. Can you imagine this government giving its dollars, taxpayers dollars, across to the private sector? It is going to be a disaster.

While I am on it, unfortunately the member for Northcote has now gone out, but she did me a favour because she once again mentioned the fallacy that the previous Liberal–National government banned windfarms onshore by its exclusion zones. So I just want to point out to all of those members opposite – and I will not be as cruel as the member for Croydon, who referred to them as mushrooms; I will not do that – that the current planning guidelines for onshore wind farms in Victoria, as established by the current Labor government, prohibit wind farms in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, the Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas, the Great Ocean Road area within 5 kilometres of the high-water mark, the Macedon and McHarg ranges –

Wayne Farnham: No!

Danny O’BRIEN: I think someone behind me has picked up that there is a political theme happening here – the land within 5 kilometres of the high-water mark of the Bass Coast west of Wilsons Promontory –

Wayne Farnham: Another Labor seat.

Danny O’BRIEN: it is a Labor seat, member for Narracan – but not east of Wilsons Promontory, all land west of the Hume Freeway and Goulburn Valley Highway and all land within 5 kilometres of the high-water mark of the coast east of the urban area of Warrnambool. I mean, to say that we have banned wind farms – if they are so good, why have you banned them in all the areas that you live, work or play in? It is such a Melbourne-centric policy to say, ‘We can have wind farms everywhere except where we live and where we like it.’ So that is a scam, for a start.

We have got the government’s hypocrisy, the absolute hypocrisy, on privatisation. We heard very clearly from the member for Croydon about how it was in fact the Kirner government that started the privatisation of the power industry. The member for Narracan is on the list. I suspect he’s not going to get a go, but he has already belled the cat on the fact that – you were actually at the SEC? He was actually at the SEC when that privatisation began. I am a valley boy; I grew up in the Latrobe Valley, and I know that the numbers that were reduced in the SEC started in 1989. If you do not believe me, have a listen to Tony Wood from the Grattan Institute, who wrote on 28 November 2022 about the SEC policy:

The SEC’s restructuring meant that the numbers employed in electricity production in the valley fell by more than 50 per cent between 1989 and 1995 … before the SEC was privatised.

From 1989 to 1992 – who was in government then? Does anyone remember?

Wayne Farnham: Joan Kirner.

Danny O’BRIEN: Joan Kirner was in government, and I remember it. Do not tell me that all the job losses in the Latrobe Valley were caused by the Liberals and Nationals. Have a look at Joan Kirner and the mess that that government made of the state and the power industry.

I want to just pick up a couple of other things on that: as I said, the hypocrisy of a government that hates privatisation in the energy sector but is very happy with it with the Port of Melbourne sale, with the land titles office, with the VicRoads registration division, with Snowy Hydro. And when we talk about Labor – I mean, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank – they are a bunch of hypocrites, they are an absolute bunch of hypocrites. Speaking of hypocrites, we heard from the minister again the absolute fallacy, the absolute untruth, that she ran time and time again in the election campaign about fracking. She might actually have to go and talk to her colleague Natasha Fyles in the Northern Territory, who approved it yesterday. There is no unity ticket from the Labor Party nationally on this. We were told this despite our policy, as the member for Croydon has outlined, on opportunities for us to develop our onshore gas reserves in Victoria and help with the transition to renewable energy. Again I place on the record that I support the transition to renewable energy in a considered fashion.

You can actually look up the government’s media releases. Here is one from 16 June 2020. It is from the Honourable Jaclyn Symes, the former Minister for Resources. The headline is ‘Onshore Conventional Gas Restart a Green Light for Jobs’. Well, the minister does not want to talk about that. She does not want to look at it. She says it is wrong and factually incorrect. Well, here is the Minister for Resources in 2020, and there are several more media releases, including one from 2021, where the government talks about the opportunities for gas.

It has gone very quiet over there. They do not want to hear the facts. It is very inconvenient to look at the facts from the past, whether it is Joan Kirner starting the privatisation, whether it is Paul Keating privatising Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank or whether it is your own government talking about the opportunities in gas production. It is just extraordinary that this government cannot do that. While I am on hypocrisy, we know there is a transition. We know the Minister for the State Electricity Commission is very committed to that transition, but why won’t she tell the public what her deal is with Yallourn and EnergyAustralia? She knows that there is a risk that we are going to run out of power, the lights are going to go off, if there is a problem at Yallourn energy. So she has got a very commercial deal with Yallourn and EnergyAustralia, but she will not tell anyone what that deal is. I suspect it is because she knows the power system is a risk under this government’s policies and they are going to have to step in and underwrite Yallourn if it does go off.

The SEC policy is a sham. Yes, it was politically successful, but I want to point out to you – I mentioned I grew up in the Latrobe Valley; so did a bloke I know – the people who knew the SEC the best did not fall for it. That is why the bloke over there by the name of Martin Cameron is actually sitting there as the member for Morwell, because the people in the valley did not fall for it; they understood it was a sham, because they understand the power industry better than anyone. The SEC policy is not what Victorians were sold. It will be, in the long-term, a failure, and it will be Victorians that will pay the cost.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (16:08): Yes, I think I am feeling revved up here, because we have just had a little trip back to the 1950s and I want to bring us back to 2023. How about that? How about we come here and now? They are back in the past, and that is why they get so angry and cranky about this stuff. They know it is a winner, and it is a winner because it is providing a clean energy future. And that is exactly what Victorians want. I think the member for Gippsland South was saying, ‘Oh, investment, it all just magically came to Victoria – magic, all on its own.’ Legislated Victorian renewable energy targets, the Victorian renewable energy target auctions; VRET1 and VRET2 help us meet our renewable energy targets by providing long-term contracts that create investment certainty to build new energy-generation projects. That is not magic, that is excellent government policy delivering for Victoria. Okay, we have ticked that off. It is not magic but real investment, real policy. You would not know anything about that, would you, over there?

I heard the member for Croydon querying the impact of renewables on power prices. I want to quote from the Guardian article ‘Record renewables help bring down Australia’s energy prices and emissions’:

Australia’s record levels of renewable energy helped extend the slide in wholesale power prices in the first three months of 2023, displacing fossil fuels and sending carbon emissions from the sector to new lows for the first quarter.

Fancy that!

The latest energy dynamics report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) showed wholesale spot prices in the national electricity market (NEM) averaged $83/MWh, down more than a 10th from the December quarter and two-thirds lower than the record average $264/MWh in the June quarter last year.

Rooftop solar output alone averaged almost 3GW for the March quarter, up 23% from a year earlier. That increase contributed to a drop in “operational demand” in the NEM to an average of 14.38GW, or the lowest since 2005. Low demand records were set in –

get this –

Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

Who knew!

“Growing renewable output across the NEM helped drive a first-quarter record with 12% of dispatch intervals having negative or zero prices,” the Aemo chief executive, Daniel Westerman, said. “Between 9am and 5pm, wholesale electricity prices were negative in South Australia and Victoria 60% and 55% of the time, respectively.”

I hope that that allays some of the concerns of the opposition as to why we have an aggressive transition to renewables, not only for the benefit of the planet but also to put downward pressure on power prices. Maybe they did not watch the news over the past week or so, I do not know, perhaps because it was inconvenient – an inconvenient truth.

Secondly, they were querying also about the jobs projected with regard to being supported through the State Electricity Commission. The total figure comes out of modelling which we released – no secrets here – that is created by hitting the 95 per cent Victorian renewable energy target and is online for all to see. We have already created more than 5000 jobs in large-scale renewables. So if you look at what we have already achieved, you can see that we will continue on delivering, because we have already delivered. I think also the member for Croydon was querying our government with regard to delivering on major projects, and I was thinking of all those level crossings that we have delivered already to date, and I was thinking, ‘Hey, didn’t they pay attention to those?’ No, again it is an inconvenient truth because they know we deliver, and actually the electorate knows that we deliver. We have done it over and over again. And guess what, we are decarbonising at the fastest rate in the country, and since this government was elected in 2014, we have cut emissions by more – get this – than any other state. So if you need proof that we know how to deliver on this issue, just look at our record. It is there for all to see. We have the strongest climate change –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Get this – again, it is not just magic, it is actually practical policy implementation. We have the strongest climate change legislation in the country, and Victorians voted overwhelmingly for the next steps in our ambitious agenda because they are not silly. I have heard some comments over there about Victorians not understanding about the SEC and that they should know better. I think they understand very well, thank you very much. I trust the electorate on this one. Our targets of 75 to 80 per cent reduction by 2035 and net zero by 2045 align Victoria – get this – with the Paris goals of limiting global warming to 1.5°degrees Celsius. I tell you what, the electorate – at least I can speak for the constituents of Albert Park – absolutely care about this. And I do not think it is only in Albert Park, I think it is actually across the state. They genuinely care about the future of their children. On the one hand they want to put downward pressure on power prices, but they also want a clean energy future so they have a planet that is actually worth living on.

We know that our targets are delivering the most rapid reduction of emissions – get this yet again, because we have had all this querying about delivery. Well, I will tell you now: we are delivering. Our targets are delivering the most rapid reduction in emissions in Australia. I will repeat, because I do not think they are listening. They are not listening again. They are not getting it, so I am going to repeat this: our targets are delivering the most rapid reduction of emissions in Australia, unlocking billions of dollars of investment and creating thousands of jobs. Again, it is not just magic. It is not just because somebody randomly decided to come here and invest but because of a significant amount of very bold reform that our government has undertaken since coming back into government in 2014. We are investing almost $2 billion in programs to reduce emissions, so you can see it is not magic but a clear and considered and pragmatic approach to transitioning to clean energy. And we make no apologies for moving away from fossil fuels, okay. I felt like we were back in the 1950s because of all this talk about gas, gas, gas. Well, hang on a minute, have you looked at what the world is doing? They are going for renewables, and why? And querying this offshore investment – why? This is the way to go. We have set a nation-leading offshore wind target that will generate 2 gigawatts of offshore wind, and it will come online by 2032. But guess what, we cannot just kick the can down the road, and I think that is what those opposite want to do. We have to do the investment now, now, now. Now is the time for the future of the children of Victoria. It will generate 4 gigawatts by 2035 and 9 gigawatts by 2040.

Let us have a look at those opposite when it comes to renewables. This is why we get all this scoffing over there. When last in government the opposition increased retail electricity prices by 34.1 per cent – that was quarter 4 in 2010 versus quarter 3 in 2014. Under the previous Liberal government gas and electricity disconnections doubled – 28,959 versus 58,503 – leaving vulnerable Victorians without power and heating. Since 2014 the Liberals have voted against or tried to gut the following energy bills in Parliament: Climate Change Bill 2016, Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Bill 2017, Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Amendment Bill 2019, Energy Legislation Amendment (Licence Conditions) Bill 2020, Energy Legislation Amendment (Energy Fairness) Bill 2021. By opposing Victoria’s renewable energy targets, guess what, those querying the jobs that are being supported through the SEC were actually putting thousands of jobs at risk – how ironic. But it is true to form when you look at the massive opposition, the consistent opposition, by the opposition to any transition to renewable energy. You cannot take them seriously when they say, ‘Oh, no, we really support clean energy, but’ – there is always a ‘but’. They do not get it. They are stuck in the 1950s, and the electric – the electorate – knows this.

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, pardon the pun – electric. The electorate knows this, and that is why we are charging ahead with investment in clean energy supported through the SEC.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:18): I was actually hoping the Minister for Energy and Resources would be at the table because, as old sparring partners in the energy portfolio, I was hoping to kind of pick her up on a couple of little points on this particular motion. It is great to see the government up and about really talking about smoke and mirrors, because that is what we have got here with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria – nothing but smoke and mirrors.

We had, just in the kick-off to the election campaign, a big talk about this fantastic shiny new product called the SEC. We were all ready to go on this shiny new product, and then we were a little bit disappointed because the Premier did not turn up in his North Face jacket but in his SEC jacket, because what we got was not a business plan but an SEC logo. So that was effectively what the plan was – no detail, no substance about the SEC, but a great logo to replace his North Face jacket with his SEC jacket. So here we are months later all raring to go, are all raring to find out about what this detail is that is finally going to bring down energy prices, give us security, give us reliability and transition us to renewables. We are all ready to go, what, six months in, and what do we have still – an SEC jacket. That is about all we have got – no detail, no substance, just a logo. And let me tell you, a logo is not going to bring down energy prices. A logo is not going to keep the lights on. A logo is not going to actually ensure that people are going to be able to pay those energy bills – those who are suffering in Victoria more than anyone in any other state.

This minister and this government talk a really big game when it comes energy about how wonderfully they have done and what they have done. All that this government has done is push up energy prices, and the most vulnerable Victorians are paying the price for the high energy prices. On this side we all agree in a renewables transition. It is really, really important, and we have got to look at energy for the future. But you need a plan to get to energy for the future, not just a logo, and that is what this so-called SEC idea is all about.

I heard the member for Albert Park talking about ‘back to the future’. Well, this is very much back to the future in terms of the SEC, because it did not work back then under the Cain–Kirner governments, which actually created and shut down the SEC. They shut it down because it was not working. The Labor government under Joan Kirner shut it down. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, but all of a sudden it was Jeffrey Kennett’s problem. I can tell you, as we have reminded this government and will continue to do, it was Joan Kirner that actually switched the lights off on the SEC – and fair enough, because what we needed at the time was to transition into competition. We needed to ensure that we had people coming in to deliver in a competitive way a solution that would bring down prices and deliver security, and that is what we need to do today. We need to ensure we actually get people investing in the energy of the future, whether it be solar, batteries, wind or whatever it may be, even hydrogen. We need to be looking at all of these opportunities in terms of that investment. When you have got the government effectively saying they are going to take out competition, it just simply does not work.

Even in the very first parliamentary sitting and the very first question time, the minister did not have a clue about what the SEC was going to deliver. The minister herself has not been over the brief of her own portfolio. She got up in the first question time and she said that the SEC was going to be 100 per cent controlled by the government – publicly owned, 100 per cent – when initially in the lead-up it was 49–51, with the government owning 51 per cent. Now, at the first sitting of Parliament in this term of government, when they can really talk up their big game on the SEC, beyond the logo, to a plan, it was going to be 100 per cent owned, and she had to correct that. She also said in that first press conference that it was going to bring down prices, and within a week we saw a 30 per cent hike in prices. So this is not working.

We saw, as the member for Gippsland South said very eloquently in his contribution, that the government during the election spoke about how the opposition are going to frack. ‘There’s no gas.’ There is no gas? So why are we talking about onshore gas when there is no gas? The government themselves, prior to the election, issued additional licences for bringing on onshore gas and then said there were not any. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. There either is or there is not, and do not use it when it suits you. We know that the Minister for Energy and Resources has an ideological opposition towards gas. She thinks it is an all-or-nothing proposition, but what she does not understand is you need a sensible transition. That is what you need; that is what people expect. We are all for that transition, and that is why the Liberal–Nationals have been talking about this for a while. When you switch off coal, you cannot all of a sudden just switch on the wind and batteries and solar and make sure it is all going to work. You need to transition to firm up the energy when the wind is not blowing, when the sun is not shining and the batteries have run out. That is what you need to do. You also cannot cut households off from gas. You cannot cut them off from gas, and that is what this government want to do – they want to cut vulnerable Victorians off from gas. They said, ‘What we’ll do is we’ll give you a couple of thousand dollars, and that will sort it.’ Well, that will not hold.

The minister has come back – that is fantastic. I have got the minister for energy back. That is terrific. What was wonderful was the minister for energy was up and about during the election, and they even ran a truck around our electorate talking about fracking. And do you know what, I thank the minister for what she did in terms of diverting all of her energy into my electorate, because I got a bounce – it actually increased my margin, because the minister was so focused on me and not worried about herself. I am not sure what the actual minister’s own margin was after the election, but I am pretty sure it went down by about 10 points.

James Newbury: 10 points?

David SOUTHWICK: Yes, about 10 points. The minister was so focused on running around ranting and raving during the election, sending trucks and talking pork pies about fracking around the electorate, not focused on what she should be doing. That is where this government really loses the game and the focus.

What Victorians are dealing with at the moment are high energy prices. What Victorians are dealing with at the moment is uncertainty. What Victorians are dealing with at the moment is a government that has no more than a logo when it comes to the SEC, and this will not stack up when it comes to a future that Victorians need. When you look at the issues about so many people that are sleeping rough, so many people that are on the poverty line, so many people that cannot afford to pay their energy prices in Victoria, that is what this government should be focused on.

What we should be talking about today with this motion is how the government plan to deliver lower energy prices, certainty and a future – how they plan to do it, not ideology but a way that we work together on this. You talk about how we actually ensure we firm up with gas, you look at where hydrogen comes in going forward and what other solutions there are and you make sure this stuff is connected. The biggest joke in what this government did when it came to any renewables is they located these renewable projects all across the state and you cannot connect them up. You have got idle solar and you have got idle wind farms because they are not connected. It is like having a Ferrari and no road to run it on or having an EV and having no road to run it on, and that is what they have done.

Now they are talking about ‘Oh, you know what? We’ll look at potentially offshore’ and whether that is going to be connected. Seriously! The good member for Morwell knows that you have a plan. Sir John Monash had a plan, and what he did with the Latrobe Valley was he located energy together and ensured that it was all pumped right across the state. Where is the government’s plan? An SEC logo on a jacket – that is where their plan is. Unfortunately all of those projects or many of those projects, wind and solar, are still not connected. They are still not connected, and the cost of connecting them is outrageous.

This is why it is very concerning, because you have got to ensure you have a plan, that you connect things up affordably and that you work with the community as part of doing all of this – all the stuff that has been neglected by this government. We have a government that does no more than actually things by press release. We have a budget that is going to be a horror coming up in the next few weeks, which all Victorians are going to have to pay the price for. We have blowout after blowout after blowout. Do you seriously think that this government should be trusted to actually set up the SEC when you have got major projects with $30 billion so far of cost blowouts? You want to trust this lot to have a go at the SEC? I do not think so. The Andrews Labor government could not manage a chook raffle. They could not manage anything. They cannot manage money. They cannot be trusted. This is another joke. It is another press release. It is another logo without substance, and again this whole motion is a joke – just like the minister for energy is a joke.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (16:28): For those watching at home, there is nothing wrong with your speakers. That background noise is a very embarrassed and shamed opposition who have had a horror week and are here speaking against one of the signature policies of the Andrews Labor government. But before I get stuck into this motion, I do want to just make the observation that for some reason I am usually following the member for Caulfield. I do not know why, but I am usually following the member for Caulfield in the speaking list. I do not know how many ladders I have walked under to deserve that, but it means that I have to listen to at least part of his speech. So I have listened to many contributions by the member for Caulfield. Look, he is not a bad guy. I will admit he is all right, he is okay. But you know what? When you are a Liberal MP who starts celebrating the fact that they did not lose the seat of Caulfield, you know they are in a very bad way – a very bad way indeed. But you know what?

A member interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: On the motion, that is right. Do not worry, I am getting to it. Come on. Look, it is nearly the end. I bet you are all very pleased it is nearly the end of the parliamentary sitting week, because it has been a pretty bad week for you, I have got to say, and it is only going to get worse.

There are four points to this motion, and the first point is celebrating the fact that this government is bringing back the SEC. From those opposite we are always hearing a complete rewriting of history – that it was not the Kennett government that privatised the electricity system. Well, the thousands of workers in the 1990s who lost their jobs know who privatised that system. It was those opposite, and they opposed bringing it back into government hands. This government has the credentials to do that. We have a renewable energy target that leads Australia – to reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035 and net zero by 2045 – and we are already on our way there. We are already on our way there because we have targets of 75 to 80 per cent reduction by 2035 and net zero by 2045, which align Victoria with the goals in the Paris agreement.

We are doing this at both a macro level and a local level. The last four years we have had something called, for instance, the Solar Homes program, which has been embraced by Victorians right around our great state. In my own electorate I think we have had 1500 or so installations covered by a rebate under the Solar Homes program, so it has obviously been taken up by a number of residents of the Bentleigh electorate. What that ultimately means is we have got more Victorians contributing to the grid. Part of this motion talks about the government’s policy of installing 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria, which will triple the number of homes with access to a battery and provide crucial extra storage capacity for local communities. These batteries will store this clean, cheap energy when it is abundant during the day and feed it back into the grid when it is needed at night, keeping the lights on and power bills down.

It does not take a genius to work out how a battery works, but I do want to relay a bit of a story from election day. Obviously I, like many Labor candidates across the state on polling day and throughout the pre-poll period, was very busy pushing our SEC policy quite proudly, because it is a proud Labor policy. I think I was at the McKinnon Secondary College booth, which is the largest booth in the Bentleigh electorate.

A member: Massive. They love you there.

Nick STAIKOS: They do love us there; 66 per cent we won at the McKinnon Secondary College booth. That is no surprise, no surprise at all. But of course, given it is the largest booth, I did end up there with my opponent. Somebody came up to me to ask about energy policy, and we started talking about our policy on reviving the State Electricity Commission. Part of that was a discussion on batteries, at which point my opponent sort of intervened in this discussion, and she really did, I would say, bag our policy of 100 neighbourhood batteries. I pointed out to her that she drives an electric car, and she said, ‘Yes, but I have to charge it.’ Yes, you do have to charge a battery, and you can charge it with renewable energy. This government is investing heavily in renewable energy, and that is the point – that all of these households that have taken advantage of our Solar Homes project are then able to feed into the grid.

This government, I think it is clear, has a vision for a big Victoria, whether that is in transport – whether that is the Suburban Rail Loop, whether that is the Metro rail tunnel, whether that is creating a public transport system that is befitting of a great city of the world, and that is what Melbourne is – whether that is in health and education, whether that is in commercialising innovations from our world-leading universities here in the state of Victoria or whether that is in being a leader in green energy. We do have a big vision. That is why we are making this investment.

The SEC is not just, as the member for Caulfield said, an emblem on a shirt or a bit of window-dressing; the SEC is actually already working. The minister has not wasted a day in reviving the State Electricity Commission. In fact she has recently announced that the government will deliver the first SEC project by the end of the year, which will accelerate renewable energy transition and ensure Victorians get their fair share of the profits of this massive investment in our zero-emissions future. That project will be in Victoria and will be at least 100 megawatts, powering around 60,000 homes. It is already making a big difference.

We have talked about how those opposite privatised the energy system and a lot of people lost their jobs. Bringing back the SEC is going to support 59,000 jobs, which is absolutely significant, and the central mission of this government over the last eight years has been to provide jobs and opportunities for Victorians, using the power of the state government as the biggest purchaser of goods and services in this state to provide jobs and opportunities for Victorians. That has the been central mission in everything we have done. It has always been a policy that has made sense. What never made sense is that those opposite in the 1990s sold off the system. It did not make sense.

Sam Groth: Don’t do it.

Nick STAIKOS: I will do it, and I will keep doing it, member for Nepean, because it is what happened in the 1990s, and all it did was create billions of dollars in profits for multinational companies. And what have the Victorian people got to show for it? Ageing infrastructure and higher prices. Well, we are doing something about that. We are already doing something about that. There are many people in my electorate who have taken advantage of the power saving bonus – about 15,000 people, I believe, in the Bentleigh electorate have already applied for and received the latest round of the power saving bonus. We are doing something about investing in renewable energy, bringing back the SEC and using the profits of the SEC to bring power prices down for hardworking Victorians. I commend the motion to the house.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (16:37): It is a pleasure to speak to this motion. I am hopeful and optimistic to hear about the SEC. I do have a few questions, though. We should think a little bit about the original SEC, the one that some of us are possibly old enough to remember. It was 100 per cent government owned – 100 per cent of generation was government owned, 100 per cent of power transmission was government owned and 100 per cent of retail was government owned. There was no shopping around, there was no need to go online and get 250 bucks to help you choose between different companies – there was just one, and it was the SEC. What is being proposed now is of course a very different thing, but you have got to start somewhere, and I imagine from what the budget might be looking like in a few weeks, there will not be the spare cash to just shell out and renationalise the whole lot.

But why are we so interested in this renewable energy? Even if the SEC is starting small, it is starting on renewable energy. It is said to start with 51 per cent of 4.5 gigawatts. Just to give you a sense of that, currently Victoria is generating and consuming about 6 gigawatts, so if the SEC is to have 51 per cent of 4.5, we will have just over a third roughly in the SEC of the generation capacity. That is when the renewables are going at full tilt, which of course they will not be all the time. So why renewable energy generation? Why is that important now? It is important because of climate change. Too often we are hearing spin from the government about the SEC as the solution to climate change, but we all know that climate change is due to emissions from transport, from farming, from construction and from burning coal and gas, and only some of that is for generating electricity.

We have actually got quite a good story to tell in Victoria about the reduction in coal being used to generate electricity. When I last looked, we were down to about 100,000 tonnes of brown coal a day. We have clearly got a long way to go. It is hard to imagine what 100,000 tonnes of brown coal looks like, but if it was on a train, that train would have 1200 wagons and be 21 kilometres long, and we would be burning through that train load of coal every day. It is pretty much all carbon. It all goes up into the atmosphere, and it stays up there for over 100 years. That is a prodigious sum. It is hard to imagine that much coal all being burnt in a single day and all going skywards, and at the rate we are going it is going to take well over a decade before we close that down.

It is worth thinking about Victoria’s brown coal. It is the most polluting coal in Australia. Collectively our three coal-fired power stations put about a tonne of mercury into the atmosphere as well as disease-causing sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. The sooner we get off coal, the healthier the people of the Latrobe Valley and surrounding areas will be. However, when we get to the magic 95 per cent renewables by 2035, which is discussed in this motion, we will stop burning coal for electricity, but we will not stop exploiting coal, because unfortunately the government is sanctioning a large project to turn brown coal into hydrogen – a multibillion-dollar project to produce hydrogen to create clean energy in Japan while leaving all the resultant CO₂ here in Australia to be stored by the untried carbon capture and storage methods, which are really not working at economic scale anywhere. So I really think a great job for the SEC would be to expand sufficiently so that projects like this are not necessary. We do not want to continue exploiting coal for anything – whether it is hydrogen or electricity – after this decade.

I have got a few questions for the SEC. Remembering that the original SEC owned transmission and retail, will this SEC confine itself to generation? After all, we have already got a lot of privately owned renewable generation, but transmission, which is one of the big bottlenecks – getting electricity from the sun-rich north of Victoria down to Melbourne – is a natural monopoly. A great place for the SEC to get involved would be in building and owning the transmission capacity that Victoria needs for the renewable transition.

The other question I have got is: when we get to 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035, that is just for electricity; what about the 2 million Victorian homes that are heated with gas? Local gas supplies are diminishing, and the government is unfortunately opening up offshore and onshore gas exploration, including around the Twelve Apostles. More than that, they are entertaining the prospect of gas import terminals in Corio Bay. And where would that gas come from? Most likely from northern Australia, from places like the Beetaloo Basin, where the gas will be obtained by fracking. It is unfortunate that we went to so much effort to end fracking in Victoria, and there is a distinct possibility that we will be importing fracked gas to Victoria in a few years, when in fact – here is a great job for the SEC – Victorian homes could be racing to get off gas. The SEC could be electrifying homes, electrifying heating and electrifying hot water so that Victorians do not have to burn climate change-inducing gas to heat their homes.

Again, I am old enough to remember some houses near where I lived that had a gold medallion stuck up on the wall near the front door, with the characteristic sunray logo of the SEC. These were 100 per cent electric homes: if you had a 100 per cent electric home, there was some SEC promotion where you got this gold medal. I have no idea why people did it, but they did. Right now that gold medal would mean something. If we could put gold medals on homes that got off gas – SEC gold medals, why not – that would be a real blow in the fight against climate change. With the right sorts of incentives for home energy efficiency and for electrification of heating and hot water we could get all of Victoria’s homes plastered with gold medals and get them off gas.

The idea that gas is essential for the transition is an idea that comes from people who have not heard of batteries. The SEC is proposed to fund 100 community batteries, which is a good idea, although we will need a good deal more than that. Fortunately, there will be very large batteries in many driveways before long as people take their new electric vehicles home, and I am very keen to hear from the Minister for Energy and Resources what use the government will be making of privately owned electric vehicles in storing energy generated at lunchtime to power our cooking and our lights at dinnertime. One of the biggest challenges, apart from transmission, for the transition away from coal and towards renewable energy will be how we shift the glut of renewable energy from the middle of the day to the shortage of renewable energy in the evenings, and privately owned electric vehicles will be part of the solution. I am keen to hear what the SEC will do to assist with that.

We have just heard about how the SEC will create jobs building renewable generation, but we need to hear about jobs being created – investing in transmission and in other kinds of storage, not just batteries but pumped hydro. I was disappointed to learn that the Snowy Hydro 2 has had a major setback with the collapse of a tunnel-boring machine. Another area that the SEC could get involved in is electricity demand management. Quite a lot of industries consume a lot of electricity. Think about Alcoa. Victoria’s biggest electricity customer is the aluminium smelter in Portland. Retrofitting that so that it can shut down for a few hours or overnight, as has been done in some aluminium smelters in Europe, would allow the smelter to act as a kind of reverse battery, operating – making aluminium and making money – during the day when there is plenty of renewable energy and shutting down overnight when there is not. So demand management is an important role for the SEC.

Owning 51 per cent of 4½ gigawatts, which is what the SEC is said to do, is a good start, but it is not enough. Until the government answers some of the questions I have put up this afternoon we will not know how much the new SEC is contributing to our fight against climate change. I will conclude by saying I am full of hope and optimism. I just do not want to be let down by the SEC.

Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (16:48): I rise today to support the motion under consideration. Last year Labor promised the Victorian people that a re-elected Andrews Labor government would bring back the State Electricity Commission. We said we will reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035 and net zero by 2045. We promised we would install 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria, and along the path to a more sustainable future we vowed to deliver 59,000 renewable energy jobs. The Victorian people resoundingly endorsed this platform at the 2022 state election, making clear that Victoria is committed to a renewable energy led future.

Thirty years ago our essential services were sold off to private multinationals. These private companies increased prices, sacked workers and have charged Victorians $23 billion – far more than they paid. They made huge profits while dramatically increasing power bills. The Liberals have shown over and over again that they cannot be trusted to stand up for the Victorian people when it matters most. That is why I am proud to support the government’s plan to not only bring back the SEC but also enshrine it in the constitution so those opposite cannot sell it off again.

One of the highlights of the campaign for me was when I first got the call in late October about the government’s plan to bring back the SEC. It truly made my Labor heart sing. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting John Fawkner secondary college with the Premier, and we talked to kids in the vocational major class, two of whom are keen to be electricians. It is our government’s plan to bring back the SEC, which will give students like these secure and well-paid jobs to aspire to. I remember my friend’s dad, Bill from Hadfield, who was a proud SEC linesman, and his sons followed in his footsteps until the Liberals gambled with the future of Victorians and sold off the SEC. Our new SEC will help train the next generation of maintenance workers, electricians, welders and mechanics – highly qualified, sought-after and highly paid workers. The Labor government has committed to delivering $424 million in energy and training packages to help workers upskill and 6000 positions for apprentices and trainees. To train these new workers our government will establish an SEC centre of training excellence. The centre will coordinate and accredit courses in clean energy; it will connect our TAFEs, registered training organisations and the industry. The government is also committed to adding clean energy to our VCE vocational major. We know the SEC will again provide good, secure jobs for Victorians and particularly the kids in the Broadmeadows electorate. I am thrilled by the idea of the SEC recruiting the workers of the future at career nights across our schools.

The SEC will not only provide secure jobs for our apprentices but also provide huge opportunities for manufacturing in Victoria and Australia. We have a chance to ensure that we can manufacture high-quality Australian-made components locally. We can make sure that we are not reliant on overseas products to deliver essential services to our people. This again is very important to electorates like mine with manufacturing bases already in place. As manufacturing comes back to our state, communities like mine have the most to benefit. We are already transitioning to advanced manufacturing. We have got the skills, we have got the people, we have got some real partners in CSL, Brite Industries and Kangan TAFE and we have got the know-how to help power this state and make sure our kids have good jobs to aspire to and a clean and secure government-owned energy supply.

The clean energy future is not reliant on coal, and the coal-powered plants are getting old, breaking down and closing. Last year AGL announced that they will be closing Victoria’s biggest power station a decade earlier than previously anticipated, having reaped billions in profits from Victorians. In June last year the Western Australian government made the decision to close the state’s two remaining coal power stations by 2029. We are at a critical point as a nation. Our energy supply chains need to be independent of corporate interests to ensure energy security and resilience. In a highly turbulent world we need to ensure that our energy supply is not vulnerable to supply disruptions, price volatility and geographical risks. In June 2020 the Australian Energy Market Operator forecast that up to 60 per cent of coal-fired capacity in the national electricity market across the eastern states would retire by 2030. To deal with the loss of this coal-fired capacity the market operator says that the amount of large-scale renewable energy in the grid needs to rise ninefold by 2050 to keep up with the increasing demand for electricity, and the best way to ensure this happens is through a government-owned SEC supercharging our transition to a clean economy and a greener future.

Public ownership of energy resources through the revival of the SEC as an active energy market participant will build new renewable energy projects and give us the energy security we need. The SEC will become an energy market proponent under this government’s 10-year plan to deliver cleaner, cheaper energy, with all profits invested back into the energy system. We will finally be able to make sure it is the Victorian public, not offshore coal companies, who enjoy the returns. The SEC will enable us to produce more electricity than the closing AGL plant, and it will be able to deliver that through renewable energy products.

As growth in renewables continues to drive demand for batteries, this government is moving quickly to ensure that we have neighbourhood batteries that will store clean energy when it is abundant during the day and feed it back into the grid when it is needed at night, keeping the lights on and the power bills down. The state government is installing 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria, tripling the number of homes with access to a battery and providing crucial extra storage capacity for local communities. I was very pleased to hear that two of these batteries will be installed in Merri-bek and Hume city councils, which cover my electorate. These neighbourhood batteries will return power to the hands of local communities. It means that more households will have access to cheaper renewable energy even if they do not have their own solar panels.

The cost of living keeps going up, and Victorian families are paying the price. The Andrews Labor government is working every day to drive down energy bills and emissions, and putting electricity back in the hands of Victorians will help us achieve that. This government has a plan to keep the lights on and bills down. The SEC, our renewable energy targets and neighbourhood batteries are all indeed a part of this government’s agenda to lower bills for Victorian households. The government has launched multiple programs to provide direct assistance to people who need it most. The power saving bonus is a hugely popular program that has received millions of applicants from across the state. For some families the power saving bonus has effectively meant $500 in immediate relief to battle the rising bills since July last year, and I cannot tell you how popular it has been in my electorate, with our office helping hundreds of people access the power saving bonus and find a better deal on their electricity through the only trustworthy and government-owned comparison website in the market.

The energy assistance program is another key service that has helped people across the state. In my electorate of Broadmeadows a large number of people do not have internet connection and struggle with applying for grants, concessions and other benefits they may be eligible for. The energy assistance program offers one-on-one help to understand the available energy information supports. It helps you navigate the energy market and make informed decisions about your providers, and it is available on the phone, which is really helpful. It has helped eligible customers, including a constituent of mine, to access a concession that they had previously not been claiming. Concession card holders in our state are eligible for a 17.5 per cent discount on their electricity bill all year. 925,000 households in Victoria receive the electricity concession every year, and it is only fair that everyone in our state has equitable access to it regardless of their digital literacy.

It is internationally agreed that we face an urgent need to act to reduce emissions and manage climate change. Labor has not just talked about climate action, we have gotten on with delivering on it. We have cut emissions by more than any other state, tripled the amount of renewable energy and created thousands of jobs. We are leading the country on climate action. We have wasted no time in getting on with replacing unreliable and privately owned coal power with clean government-owned renewable energy. Victoria has risen to this challenge, doubling its renewable energy in the past five years, but there is much more to do. To achieve Victoria’s target of 75 to 80 per cent reductions by 2035, we need to be bolder and move faster. We need to do more to secure a 95 per cent renewable electricity target by 2035 and aim to reach net zero by 2045. Under the new plan for the SEC, the government will hold a controlling interest in each of these projects. Renewables will replace coal, and these new power stations will be owned by every Victorian to benefit every Victorian. We are decarbonising at the fastest rate in the country, and since this government was elected in 2014 we have cut emissions by more than any other state.

While Labor has been working hard to secure a more sustainable future, the Liberal Party has refused to participate in this progress. Since 2014 Liberals have voted against or tried to cut critical pieces of legislation, including the Climate Change Act 2017, the Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Act 2017 and the Energy Legislation Amendment (Energy Fairness) Act 2021. By voting against these bills, the Liberals have continuously risked the future of thousands of Victorians. Labor knows that the people of Victoria want a more sustainable – (Time expired)

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (16:58): I rise to make a brief contribution today on the notice of motion put forward by the Minister for the State Electricity Commission, Minister for Energy and Resources and Minister for Climate Action. I want to begin by commenting on some of what she said in her opening remarks. She talked endlessly about the Liberals being addicted to privatisation and how that is what we are all about, and I have never heard greater hypocritical comments, ever, because we have seen the Andrews Labor government flog off over $22 billion worth of state assets because they have run out of money. This is what happened when Joan Kirner began the sale of the SEC: the state had run out of money. We have had an almost $10 billion windfall from the sale of the Port of Melbourne, $3 billion from the sale of the land titles office, the $2 million they got for the sale of Snowy Hydro to the federal government, $7.2 billion not so long ago with the VicRoads ‘modernisation’ sale, and then we have had a lot of rats and mice. We have had the sale of other land packages, the $265 million –

The SPEAKER: The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.