Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Ministers statements: Victorian energy upgrades program

Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:33): I am absolutely delighted to update the house on how we are delivering real cost-of-living relief for Victorians through more energy-efficient electric homes. Our nation-leading Victorian energy upgrades program is delivering real energy bill savings for Victorians each and every day. In 2022 alone more than 515,000 Victorian households and 50,000 Victorian businesses received upgrades through this fantastic discount program, and more than 2.3 million households and businesses have taken advantage of it since the program started in 2009. This is the same legislated program that those opposite tried to axe in this very Parliament when they were last in government, but it was only saved because of the rat in their ranks at the time, the member for Frankston – nothing like of course our very own current member for Frankston, who is the exact opposite of the rat in the ranks over there.

Absolutely now we have extended this discount program to include hot water, electric heat pumps, electric space heating and cooling appliances. Buying a new reverse-cycle air conditioner will save a household between $900 and $3600 if it is replacing an old gas heating system. And the savings just do not stop at the point of purchase, they last throughout every year. Just last year more than 26,000 households upgraded their old, inefficient electric water heaters with efficient new ones, helping them save a further $500 off their bills each and every year. That is of course in line with our nation-leading Gas Substitution Roadmap.

Those opposite cannot be trusted when they lie low in an election campaign and come out swinging for the gas and the nuclear power industries when they are in this place, guaranteeing one thing: skyrocketing energy bills for decades for ordinary Victorians.