Tuesday, 15 August 2023

 Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (13:16): Greenwashing, virtue signalling, scaremongering, dictatorial: this is how Victorians – the living ones, that is, not the dear departed that have signed up for ALP branch-stacking purposes – view this Labor government’s asinine ban on new residential gas connections from 2024. We have an abundant supply of natural gas, all bubbling away under mud – no fracking required. Eighty per cent of households are already connected to gas. Each year 40,000 new homes join the gas network. It is how we heat our homes, cook our meals and have hot showers. Yet without consultation you pull the plug. People with gas now fear the future. The uncertainty in households is real. The uncertainty for the industry is palpable. How does this play out with the $12 million this government has earmarked for a hydrogen gas hub in Wodonga? It is the green future for gas, yet you are ditching the infrastructure it needs.

Let us tell some of the home truths. Natural gas is cleaner than coal-fuelled electricity. Gas home heating and cooking is just 2 per cent of our emissions, not the 17 per cent you spin. It is estimated the switch to electricity will increase demand by 500 per cent. How will the grid possibly cope? You say it is about providing cheaper energy. Is anyone seeing cheaper power bills? Victorians demand the government come up with a better way, a cheaper way, a realistic way. Stop trying to woo the woke, and govern for the whole state.