Thursday, 17 August 2023

Bills

Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Lily D’Ambrosio:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (10:11): As I was saying yesterday, this bill also aims to improve the functioning of Victoria’s wholesale gas market by enabling regulations to be made to increase the maximum civil penalties payable for parties that breach the rules. The change will provide additional flexibility to the Australian Energy Regulator and the courts in determining appropriate responses to instances of non-compliance and help ensure any civil penalties issued reflect the severity of the conduct and act as a deterrent. This will ensure the compliance and enforcement regime is fit for purpose so that the Victorian gas market delivers better outcomes for consumers and align the level of civil penalties with those in place in other east coast wholesale gas markets. Finally, the bill updates several outdated references to the Essential Services Commission gas distribution system code in the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008. This will help improve the accurate interpretation of the act.

While there is a lot of technical jargon throughout this bill, there is a tangible benefit that can be transferred to our communities. The bill is about ensuring the reliable supply of energy to Victorian consumers, and that is what is important. Within the Euroa electorate the reliability of energy supply, particularly electricity, has been questionable at best. In times of emergency and crisis members of the community have been unable to rely on electricity. When residents in Pyalong faced severe storms in 2021, locals expressed concerns about how they would be able to access electricity, communicate with emergency services and get in touch with loved ones. These sentiments were shared following the October 2022 floods, which greatly impacted much of the Euroa electorate. It is not just times of emergency when the reliability of our energy is compromised – regular blackouts occur over much of the region. The rolling hills of the Strathbogie region regularly face dropouts, inability to access mobile coverage and unreliable connections. In towns like Benalla we see power seemingly turn off at random, with my electorate office and surrounding businesses being on the receiving end of this multiple times in recent months. Community groups in the town of Euroa have built their own microgrid after being faced with unreliable and unstable electricity. Another local business in Euroa, Kinross Farms, has taken matters into its own hands too. They have built a generator, a much-needed solution to the unreliable and unstable power sources that plague our region.

Much like the energy legislation amendment bill previously debated in this house – the one that referred to energy safety – this bill is part of modernising our energy system and ensuring the transition to renewables is done properly. So far not everything in this transition has been smooth sailing. Our regional areas, including the Euroa electorate and the wider north-east of Victoria, are set to be a hub for many renewable energy projects. Regional communities have had every right to be concerned about some of the projects. Constituents in my electorate are worried about the impact these projects might have on them. This includes an impact on their agricultural land, the increased risk of fires, the biosecurity of our farms and primary producers and ensuring coherent emergency management strategies, and I have heard them worry about increases in landholder insurance premiums.

We know what can be achieved when we get the transition to renewables right, when communities are involved and benefit from the change, but too often we see secrecy and poor planning divide our communities. It is crucial we prioritise listening to the impacted communities and ensure a careful approach. Failing to do this will jeopardise our ability to achieve both emissions reduction and renewable energy targets. From listening and meeting with concerned members of our community, such as the Strathbogie renewable energy group, I believe that wanting something in return for compromising their land is not unreasonable. This is a group of people who are concerned about what this will mean for their community. Our community is simply asking who benefits from energy infrastructure and are our host communities being brought along in this process. We cannot allow large corporations to sweep into our communities, dismiss the concerns of the people and then take all the benefits offshore, leaving locals with nothing. With renewable energy planning approvals falling solely on the desk of the minister, we need to ensure there is also a robust appeals process so our communities are heard as loudly as these big companies. Making this transition to renewables in the right way can and must bring prosperity to our communities. By sharing the benefits, be that through employment, economic profits or development, we can make sure this switch is not at the expense of the people who call these places home.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (10:16): I rise to speak on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. This is another bill that is taking us a step closer to the transformation of our energy generation and transmission in Victoria. This fundamental technological transformation is making us less reliant on coal-fired generators, and we know that they are exiting the market, we know that they are not as reliable.

Now, what would my pop say about this? My pop was a member of what they call the greatest generation. He was born in 1915. These were the people who saw what happened in World War I and signed up for World War II. This was a very pragmatic generation of people. My pop – do you know what he did? He was a coal miner. He was a coal miner from Germany. He was a very pragmatic person, and he worked his way up to making his own holes in the ground and digging out the coal and selling it, following in the footsteps of his father. Then his son, who was a part of the building generation in Australia, was in the coal business as well. But you know what, my family learned lessons, because before we were in coal we were in scythe making. Right back to the 1600s we made scythes over open fires, but then that technology was no longer required for harvesting the field, so my family moved on to coal. As a pragmatic, straightforward person, I am sure that if my pop were alive today he would be buying solar panels. He would be putting them wherever he could. He did not have an ideological or a sentimental attachment to how power is generated, he was just busy getting on and doing it. If he heard some of the quite frankly romantic notions that have come from those opposite about coal, he would not know what they were talking about. That is for sure.

We want to be attached to something not because it is historically what our industries were built on but because it works. I have spent a lot of time in countries where the power is not reliable. I think of my time in Papua New Guinea with whole weekends with no power and the difficulties that caused for families – for mothers in particular – and for businesses. The times that the power does go out in Yan Yean, I know the difficulties that that causes for businesses and for people who want hot showers and the like.

This is about making our energy generation more reliable with new renewable technology. We want to make sure in this transition that as well as the main thrust being the move towards renewable energies, with that being the main measure of how we are creating reliable energy, we are also making sure that we are providing assurance to energy users about the reliability of the existing power sources. That is what a lot of this bill is about. It is about making sure that the retailer reliability obligation is working for the people of Victoria. Built into this updated approach we have got thorough consultation with the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Australian Energy Regulator, the Premier and the Treasurer et cetera, as well as making sure that there is transparency, with a statement of reasons being published when the retailer reliability obligation is triggered. We are building up sensible solutions to take us forward to what the future will look like for Victoria.

As they say, past performance is the best predictor of future performance, I believe. What is our past performance here in Victoria? Well, we know that we have set targets for renewable energy and then we have smashed them. That is our past performance. For example, we had the first Victorian renewable energy target auction, the largest of its type in Australia, supporting 800 megawatts of new capacity, and our second one is going to have 623 megawatts. That is the past – 800 – and we have got 623, which is the future, coming up.

On a smaller scale, at the household level, which is how most people experience the energy market, we have got the $1.3 billion Solar Homes program. That has already helped 200,000 households with access to rooftop solar. And we have got $540 million for the Renewable Energy Zone Fund. Through measures like this, sensible measures, we have tripled renewable energy generation since 2014 – tripled it. People did not believe we could do it, yet here we are.

As well as the generation, the storage is also receiving plenty of attention. I know that besides the utility-scale batteries we also have the neighbourhood-scale batteries. The people of the City of Whittlesea are looking forward to our neighbourhood battery. That is going to be one of the 100 neighbourhood batteries that this government was talking about at the end of last year. Through that investment in neighbourhood batteries, over 25,000 homes will be able to access local renewable energy in Victoria, having access to a neighbourhood battery. That is another example of how we are moving towards the future based on our past performance. At the household level you can also benefit from batteries with reduced up-front costs over a four-year period if you install a home battery. There are about 4000 left of these home batteries in the 2023–24 financial year, so I would encourage all people to investigate the appropriateness of a home battery for them. The future also involves bringing back the SEC.

As my pop, I am sure, would have recognised, the future is in renewables, and that is the way we going. That is why we are putting in sensible measures to get us there. But we also need to make sure that where there is pain in the existing system we are working for the benefit of Victorians – the benefit of Victorians and not the power companies, tipping the scales in favour of Victorians. If we look at power prices, we know that there is a correlation between more renewable energy and lower power prices. When we are using fossil fuels and the like, the costs are higher, which is why it is hard to understand why in the cost-of-living context that we are in there would not be full-throated support from everybody in this chamber for our latest announcement regarding gas in new homes. This is something that will make bills cheaper for every household in Victoria and deserves the full support of every member of this chamber.

In making sure that we are supporting and tipping the scales in favour of Victorian households rather than companies, we heard from the member for Euroa. She is loath to see profits go overseas, she explained to us, and she wants to see jobs and income distributed amongst the community from energy projects. I will have to tell her about the SEC, because that is going to do exactly that for our community.

Another way that we are supporting households is to make sure that everybody possible claims the power saving bonus. We know that there are cheaper power bills to be had. We know that power companies do not always make it easy to get onto the cheapest deal – that is why we have introduced the power saving bonus. Every household can log on, make sure they are on the cheapest deal – they can change, they can not change; it is entirely up to them – and we will provide $250 to each household who goes through that process. This is about a government that understands we are in a cost-of-living crisis and that also understands that this state, this community, needs to continue the transition to renewable energy sensibly, one step at a time. This bill is one more step in that direction, and that is why I stand today to support this bill and the work of our Minister for Energy and Resources and energy-related topics. I commend the bill to the house.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (10:26): I rise today to speak on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. Of course it is quite relevant timing for this bill because earlier this week we saw perhaps one of the most significant protests from country people that we have seen for a very long time, which was all related to energy infrastructure. I have noted from previous speakers there are a lot of things that we are hearing about this warm, fuzzy feeling about how we are moving to renewables: ‘Won’t it be wonderful?’ and ‘We’ve got the SEC – well, at least we’ve done a lot of media releases about it’. What we find with this Andrews Labor government is we hear a lot in the media, but all of their strategy goes into their comms team, into their media team. But when it comes to delivering the goods, we do not see it, at the end of the day. And that is exactly what we are seeing in Victoria: what Labor say is completely different to what they do and what they deliver for everyday Victorians.

In Victoria today we are going through a cost-of-living crisis. So many individuals, families and businesses are coming to my office every single day saying they simply cannot afford to live under the Andrews Labor government anymore. The one thing that is consistent, whether it is individuals in their homes or whether it is businesses, is the amazing increase in energy bills. It is the power bills that are going up. And while we might hear from some of the previous members of government about all that you are doing to build renewables, what you are doing is actually shutting off reliable supply and we are leaping far too quickly into renewables. The supply is not there. You are pushing up prices, and you are crippling household budgets and making it so they cannot afford to live.

You are getting businesses in a position where they cannot afford to keep every job that they used to. This is in Victoria today, and I know of many, many businesses who are now moving interstate. I know of at least five businesses personally who I have spoken to who are moving to South Australia simply because they cannot afford to do business in Victoria. We can have plans and we can have strategies, and by no means am I against renewable energy at all. What I do support, though, is a sensible transition, because we have to be able to keep the lights on in Victoria. We have to make sure that the businesses have the baseload power to continue to operate, to keep those jobs locally in Victoria and to make sure that Victoria is again seen as a place to do business and we do not have people trickling out to either New South Wales or South Australia in my neighbouring area.

As I opened with, on Tuesday we saw an amazing turnout of farmers who are deeply concerned about the extended VNI West project. They are not just saying, ‘Not in my backyard’, they are being very, very sensible in their position in that they have put forward an option. They are supporting an option which was developed by esteemed professors in this area. They are highly respected in the industry. They have been in the industry for decades designing electrical systems and transmission systems. They have put together a fantastic proposal which actually makes an enormous amount of sense. It is to upgrade the existing electrical infrastructure, and the outcome of upgrading this existing electrical infrastructure would be phenomenal for the people of Victoria. Most importantly, it would unlock more renewables. It unlocks more renewables to upgrade the existing transmission lines that go through to Horsham and then up through the Ouyen area right up to the border of New South Wales. It is a shorter route. It is a route that costs half as much money – you would save $5 billion if you went down this route – but most importantly it would take electricity bill pressure off. It would save $1.1 billion in Victorian power bills each and every year. If we are talking about infrastructure and making sure we do have the infrastructure for the future, we do need to ensure that that includes a renewables future. Why wouldn’t the Labor government come out in support of those farmers who made all the effort to bring their tractors to town? They left their farms. Some of them left their potato harvest. Some of them left whatever their local activities were on their local farms right across western Victoria and they came to the steps of Parliament to make sure that they had their voice heard. But not one member of the Labor government could be bothered to go out on the steps and listen to them.

Peter Walsh: Not even the local members.

Emma KEALY: The member for Ripon, who says a lot privately one on one, did not have the courage to stand with her constituents about what they are desperately concerned about for their local area. They are so concerned, and it is not just about their own business; they are worried about the future of agriculture in that western part of Victoria. It is prime farmland. It is perhaps some of the most productive farmland that we have in the state, and rather than putting a bulldozer through it, ripping it up, putting biosecurity risk there – and we know that farm biosecurity is so important now it is legislated; there are so many additional pressures and requirements put on farmers in terms of controlling who comes in and out of their farming property. Yet we have got a proposal which is basically just ‘Go ahead, build a brand new transmission line 70 or 80 metres up in the sky’, infrastructure that is far in excess of what we need in Victoria, when we can actually do something much, much simpler and much, much shorter that will help to achieve the state’s renewable target in a much shorter time frame and will take pressure off Victorians’ power bills. Why wouldn’t the government go out and support it? Why wouldn’t the member for Ripon go out and support people and actually take it to Parliament House? We have never heard that from her. She is not standing up for her constituents, and we can do a far, far better job –

Members interjecting.

Emma KEALY: No, the member for Ripon was invited and she refused to turn up. She could have met with any of the farmers there beforehand or after, and she refused to meet with them.

Paul Edbrooke: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, respectfully I ask you to bring the member back to the bill and to be relevant to the bill.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: This has been a very wideranging debate. There is no point of order.

Emma KEALY: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It is so important in this place that we do have a strong voice for country Victorians and make sure their voice is heard. I urge the minister to look at this proposal, because I do not believe she has looked at it. She cannot possibly have looked at it if she understood it would unlock more renewables, because that was the excuse we heard yesterday – it will not reach the renewables target. Well, it actually will reach it more quickly. It will deliver much, much lower power bills. How can you say no to that? How can we have a minister that will not even consider a report? In fact one of the recommendations of this report is that VicGrid should be asked to publicly advise using its Victorian transmission investment framework on the relative merits of plan B, which is the upgrade of the existing infrastructure, compared to Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) VNI West in meeting the Victorian government’s target that 95 per cent of Victoria’s electricity is sourced from renewable energy generated in Victoria by 2035. They are just asking, basically, to compare it. Include this as part of your consideration. It is not too late. You do not have to bulldoze prime farmland and create new easements when existing easements are already there. You do not have to spend $5 billion – $5000 million – of additional taxpayer money for something that will not achieve the same outcomes as plan B, this plan.

You have got an option that really ticks all of the boxes. It wins at every single level when comparing the two projects. The farmers of western Victoria are impacted by the two lines. There is the proposal of the VNI West project but also there are people – farmers – who have got property along the existing powerlines, the ones who are generating an enormous amount of wind energy through Murra Warra. There is not enough capacity in the lines to take on all of the energy that that massive wind farm is generating today. If you want to get a quick outcome, if you want to get more renewables online now and if you want to start to replace the shut-down coal-fired power stations, and now there is ban on gas – and here is news to Labor: if you ban gas and get rid of gas bills, it will not keep prices down. You might not get a big gas bill anymore, but you are going to get a much bigger bill from other energy sources because there is simply not enough supply.

I urge the government, when they are considering the future of energy supply in Victoria and how we move energy around the state, to look at all of the options available. AEMO has a vested interest in keeping VNI West in there because they are managing the project. They are no longer independent of it, and they have simply not delivered when it comes to consultation and giving information to landholders through the VNI West project. I urge the minister to please look at plan B, consider it and make sure it is the government’s plan A for upgrading energy infrastructure in the state of Victoria going forward.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (10:36): I am very pleased to rise and speak on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. We have heard a lot from those opposite, but I am really happy today because we have gone from a place where we were talking about whether the energy systems of Victoria, the nation or the world should proceed and move to renewable sources from hydrocarbon sources. That question seems no longer there. We have got a bunch of converts over there who do believe in renewable energy now, but it is just about the timing and some of the details of it. That is a big place to come to. That is a big step for some people I think, so congratulations to them. You are now part of a global community that is actually moving to renewables from coal. I do like the anecdote from the member for Yan Yean. If I can be so bold as to put it in another sense: every generation is going to have its challenges. Every generation will have things that they have to adapt to and overcome. This is our generation’s challenge, and we cannot leave it to other generations – our children and their children.

The bill has three components. The first adds decision-making criteria to the Victorian legislation in the event that the Minister for Energy and Resources triggers the retailer reliability obligation. The second enables alignment of penalties applied to Victorian gas market participants with those in other jurisdictions. The third changes outdated references to the gas distribution system code, which is now known as the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice. These amendments are technical in nature but provide confidence to Victorians that energy markets are working in their favour.

We have dragged the opposition kicking and screaming to a place where they now know that they do not have a choice in this. They would like us to think, through their dialogue, that power stations such as Hazelwood were closed down by the Victorian government. In reality those were global decisions from global companies, made by the CEOs of Engie and the boards of such companies. They are divesting out of coal, oil and anything hydrocarbon because their investors will not let them invest in that, and that is the truth. We can look overseas. In fact I will bring up some case studies a bit later about countries that have similar renewable targets to us and are on the same journey. We are doing very well in Victoria. We are leading the nation; we are not leading the globe, though. This is not a wheel we need to reinvent. But to do that we need to make sure that our electricity system undergoes a fundamental change – the biggest evolution we have ever had. It is a transformation as the increasingly unreliable coal-fired power stations exit the market.

We have heard positive stories from this side of the house – from MPs – of constituents who have had a really good experience, and we have seen huge take-up of government offers. The power saving bonus is one, where we are providing $250 for anyone that provides an electricity bill to actually compare their bill and save money from unscrupulous electricity providers. The uptake has been huge in my electorate, and I know it has been huge everywhere else. But we have got other offers that have been out for a long time now. One of those would be the $1.3 billion Solar Homes program, but there is also the $540 million Renewable Energy Zone Fund. We have got more solar on roofs in Victoria than we have ever had before.

I guess with what we are seeing now, what the opposition will have to do – it may take some time and it may take some study – is get on board with or consider how changing our energy system is as much about replacing fossil fuels with renewables as it is changing the economic model. We have seen that in other countries. One hundred per cent renewable energy can lead us to a different economic model that is more equitable as well.

Most of our energy in Australia has been transported to power plants after it has been dug up as coal, and that energy production and distribution is controlled by very few entities. They are private companies usually, and it is a vertical supply chain. What we have got now is the opportunity to make that supply chain more horizontal by offering opportunities such as microgrids and the decentralisation of our power grid, which in turn will make for more reliable power sources. We have been embracing that innovation and that infrastructure for the last eight years. We have seen quite a few very, very good examples of where this has worked very well already. The opposition are now talking about time frames rather than the acceptance of renewables, which is a step, but we know that we have had some very great stats – absolutely fantastic stats – when it comes to renewables in our community.

We have heard other people in the house talk about the targets we have set. We set the target of having 65 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035, and when we set a target, we hit it. We have got the runs on the board there. We smashed our 2020 renewable energy target of 25 per cent, and we have increased our 2030 target from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. We have supported the targets with the policies and the promotions that I have spoken about before.

The Victorian renewable energy target auction was the largest of its type and the first of its type in Australia. It launched and supported five projects that are providing up to 800 megawatts of new capacity in the system. As I said before, on the actual figure for rooftop solar in Victoria, more than 200,000 households have been able to be helped to get solar on their roofs through the actions of this government. As a result, this government has been able to provide Victoria with more than triple the amount of renewable energy generation since we were elected in 2014. We have tripled renewable energy into the system since 2014. As the share of renewables increases – as it will, and we know this from the story globally – there are new opportunities for energy storage solutions. That is why our renewable energy targets are supported by Australia’s biggest energy storage targets: at least 2.6 gigawatts of energy storage capacity in Victoria by 2030 and 6.3 gigawatts by 2035.

Now, we know from other speakers that there are plenty of good examples overseas of how the renewable transition can take place. I think we a re on a good pathway. One writer Anna Leidreiter, who is the senior program manager for climate and energy at the World Future Council and a member of the Global 100% Renewable Energy Platform, brings to bear a few case studies that are really interesting. One of them is Frankfurt in Germany. Her case studies talk as much about renewable generation of electricity as they do about changing economies and economic models. By 2050 Frankfurt will produce 100 per cent of its local energy from local and regional renewable sources, bringing down its current energy import costs of €2 billion a year to zero. According to Leidreiter:

Thanks to its public local utility which drives this transition, the city … not only benefits from these savings but … generates additional income in the form of revenues and tax incomes. By prioritizing energy production from within the city and … the surrounding region – while still being connected to the larger national grid – the money will stay in the region. Energy efficiency measures have saved Frankfurt €100 million in energy costs, a number that is projected to rise … the city has reduced emissions by 15% since 1990, while its economy grew by 50% for its … 715,000 inhabitants.

Vancouver, Canada, also gets a shout-out. One city leading the movement in North America is Vancouver. Widely recognised as the most livable city in the world, its environmental footprint is currently three times larger than it can sustain. Former Mayor Robertson and his team were committed to changing this by putting the city back on track to become the greenest in the world by 2050. Vancouver will obtain 100 per cent of the energy it uses from renewable resources and emit 80 per cent fewer greenhouse gases than in 2007.

I bring these case studies up because sometimes I feel like there are some of us that are not actually seeing the global trend to maintain energy production. If we keep on going down a coal path – we basically cannot; there is just no choice. As far as members from the opposition today also talking about businesses moving out of Victoria, I would ask them to have a look at some of the economic data coming out of Victoria – the actual data. Have a look at consumer sentiment. Have a look at the NAB business survey, where Victoria is actually climbing more than the nation as a percentage. In that, the bill is very commonsense. It really has three components, and I commend it to the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Laverton.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition did not stand.

John Pesutto: I move that debate be adjourned, Deputy Speaker, and we proceed to debate notice of motion –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition did not stand. The call does go from side to side, and I did wait a little bit before. The member for Laverton has the call.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I was walking into the chamber. I saw the Leader of the Opposition speak.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition was going to stand. It is a convention of this place that the speaking opportunity moves from side to side, and I would say to ensure that the house remains in order that convention be upheld.

Paul Edbrooke: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member well knows that in the standing orders there is no presumption for someone that might stand up. The member had the call quite clearly. No-one on the opposition side was standing up, and we should not presume that they were going to stand up.

Emma Kealy: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, I clearly saw –

A member interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Without assistance.

Emma Kealy: You should read up the books and then you might know a little bit better, and the people behind you might not think –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I remind members that referring to ‘you’ is referring to the Chair. I understand the Leader of the Opposition’s and the Manager of Opposition Business’s point of order. If the member does not stand to make the call, is given time and another member seeks the call, no-one else stands and I make the call for that member, it is done. I have ruled on the point of order. I appreciate the position you make, and I presume that you will stand when the member’s time is completed. The member for Laverton has the call.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:49): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I will start by being quite humble and putting forward –

Members interjecting.

Sarah CONNOLLY: The toys are really out of the sandpit there, aren’t they?

I will start my contribution by saying that I am all too excited to stand up time and time again in this place to talk about energy legislation coming before this house, which at the moment feels like every single sitting week. Sitting here, I did look to the other side – who were busy walking in and talking to each other – and felt like I was doing a little bit of a favour by standing and taking the call for those on the other side, who often do not make any contribution to this house on what can only be described as important, essential bills of legislative reform that come before us time and time again.

It is also quite amusing that only last sitting week I was again standing here and reflecting on the amount of energy legislation that has been pumped through this Parliament time and time again in the five years that I have been here. No sooner had I spoken than yet another energy bill like this one was introduced into this Parliament. Indeed I do think someone, probably me, should keep count of them so that when I stand up here again to talk about them I can reflect on how many bills just in the last measly old five years that I have been here have come before us that I have chosen to speak on.

What is entirely clear to me and my community is that Victorians know that when our government, the Andrews Labor government, talks about energy it has a strong track record. We have a strong energy policy that has grown and evolved naturally upon each reform and each success. In fact it is in quite stark contrast to the previous Commonwealth government. Only now that there is a Labor government sitting up in Canberra is the Commonwealth government developing a strong, coherent energy policy. It is something that the energy industry has been crying out for for a very, very long time.

It might also be a surprise to some of us that we have not been sitting around here since our government was elected in 2014, but we have had one minister for energy and climate change. I have said time and time again to colleagues on this side of the chamber, and indeed to my circle of friends, that the true change in this state around climate change and around energy policy, which was crying out to be reformed when we came to government in 2014, has been done incredibly well by having a minister who has been dedicated to that portfolio during four years in opposition and in the almost nine years that we have been in government. What is incredible about the Minister for Energy and Resources and Minister for Climate Action is her record and her projected record in this place.

Emma Kealy interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Member for Lowan, I love the fact that you are at least sitting there listening to my speech when so many of your colleagues again appear not to be here in this chamber. They were certainly not present for you when you stood up and spoke.

Jess Wilson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I feel the member was using reflections on the Chair.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would encourage members not to use the word ‘you’ unless they are referring to the Chair, and I call the member back to the bill.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It is so lovely to be interrupted by the member for Kew – thank you for that – because in the next part of this contribution I did want to point out that in the time shared between our government and your friends in the previous federal government in Canberra they had three energy ministers, not one – and one of them was not actually an energy minister – and 20 different energy policies.

Peter Walsh interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Oh, dear. Some might call that trying pretty hard in my patch.

Of course we saw similar paralysis under the previous state government, which let energy companies run rampant in this state and allowed prices – member for Lowan – to increase by 35 per cent and doubled the amount of disconnections. The difference between us in this space cannot be starker. As someone who worked in this industry for many, many, many years, let me tell you that the change of government has made a world of difference for Victorians. Victorian consumers – Victorian mums and dads, folks – whether you are in the western suburbs, the south-east or the north, wherever you are here in Victoria, we have been busy getting on and making a world of difference for Victorians. They were doing it tough; some of them still are. In extreme cases they were freezing in their homes. They had no gas, they had no electricity because, member for Lowan, the power companies were disconnecting them. That is what was going on –

Members interjecting.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Not as easily as when you were previously here.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Laverton.

Sarah CONNOLLY: The purpose of this particular piece of legislation today relates to the retailer reliability obligation, the RRO. The RRO ensures that electricity retailers and large energy users have the capacity needed to meet demand forecasts. This is based on the Australian Energy Market Operator long-term reliability outlook, made available through the electricity statement of opportunities. What this does is let us know when new capacity is needed on the network to meet potential gaps in the network, most importantly, ahead of time. Where there is a projected gap at least three years and three months away, there is an option to trigger the RRO. Until recently this trigger was only available to AEMO. Last year these trigger powers extended to state and territory ministers under the National Electricity Law.

What this bill does, in particular with the RRO, is provide additional criteria and, importantly, safeguards for when these decisions are made. It clarifies that the minister must consult with AEMO, the Australian Energy Regulator, the Premier and the Treasurer before triggering the RRO. In addition to this, the bill provides that a statement of reasons must be published outlining why the trigger was used. But let us be clear: the event of capacity storage is something that we should all try to avoid. The RRO provides long-term planning supports, which are more important with the shift to renewable energy. It is a just-in-case measure that is only to be used as a last resort when the market is not able to respond to a projected gap.

We hear all the time from – I will call them naysayers about how this transition is going to lead to mass blackouts and that we will not be able to keep the lights on. That really is fearmongering in our community, because, let us face it, the energy sector is a really, really complex sector and complex industry. What we have been able to do in Victoria is increase the capacity of our electricity network. In fact since 2014 we have tripled it. We added approximately 800 megawatts of energy through the first Victorian renewable energy target auction, and our second auction will bring forward an extra 623 megawatts of new renewable energy generation capacity and an additional 365 megawatts of new battery storage. Thanks to our government’s flagship Solar Homes program, which is something that folks in my electorate and particularly in Truganina in my previous electorate in Tarneit in the outer west have taken to with open arms, rooftop solar has been able to generate nearly five times the power generated by gas, and I expect the gap will continue to widen.

In the 60 seconds I have left to make a contribution – and I can see the house quickly filling up; the person going right after me must be incredibly important in this place – I will say that this bill may be small in scope and deliver a few small changes, but it continues to build on our government’s record on creating a fairer electricity network. This is another really important legislative reform: a bill that has come before this house that is all about improving electricity, electricity supply and capacity for Victorians here in this state. The minister has done an incredible job, including in her four years in opposition before coming to government in 2014, in specialising in this area of energy industry and climate change that she wanted to make reform in. Each and every time we are here in this place there are incredible bills before this place that come out of her portfolio. I wholeheartedly commend the bill to the house.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (10:59): I move:

That debate be adjourned.

And that we move to notice of motion 40 on the notice paper, being:

That this house:

notes the worrying, but deeply important, findings of the Australian Jewish University Experience Survey;

affirms our bipartisan commitment to fighting antisemitism; and

calls on the Minister for Education to bring university vice-chancellors, Jewish students and leaders together to work towards a solution.

This is a really important motion that we strongly believe should be debated in this house immediately. We all stand, I would hope I can say without any hesitation or doubt – all of us in this house stand – against any form of racism. Certainly antisemitism remains a challenge in our community, despite all that we are committed collectively to doing to make sure that all peoples, no matter what their backgrounds, have opportunities in this great state and this great country. But this report raises very serious issues, and just in general terms it is very troubling that the findings show that 64 per cent of students have experienced antisemitism in our universities. That is a finding which ought to be of concern to all members of this house. Of these students 88 per cent have experienced antisemitism in the last 12 months, 57 per cent of students have hidden their Jewish identity to avoid antisemitism and one in five have avoided campus altogether. Now, I think we would all stand in unison in expressing our concern about that, and if that is happening in our universities – as it clearly is – then we need to take very urgent action to address that.

The types of antisemitic behaviour that we are seeing vary but can involve such scenarios as students seeing comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany or someone denying or minimising the Holocaust, which is deeply offensive and deeply hurtful. There is also a concern that I want to express that so many students have a lack of faith in the complaints process itself at many universities, and the report reveals findings that 81 per cent of students who have experienced antisemitism in the last 12 months did not make a complaint. Some of the reasons for not making a complaint include these: they did not believe it would make a difference; they thought the university would not take it seriously; they did not even know where to complain to; and they thought the process was too complex. Sixty-one per cent of students who complained at universities were dissatisfied with the outcome, and only 37 per cent of students have faith in the complaints process. That reveals an extent of dissatisfaction with processes in our universities which should be first class – world class – and achieve benchmarks. All students should feel safe. When we look at some of the lived experience of these students it is deeply troubling. According to one student, as part of the report’s findings:

Almost every day I attend University, I see/hear/witness one or more antisemitic groups or antisemitic incidents … These range from comments like ‘Nazis were good people’, which was made by an Arts faculty chief examiner … to being doing that I would not be welcome in a mainstream progressive club because I am a Zionist.

Another said:

A person in my class heiled Hitler to me and not a single professor, tutor or student did anything. The uni needs to step up.

Another:

The anti-Israel narrative is so overwhelmingly strong on my university campus that I always hide this part of my Jewish identity … I would be nervous about being present at a Jewish society event if an Israeli flag was displayed.

A final example:

It is very difficult to be a Jewish student at university, especially with regard to non-Jewish people minimising or gaslighting you when you call something antisemitic … [Staff and other students] feel that they have the right to define antisemitism and fail to listen to Jewish students. Universities need to be held accountable … [Universities] must listen to Jewish voices, as they do any other minority group.

What I would say is that you can see from what I have highlighted in my comments this morning that there is a concern amongst students that they do not have the supports in our universities that they need. Antisemitism is a most insidious form of racism. It is not the only kind, but it calls on us as a Parliament to take prompt action. We cannot have students in this situation feeling like they cannot even attend classes and having doubts, feeling that when they are faced with antisemitic experiences they have got no-one to turn to. People of all races, all backgrounds, all religions and all ethnicities in our great state must feel supported, and we have a group here expressed in the findings of the Australian Jewish University Experience Survey that are calling on us to take prompt action. That is why debate needs to be adjourned.

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Medical Research) (11:04): I rise to oppose the motion, not because of the content of the motion – I want to be extremely clear about that, and indeed it is why I am determined to provide the Leader of the Opposition with some largesse to talk about these very serious issues, understanding of course that this is indeed a narrow procedural debate. But it is important that I put on the record that leave was sought for this motion yesterday. It was not given at that time.

Last night I received a letter, as Leader of the House, from the member for Caulfield, and he and I corresponded. I indicated to the member for Caulfield that we had a full agenda and that it was not possible to include this motion at this time. But I did note – and I want to also make sure that this goes on the record – in my response to the member for Caulfield that I was pleased to see his affirmation of our absolute bipartisan commitment to fighting antisemitism. We know that antisemitic behaviour is always harmful. We have zero tolerance for it as a government, and we as a government work very closely with representatives of Victoria’s Jewish community to do all we can to stamp out antisemitism, to stamp out racism, to stamp out this terrible discrimination and these hateful and very frightening and disturbing behaviours. I think we have demonstrated our commitment through a number of legislative reforms that we are bringing to this house.

However, I want to make the point that there is a place and a time and a way to do these things. Our government will always stand ready to work with the member for Caulfield and with the member for Box Hill, both of whom are strong members of Victoria’s proud Jewish community, both of whom advocate strongly on behalf of those communities and both of whom we all stand in solidarity with in our commitment to defeat antisemitism here. There is a way, a time and a place to progress policy reform and to respond to reports, and it is not by theatrics like we just saw from the Leader of the Opposition in relation to the way he behaved earlier when he was not given the call. So I just –

James Newbury interjected.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: No, I am making the point that there is a time and a place and a way. If you are serious, that is how you do it. Now, the member for Caulfield was clear, because I wrote to him and told him that we would not be able to do that today. But we stand ready, as always, to do all we can as a government to support Victoria’s proud Jewish community. To suggest otherwise is incorrect, it is distasteful and it is simply untrue. It is disingenuous and it is untrue.

We will be opposing this motion on the basis that I have already communicated and made the government’s position clear to the opposition – now on two occasions – that we would not within this parliamentary sitting have the space to be able to debate this important motion. But I extend on behalf of the government the opportunity for the member for Caulfield, in particular, who would be welcome. I know the Minister for Multicultural Affairs is sitting here at the table. But our government stands ready to take action in response to antisemitic behaviour wherever it happens in our state, including on our university campuses. And I make the point that it is actually the Minister for Training and Skills in the other place who is the minister who is most appropriate perhaps to have this conversation. But I also recognise that we have had challenges in our schools and we need to – (Time expired)

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (11:10): I rise to speak in support of notice of motion 40:

That this house:

(a) notes the worrying, but deeply important, findings of the Australian Jewish University Experience Survey;

(b) affirms our bipartisan commitment to fighting antisemitism; and

(c) calls on the Minister for Education to bring university vice-chancellors, Jewish students and leaders together to work towards a solution.

I acknowledge the Leader of the House’s comments today. I know the Manager of Opposition Business will be speaking shortly and also will talk very supportively about this and, most importantly, about their steadfast support for the Jewish community in combating antisemitism. Combating antisemitism has always been an issue in this Parliament that has been supported in a bipartisan way. I acknowledge, I respect and I support that. I want to put on record the work that the member for Box Hill has done in this area with me as Parliamentary Friends of Israel co-chair. There are a number, including the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, the member for Bentleigh and the member for Albert Park, on the other side of the house that have spoken solidly in support of the community. I respect that, and I want to put that on the record.

I want to make the point that when I wrote to the Leader the House last night calling for this to be urgently put on the notice paper today I did it because there is nothing more urgent than talking about antisemitism on campus. We have spent time in this chamber on notices of motion congratulating the government on level crossing removals. It is not that they are not important, but when something like this comes to the Parliament as a report or comes to the state – in this case it was actually to the whole of Australia. When a Jewish university experience survey that ultimately says that Jewish students do not feel safe on campus – when a report like that comes to light – the Parliament need to respond, and we need to come together to debate it. We have adjourned off business on many occasions before to debate things that are important. I would put to the house that there is nothing more important than to talk about this today, and that is why, even though the Leader of the House did not grant me leave to do it in an orderly manner yesterday, I have sought as my only option to raise it today.

I do take up the offer, and I will certainly be working with the government in any way that we can to look at the intention of this motion, because the intention of the motion is to put a taskforce together in a bipartisan way to tackle the problem at hand. We have an International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition that has been accepted by Melbourne and Monash universities, and we are working with other universities to get that accepted. More importantly, it is an IHRA definition that has been accepted in a bipartisan way in the federal Parliament and here in a bipartisan manner in state Parliament. This is an IHRA definition that actually explains how we define antisemitism. We need to ensure the university campuses uphold that. At the moment students do not feel safe. It is appalling to know that 64 per cent of students have experienced antisemitism. Of these, 88 per cent have experienced antisemitism in the last 12 months, 57 per cent have hidden their Jewish identity to avoid antisemitism and – this is disgraceful – one in five students have avoided campus altogether. This must stop. We must work in solidarity to ensure this is stamped out, and we must bring together the university heads to work towards combating this.

Eleven years ago in this Parliament, under the former minister Martin Dixon, we brought nine universities together to discuss this very matter. There were a number of important issues that started it. I am very sorry to say that we are back where we were 11 years ago. This problem has not gone away. This problem, unfortunately, is continuing to get worse, and that is why this Parliament must work together. I look forward to working with the Premier, who I have also written to, along with the Minister for Higher Education and the Minister for Education, because there are a lot of issues in the primary and secondary schools as well, as we absolutely know.

Finally, I want to thank the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Australasian Union of Jewish Students for the work that they have done, and Paris Enten, Noah Loven, Bren Carlill, Jeremy Leibler and Zeddy Lawrence, who are all with us today and who have all done an amazing job. I know Alissa Foster from AUJS as well has done an amazing job bringing this issue to light. We will not stop until we stand up for students that are experiencing these issues.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (11:15): I stand to speak on the procedural motion. I would just like to point out the respectful way that this notice of motion has been spoken about by all members of the chamber so far. I do not think there is anyone in this house that believes we should have anything other than zero tolerance for antisemitism or racism; I think we can all agree on that. This procedural motion is not about that, though. This procedural motion is really asking the question: in a full government business program planned for the week, should we interrupt business? Last night the decision was made not to do that, and we are here again today to debate what has already been answered.

As far as our solidarity on this issue goes, again, I do not think anyone would question that. It was only in the previous budget that $3 million was funded towards an antisemitism campaign, which was an election commitment of the Andrews Labor government. Also, this is the government that banned Nazi symbols. We know there is more work to do. No-one is saying there is not more work to do in this area – whether it be education, whether it be awareness, whether it be action – but the decision was made last night that we would continue with the government business program. This government does stand ready to work unwaveringly with the Monash University and other vice-chancellors to make sure that everyone in this community feels welcome and that we can fight this scourge, but at the moment we should be sticking to the government business program as planned.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (11:16): Today is an important, necessary, timely and urgent opportunity to debate an issue that needs to be debated today. The house does need to adjourn debate on the bill that it has been debating yesterday afternoon and this morning – we have had two separate days of debate on this bill – to debate this absolutely urgent issue. It is an urgent issue because antisemitism is not only a scourge in our community but it is a rising scourge in our community. It is not just a rising scourge in our community, it is now a daily event in Victoria – and it is just not okay.

In the last week we have seen, both in terms of objective reporting and incidents occurring, some of the most hurtful, upsetting, distressing things happening in our state, things that I would hope and feel sure none of us in this place would ever want to have happen or would ever tolerate. But it is not okay to just see those things happen – we need to stand up when they happen, especially like they have over the last week, and speak strongly about it.

We have seen an incident on a bus in the bayside region where schoolchildren were involved – a scary, violent incident. As a parent it just breaks my heart to think what those children went through. We have seen a bayside non-government school deal with an issue with one of their students’ behaviour on a Zoom call. We know there are issues in schools. We know that from not just this incident but numerous incidents over time. It is not just an issue for government schools; this is an issue for schools – we know that – but we know that we have seen a horrific incident in the last week.

My colleague recently spoke on the results of the Australian Jewish university survey. Those findings, frankly, should not only concern every member of this place but make them recognise the need to deal with these matters, speak to these matters, call out these matters and make sure something is done about them. They are findings that we cannot accept as Victorians – we just cannot accept them as Victorians. It is so upsetting to know that two-thirds of Jewish students have experienced antisemitism at university, but that reflects what is happening more broadly. I have spoken previously about the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s antisemitism reports each year, and its most recent report shows a 7 per cent increase overall in reports just in this most recent reporting period, but we see it each and every year. Each and every year we see an increase, a significant increase, and it is not okay. But neither is not doing enough about it.

I say to the government that I recognise the financial commitment made in the most recent budget, the $3 million. I recognise that commitment, and that is an important commitment, but no money as I understand it has been spent yet. So I would say to the government: I look forward to seeing announcements in relation to committing that money to important projects that actually take action. It is not good enough to just allocate money, we also need to spend it, targeted to where it is needed. So I would say to the house that this is an important motion, a motion that we gave notice of, that we spoke about, that we sought an opportunity to move, and today should be an opportunity for all of us to not only stand up against antisemitism but also stand up against the hurtful, upsetting incidents of the last week and call them out as a Parliament in a bipartisan way.

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:21): I will note at the start of this contribution that the usual narrowness of a procedural debate on the adjournment of an item has been somewhat relaxed in this particular procedural debate, and that is probably a fair thing. I think both sides of the house would agree that the sensitivity and the importance of this issue probably warrant us being a little bit more relaxed in terms of how we apply the standing orders of this place to this particular discussion, and I commend members on both sides of the house for the way in which the conversation on this issue has been conducted. As has been mentioned, the scourge of antisemitism needs to be approached in a bipartisan way, and I am sure that every member who is in this house at this point in time is a strong advocate for us to take every step we can to fight that scourge of antisemitism.

It is important, in terms of some of the issues that have been raised by members, to think of the banning of the Nazi Hakenkreuz, which is a significant step forward – one step forward – in trying to stop that hateful symbol being used in a way that has such a negative impact on so many people, particularly of course those people from the Jewish community. When we think about the rollout of the banning of that symbol, there was a very strong consultation process and engagement with a number of communities – not only the Jewish community but also the Hindu, the Buddhist and the Jain communities, who were so supportive of the Jewish community and the objective of that ban. It was a difficult process also because that symbol has long had a religious meaning for those communities. So there is a consultation process and a funded education campaign within communities and within Victoria Police about the appropriate way to ensure that the hateful use of the symbol by Nazis is targeted so that people who are legitimately concerned about its use in peaceful ways in terms of their religion are not in an unintended way restricted from observing that symbol. I just want to make the point that it is important to step through these things carefully and make sure that we have broad support for these sorts of changes, and we have announced further the banning of the Nazi salute. That will be another careful piece of work that we work through with the community.

Members have mentioned the $3 million commitment to the campaign against antisemitism, which was an election commitment and has been funded in the recent budget. I want to thank the peak Jewish community organisations, who have been so constructive in working with government to put forward a very pragmatic and powerful approach to the application of those funds. I am looking forward to having more to say about that very soon. I want to thank the team at the Holocaust museum, who do an amazing job educating our schoolchildren, and anything we can do to support the way they educate children about the Holocaust and the way in which hateful ideologies can impact societies will be something we would be very keen to support.

Further to that, it is also important to recognise the work that is being undertaken in terms of the strengthening and the broadening of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001, a piece of work that is being led by the Attorney-General but my department is engaged in the early consultation work with the justice department to ensure that again the changes that we make in terms of the progress of that particular piece of really important reform – we know that we need to strengthen and broaden that piece of legislation – are done in a way that takes community with us and does not have unintended consequences.

I thank the Leader of the Opposition, I think it was, that moved the adjournment motion today for the way in which he has raised this matter. As the Leader of the House has indicated, the house has an agenda set forward, but I am certainly happy to engage with members on either side of the house around our pathway forward on some of the issues that have been raised. I would be very happy to discuss with the relevant minister that is mentioned in the motion, the Minister for Education – I think it is the Minister for Training and Skills that is probably the relevant minister – about the subject matter in the motion that is preferred to be debated by those opposite.

Assembly divided on John Pesutto’s motion:

Ayes (24): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Annabelle Cleeland, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Jess Wilson

Noes (54): Juliana Addison, Colin Brooks, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Darren Cheeseman, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Gabrielle de Vietri, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Martha Haylett, Sam Hibbins, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Lauren Kathage, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Tim Pallas, Danny Pearson, Tim Read, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Ellen Sandell, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Emma Vulin, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Gabrielle Williams, Belinda Wilson

Motion defeated.

Steve McGHIE (Melton) (11:32): I rise to contribute to the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. Firstly, I just want to thank the minister –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Could members please leave the chamber quickly and quietly. I also ask members not to have conversations in front of the mace.

Steve McGHIE: Thank you, Speaker. I just want to extend my thanks to Minister D’Ambrosio for her work in this space. We know of the work that she has done over many years and what she has delivered to this house. It feels like every fortnight we are here talking about updating and modifying the legislation around energy and safety regulation, and that is a testament to the sheer volume of the work that not only the minister does but her office and her staff do. Of course we are coordinating the fastest transition from old technology to new and trying to make it as smooth as possible.

But before I talk further about the bill, I just want to make an acknowledgement of National Science Week. I do not want it to go unmentioned, and I think this is an opportunity. From our agritech farmers across the country to the sports scientists who help our athletes – we saw that in action last night with the Matildas, and what a fantastic effort it was, even though unfortunately they did not win – and the people that generate our electricity and the science behind that, and to those that are working in all the new technological evolution areas, including the mechanics that build our planes and cars and vehicles, and on all the innovative ways of protecting and prolonging our lives, we cannot thank our scientists enough in this country. We are very fortunate to have them and of course the next generation that is coming through in our science fields. So, thank you, in National Science Week.

I will go on to the legislation. This Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 is a comprehensive piece of legislation, and it is aimed at bolstering the regulatory framework for electricity and gas in Victoria. Through amendments to the National Electricity (Victoria) Act 2005 and the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008 and its proposed modifications, it will provide increased safeguards for energy consumers and offer greater predictability for those participating in the energy market.

This bill will modify the National Electricity (Victoria) Act to establish specific controls for the retailer reliability obligation – the RRO. The RRO is activated when a projected electricity supply shortage of three or more years is identified, compelling retailers to secure sufficient electricity to fulfil consumer demand and encourage increased supply. The phrase ‘More renewables and more storage means more reliability’ – or MRAMSMMR, as it is known in my office – is an important touchstone for our vision for a sustainable, dependable and resilient energy future. The RRO is the key component to ensuring the safety net for energy supply, and the RRO comes into play only when the market does not naturally respond to projected reliability gaps. As I say, it is a just-in-case mechanism in regard to the commitment to energy security. The RRO is a pivotal component of our national energy landscape and, again, in 2019 it emerged on the national stage. The power to trigger it was initially vested with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), and if we move forward from 2019 to 2022 – which no doubt few people would like to remember – the trigger mechanism was extended to encompass state and territory energy ministers, marking a notable expansion in its scope. Of course the authority for the Victorian energy minister to initiate the RRO has already been incorporated into our national legislative framework.

The bill amends the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008, and it empowers the Australian Energy Regulator with higher penalties for non-compliance by participants in Victoria’s wholesale gas market. This aligns Victoria’s penalties with those in other east coast gas markets, and it deters non-compliance with regulations, safeguarding local energy consumers. It also includes minor revisions of the national gas act 2008 by updating references to the Essential Services Commission’s Gas Distribution System Code of Practice. That refinement ensures accurate interpretation of the code as stated in the national gas act 2008, enhancing clarity in the process.

Our commitment to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness in energy decisions has led us to this point, the introduction of this Energy Legislation Amendment Bill. This proposed legislation is designed to infuse additional layers of decision-making criteria and consultation safeguards into Victorian law. It underscores our dedication to both energy consumers and market participants, and it gives us some confidence to have bills such as this and the extra layers of protection. The aim clearly is to instil confidence that any decision to activate the RRO is founded on justifiable grounds.

A key facet of this amendment involves meticulous consultation and extensive consultation before triggering any RRO. Of course the minister will engage in meaningful discussions with pivotal stakeholders. They can include representatives from AEMO, the Australian Energy Regulator, the Premier, the Treasurer and so on. By seeking input from these key stakeholders, we will ensure that the decision to activate the RRO is firmly rooted in the most current and relevant data available. Once it has been set in motion, we will go further than previous governments in ensuring transparency in all of our actions. A statement of reasons, obviously, will be made public. It will be publicly available. It will be offering a comprehensive explanation for any decision taken, and the commitment to openness underscores our dedication to upholding accountability and fostering trust among all Victorians.

Our strides towards reliability are rooted in our government’s robust energy agenda, one that has been born out of remarkable success. Our ambitious renewable energy targets have paved the way for transformative change and are setting the stage for investors. Our aim is to achieve 65 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030 and a remarkable 95 per cent by 2035. That will be some achievement.

I just want to come back a bit and reflect on our track record. We have exceeded our 2020 renewable energy target of 25 per cent. Of course we have had to go back and increase our 2030 target from 50 per cent to an even more ambitious 65 per cent, and we have championed these targets with policies – good policies – that have actively encouraged the deployment of new renewable energy capacity. It is an amazing effort already achieved in this state. We have seen terrific results and very tangible results. The Victorian renewable energy target auctions have catalysed the creation of 800 megawatts of new capacity, and the second auction, VRET 2, will bring forth 623 megawatts of renewable generation and up to 365 megawatts of battery energy storage.

At the grassroots level – we should say at the rooftops level, not the grassroots level – the $1.3 billion Solar Homes program has empowered over 200,000 households to embrace rooftop solar, and we see, even driving around the different electorates and suburbs, how many houses are now fitting rooftop solar. It is amazing to see. I know, driving around my electorate, more and more households are installing that rooftop solar. Of course we have invested $540 million for a Renewable Energy Zone Fund, and that is a fantastic effort in upgrading our grid to unlock further capacity.

This is a really important bill. It just adds to previous energy bills that the minister has introduced and implemented. Again, we are leading the way in this country in regard to energy and renewable energy, and I commend another great bill to the house.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (11:42): I rise to make a contribution on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. As has already been talked about, this puts in place a number of market mechanisms to help guarantee the supply of electricity into the future for Victorian consumers. Those on the other side of the house have been quite vocal in their self-praise about how they have managed the energy supply here in Victoria, in both electricity and gas, and been, I think, almost misleading about particularly the impact it has had on Victorian consumers. The policy decisions of the Andrews government are what have driven up the price of electricity and driven up the price of gas in Victoria to the point where –

Members interjecting.

Peter WALSH: No, the cost-of-living crisis is real. Those on the other side can laugh about families that are having to make decisions between paying their power bill, paying for their kids at school –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

Peter WALSH: No, some are laughing, and I think that is despicable. For a party that purports to represent working families to actually be laughing about the fact that people in Victoria are facing a cost-of-living crisis is wrong. The cost of energy has gone up. The cost of groceries has gone up. The cost of lots of things have gone up, and a lot of that comes back to policy decisions of the Andrews government and particularly the policy decisions around energy here in Victoria.

If you go back to when coal royalties tripled overnight, which is what led to the closure of Hazelwood, that was the start of some of these issues. It was a policy decision at that time by the Treasurer to triple coal royalties. That led Engie to make a decision to close Hazelwood, which took that supply out, and that has progressed on. There have been policy decisions that have meant that the production of coal-powered electricity is not as competitive at certain times in the market, so coal power generators are making economic decisions to exit the industry sooner than they would have. That has put the pressure on to have more renewable energy. That has put the pressure on to build huge transmission lines across part of Victoria, and I will come back to that. So it is policy decisions of the government that drive these cost pressures that are going back onto Victorian families and onto Victorian businesses, because ultimately every decision that the government is making in this area goes into the bills that a household pays or into the bills that a business pays for delivery of the services for Victoria.

We talk about the increase in grocery costs for the average household. Food manufacturers and food producers here in Victoria are having a huge increase to the cost of their gas. A lot of food manufacturers use large quantities of gas. As their contracts run out – the protection they had under a contracted price for gas – you find their gas prices are doubling and tripling. That is flowing through to the price of groceries, as is the cost of electricity for those manufacturers as well, particularly when it comes to refrigeration and freezers. It is government policy decisions that are having a major impact on the cost of living for Victorians. There is a role for government in ensuring the provision of the basic needs to sustain a family, be it food, be it housing, be it health services, be it education or be it community safety, and one of those needs is to have the heating and cooling that people need to maintain their lives, and that is why it is so important to have guarantee of supply into the future.

My observation on this piece of legislation would be that it shifts responsibility from government to the generators – the suppliers – and the large users of power to make sure there is power into the future, whereas at one time that was an issue for government. No doubt at some stage there will be stress on the system given the way the system is evolving, and if there is not enough power under this, the government will point to the energy producers or will point to the large consumers and say, ‘This is your fault. It’s not our fault’. For the government to trigger the retailer reliability obligation, they will blame someone else. As we know, with the Andrews government it is always someone else’s fault why something goes wrong, and that is one of the concerns that I would raise with this legislation, although we are supporting the legislation because it is needed. It transfers some of the responsibility to ensure there is sufficient power supply here in Victoria from government to the energy producers and to the large consumers so that they have to have a plan in place to make sure there is enough power.

I come back to the issue with the increase in renewable energy production in Victoria and the east coast of Australia. There is this issue of needing new transmission lines or upgraded transmission lines to transmit that power to where it is needed to be consumed here in Victoria in our case, and that comes back to the VNI West proposal, which a number of my communities have grave concerns about. They do not believe that the government has gone through sufficient consultation with that community. They do not believe they have done the analytical work to justify the decision to build that particular project, which is going to cost something like $5 billion. As I said before, that cost will go back to household power bills, and that is where I have a concern. Every decision that is made sounds great – a great engineering project that supposedly is going to generate all these jobs in the building of it – but it is ultimately the power consumers of Victoria that are going to pay for that particular project.

The concerns that have been raised with me from those in my electorate that are affected by this project are that they do not believe the minister has done enough analytical work to justify that project over some of the alternatives that are on the table, and that was the question that I asked the minister in this place on Tuesday following the demonstration out the front. One of the things that I noted with that demonstration is that there is now a new generation of younger farmers who are becoming very politically active because they see their livelihoods and their quality of life being threatened by policy decisions of the Andrews government and a lack of true analysis as to whether that is the best project to build or whether the proposal put forward by the Victorian Energy Policy Centre – the upgrade of the existing major transmission lines across north-west Victoria – would be far more economical and deliver a better outcome for power consumers in Victoria because there would be not the increase in the price of power due to the VNI West project. And it would have a more positive impact on the quality of life for people that live in regional Victoria because the powerlines would be where there are existing powerlines at the moment.

Emma Kealy: And more renewables.

Peter WALSH: And opening up for more renewables. I know in my community, particularly in Gannawarra shire, there are groups of farmers that are coming together and talking to the renewable energy companies and offering up their land to be part of this, and they need access to the transmission lines to be able to build those projects and feed it in. There is a strong view from regional Victorians that they want to be part of the future and part of the transition, but they want to be shown the respect and be talked to in a meaningful way about what this means, what is going to be in it for their community and what is going to be in it for them as businesspeople if these projects go through, and that is not happening.

I attended a forum at Wedderburn, where the Australian Energy Market Operator was a number of months ago. We raised some very pertinent questions about the technology and how this project was going to unfold, and the constant answer from the ‘gurus’ was, ‘This is too technical to explain to your farmers’. I explained to them that farmers are actually very practical, sensible people; if you show them the respect of talking to them in a sensible way, they will show you the respect of listening and making some value judgements. But when you are told it is too technical and you are not smart enough to understand it, that is the best way to get a farmer’s back up. When you want to access their land, you want to put a big powerline across their land and you want to drive across it every day for months and months or even years in building that particular project, I think they deserve the respect of proper consultation and they deserve the respect of being treated as intelligent people rather than just dumb farmers whose land you are going to put a powerline across.

This particular piece of legislation puts the onus back on the energy producers and the large energy consumers to make sure Victorians have power into the future. That is not a bad thing. But I think we have come to this situation because of previous policy decisions by the Andrews government that have led to the closure of power generation and have meant that we have not had the renewables and particularly have not had the transmission system in place in time to make sure we have enough power into the future. I dread the day we will have to close down industry to make sure we have enough power to keep the air conditioners and the refrigerators going here in Victoria. I dread the day when the bills are going to continue to rise and families in Victoria will be under more cost-of-living pressure than they ever have been.

Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (11:51): I am delighted to rise today to speak on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. This is yet another important bill that we have had come out from the energy portfolio this week, one that will strengthen the electricity and gas regulation frameworks that apply in Victoria by amending the National Electricity (Victoria) Act 2005 and the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008.

I would like to start by commending the Minister for Energy and Resources. As is obvious, energy reform has been a major priority for this government, and we all know how important clean, affordable and reliable energy for all Victorians is. I commend the minister again for bringing this bill forward today, and for the many initiatives that are being delivered for Victorians across the energy portfolio. Last sitting week there was the energy safety legislation, which I had the pleasure of contributing on, and it really seems that there is a steady flow of legislation coming through on energy reform, which is a testament to the hard work of the minister and her team and evidence that there are some really exciting announcements and developments taking place. We have seen some exciting and progressive announcements over the recent days and weeks. Certainly that includes the change to the residential gas connections and the interest-free loans for solar batteries, which I will touch on in just a moment.

I would like to first make the point again here that in Clarinda energy affordability is a major priority for so many families. It is something that is raised with me on a really consistent basis. The power saving bonus take-up data is evidence of that. Just sitting here in this chamber I have had a message from a missed call asking where is the website. I politely said that the fourth round is due on 31 August, so there will be a hurry getting there now. The current round is 31 August, and of course I was delighted to see another round announced in the budget. The uptake has been amazing. The most recent data from 4 August shows more than 19,800 households in Clarinda alone have accessed the bonus, and we estimate there have been another 260 applications in just this week, pushing that up to 20,000, which is tremendous –

A member: Wow!

Meng Heang TAK: Yes, wow. That is over $5 million to support families with the cost of living. So I am really proud of the work the Labor government is doing to help with the cost of living and to make energy more affordable for my constituents and for all Victorians, getting them the best deal on their home energy bills.

As I mentioned, there are also the changes to residential gas connections. We know across the world the cost of gas continues to increase, and in addition there is a great deal of uncertainty around supply. As we have heard, that combination of factors sees Victorians at the mercy of private companies exporting gas overseas, which has a real impact on the cost to Victorians at home. As such, in 2024 planning permits for new homes and residential subdivisions will only connect to all-electric networks, with houses taking advantage of more efficient, cheaper and cleaner electric appliances. This is a fantastic initiative that can be delivered at no extra cost to buyers and will slash around $1000 per year off household energy bills or up to $2200 for households that also have solar installed – such a saving for families with financial, cost-of-living challenges.

In other recent announcements we have made it easier for Victorians to maximise their solar panel generation with the new $8800 interest-free loan for household batteries. Households with both solar and a battery could save up to $1500 on their energy bills each year. A battery will more than double the amount of solar-generated energy consumed in the home, saving money on energy bills and helping Victoria reach net zero emissions by 2045. I have mentioned before that I have had a lot of interest in these announcements through my electorate office already, which is a positive step. It makes sense because it is a really exciting announcement. Loans are repayable over four years and in some cases will reduce up-front installation costs to zero. Loans will be available in addition to the $1400 rebate and $1400 interest-free loan for solar PV if a solar and battery system are installed at the same time, saving eligible households $11,600 on up-front installation costs. That is a huge saving, and one that I am very proud that we are delivering, helping to make this program as accessible as we can. There are often out-of-pocket installation costs, but this is a really significant saving.

We will continue to stand by and deliver for all Victorians on energy reform, and the bill here today is just another example of that. The bill is an omnibus bill. The bill makes three major amendments, which the previous speaker on this side already alluded to, the first being an amendment to the National Electricity (Victoria) Act 2005 to incorporate requirements, procedures and methodologies the responsible minister must comply with when making a T-3 reliability instrument under section 14JA of the National Electricity Law to trigger a retailer reliability obligation – the RRO ministerial trigger. Secondly, there are amendments to the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008 to improve the civil penalty arrangements for a breach of a declared system provision prescribed to be a civil penalty provision under the act. Finally, the bill changes outdated references to the gas distribution system code, which is now known as the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice.

These changes here before us today are mostly technical changes, but they are also welcome changes and ones that have had broad support across the many departments that have been engaged in the consultation process. I support these changes here today, once again. As mentioned, these amendments are mostly technical in nature, but they provide confidence to Victorians that the energy markets are working in their favour.

I would like to thank the minister for bringing this bill forward today and for the many initiatives that are being delivered for Victorians across the energy portfolio, particularly those around the cost of living. I am very proud to be a member of the Andrews Labor government, which continues to support families and individuals that need it in the current economic climate. We know the cost of living continues to be tough on families, and the budget builds on existing support to help with everyday bills. As mentioned, we have funded our fourth round of the power saving bonus, which is due to finish on the 31st of this month, with $250 to help households pay their bills. The electricity discount and winter gas discount for eligible concession card holders are to be continued, as are the Victorian default offer and many others.

More broadly, there is free kinder for three-year-olds and four-years-olds, which will save families up to $2500 per child each year. I know this has been a very welcome initiative. I have a young family, with my Sofia turning three in November this year, and it has come at a very good time. We are expanding free TAFE so that people with higher education qualifications will be able to train for free in skills shortage areas. These continue to be very important initiatives that provide relief where it is needed most, supporting individuals and families with the cost of living. I commend these initiatives, and I commend the bill to the house.

Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (12:01): It is with some pleasure that I rise this morning to make my contribution on the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. I reflect on the elements of this bill but also the profound work that the Andrews Labor government has been putting into the great and significant challenge of decarbonising our economy. In reflecting on what we need to do to decarbonise our economy, we have to reflect on the historic realities in the Victorian economy, particularly in terms of the way that we have historically generated energy in this state. For a significant part of Victoria’s history over the last 100-odd years the reality is that our competitive advantage came from having an abundance of relatively cheap energy. In fact it was a global strength of the Victorian economy. In the 1990s the Kennett government sought to exploit that advantage that the Victorian economy had by taking the opportunity to privatise the energy generation assets of this state, because they were on a course of wanting to privatise and sell off effectively everything that the Victorian government owned and operated to see profits go to shareholders of multinational companies.

Through that period of time, really back to the 1980s, the scientific community were equally starting to realise the challenges that the planet was facing from greenhouse emissions and what that would mean for the future. Now, under Labor governments – and I wish to acknowledge the Bracks government which in so many ways started this journey – there was great recognition that we needed to start partnering with global renewable energy companies to start the journey of generating electricity in this state, generating energy in this state in a way that would offset over time the energy that is produced by coal-fired power stations.

We have seen legislation brought to this place, to this Parliament and indeed to this chamber, over that period of time to put in place the legislative building blocks needed to generate certainty for the private sector to make that massive investment that needs to be made to generate renewable energy in this state. There is a whole lot of reform that we need to put in place to make sure that we have got literally the building blocks to help in that journey to get energy from windy parts of Victoria to consumers. With this Parliament, this government, and right back to the Bracks government, the necessary building blocks, the necessary investment and the necessary public policy have been put in place to enable us to take advantage of the opportunities to pivot to renewable energy and to offset the energy that has been generated historically by principally coal-fired power on the eastern side of the state, in Gippsland and places like that, and over time to pivot away equally from gas.

When you look at energy generation in this state and you compare the carbon emissions per energy unit generated in this state, the highest carbon footprint comes from brown coal. It is important that we in the very first instance pivot away from that, and we are on that journey. Once we have effectively offset that energy generated from brown coal, we need to then take up the next great challenge, which is gas. That is an important journey, but it is a secondary journey. The primary thing that we need to do is coal. But we are also recognising the opportunities to have energy generated in this state in the hands of individuals through having solar and batteries and other energy technologies at a household level, again recognising the opportunities to be investors and help drive down energy costs at the household level. Our minister has done an enormous amount of work, as has the cabinet, as has the Parliament, through the leadership of the Premier, to make sure that we are putting in place those requirements, those opportunities, at a local level.

Globally right now, and it does not matter which country you go to – it does not matter whether it is Europe or North America or the Asia-Pacific region where we exist – there are huge inflationary pressures in the global economy. There are huge inflationary pressures particularly in the basket of inflationary measures that go to effectively energy. In part those inflationary pressures can be seen playing out as a consequence of the challenges that the Ukrainian people are facing in that conflict, and indeed that is fuelling inflationary issues right across the global economy that are playing out here in Victoria and playing out here in Australia.

Pleasingly enough, I think that whilst we have those pressures and those challenges we also as a government have a basket of government-led initiatives that are in place to help households, particularly given those inflationary contexts. Here in Victoria of course we have the power saving bonus, and that is something that has been taken up, I know, very strongly in my electorate. It has been taken up very strongly in the electorates of all of my colleagues, who have been out there promoting the opportunity to go online and to look for cheaper energy and to take advantage of the Andrews Labor government’s $250 power saving bonus. That power saving bonus is helping households right now whilst we have got these huge inflationary pressures in the Victorian economy. I certainly am very, very grateful for that work, and I encourage people to take it up. There are two weeks remaining in which people can go and take advantage of the current instalment of the power saving bonus. This is a long journey, but we are up for that challenge.

Vicki WARD (Eltham) (12:11): I rise, along with my colleagues, to support this and to also talk about our ongoing energy transformation. Like the member for Frankston, I am very glad to see that we are seeing that transition happen with those opposite, where we have got people starting to get on board and recognise the transition that we need to make. It is one thing to be conservative, but you do have to sometimes recognise that change has to happen, because if it does not, you will shrivel up. We have got to transform, we have got to change, which is exactly what we are doing. We need it for our energy reliability and we need it to keep down costs. This is incredibly important. Like the member for Frankston, I am happy to see that we are actually getting on with it and that those opposite are starting to get on board.

What we do not want to do is waste time talking about things like nuclear energy, which is what we have seen from the federal Liberal Party opposition. We have got Peter Dutton out there pushing for nuclear energy and gas to be central to any future government’s energy strategy, and they expect to finalise this before the next federal election. I would caution the federal Leader of the Opposition against this. I think it is one of the many ways that they will see electoral ruination. I do not think there are many people in this country at all that want to see a transition to nuclear energy. We have even had those opposite talk about supporting nuclear energy recently in this place, with the exception of the member for Bulleen, who gave a very passionate speech opposing it. Nuclear energy is not quick to build. There are challenges with nuclear energy, such as waste removal and storage. Nuclear reactors just cannot be built in time for the transition that we need.

Rather than waste time with a nuclear pipedream, we have been investing in a clean energy transition, and this is happening right now. We have got our skates on. We are giving certainty for our economy and industry: 65 per cent of our electricity by 2030 will be renewable and 95 per cent will be renewable by 2035. We have been ambitious with our targets, and we absolutely need to be. If we are going to be a responsible government and if we are going to look after the economy of this state, this is something that we absolutely have to do.

One of the really important areas in which we are investing is batteries. We have got the 30-megawatt Victorian Big Battery, the largest lithium ion battery in the Southern Hemisphere, which took less than a year to build. This is in stark contrast with trying to build a nuclear reactor, which takes more than a decade – and that is assuming you can even get the planning permits to do it. We are also building a 125-megawatt big battery with grid-forming inverters, which will be funded by $119 million from our Renewable Energy Zone Fund; another 100-megawatt battery with grid-forming inverters in Terang, supported through our Energy Innovation Fund; and four batteries totalling 365 megawatts as part of the projects that were successful in the Victorian renewable energy target auction.

As I said earlier, the work we are doing in government is giving certainty to industry. That means that industry also wants to invest, and it is investing in our big batteries. They are developing and operating the 150 megawatt Hazelwood battery energy storage system, which opened in June, and the 350 megawatt Big Battery being developed by EnergyAustralia to support an orderly transition for the closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power station. Industry is getting on board because they know that not only is it the right thing to do, it is where the money is. It is where they are going to have economic certainty.

We are also going gangbusters when it comes to neighbourhood batteries. Victoria is also a leader in neighbourhood-scale batteries, providing nearly $11 million via the neighbourhood battery initiative to explore the potential of technology and to implement projects that benefit Victorian energy users. We are also investing $42 million to install 100 neighbourhood batteries across Victoria, improving energy reliability and providing vital storage capacity for local communities. Our first Victorian renewable energy target auction was the largest of its type in Australia when it launched and supported five projects, totalling 800 megawatts of new capacity. Our second auction will bring forward 623 megawatts of new renewable generation capacity and deliver up to 365 megawatts of new battery energy storage.

This is just what is happening with the big batteries. We have also got our Solar Homes program, which is a $1.3 billion investment, delivering renewables at the household level, and we have already helped over 200 households access rooftop solar. This year rooftop solar has generated nearly five times the power generated by gas in Victoria, and it will keep growing as our 10-year Solar Homes Victoria program continues to roll out.

We have invested $540 million from the Renewable Energy Zone Fund to upgrade our grid and unlock new capacity. These are all things that we have to do to ensure continuity of our energy supply but also support our economy. It is such an important investment, and it is astonishing that conservatives, who see fiscal responsibility as such an important part of who they see themselves to be, struggle to understand the full potential and capacity that is available through the renewable energy sector. As a result of these policies Victoria has more than tripled renewable energy generation since 2014, and it is something that we as a government should be incredibly proud of.

I do want to talk about what is happening around the rest of the world, which the member for South Barwon alluded to just before. Poland is the second-largest consumer of coal in Europe and the second-largest producer of coal, and it is phasing out coal – so too is Germany, which is the highest producer of coal. It has sped up phasing out coal. Brazil is the highest producer of coal in South America, and it is phasing out coal by 2040.

I just want to talk about Colombia, which is the second-highest producer of coal in South America. I will give an example. In February 2020 a small town called La Jagua de Ibirico in northern Colombia experienced dramatic economic and environmental change because their coal mine closed. As the pandemic sunk coal prices internationally, the international giant Glencore closed two coalmines in the area. Since the closure, the environment has improved. There is not coal dust. There is cleaner air. Birds have come back. But jobs have plummeted. Seven thousand workers from a workforce of 7300 lost their jobs, and contractors left town. Nearly 100 restaurants, cafes, hotels and other businesses have closed, the local branch of the country’s biggest coal working union says. As a result, according to the town’s mayor, the municipality has lost 85 per cent of its income. And why? Because they did not have a transition plan. Paola Yanguas Parra, policy and energy transition economist at the Technical University of Berlin’s FossilExit Group, has said about Colombia:

What we’ve seen historically is that when transitions are not planned, the social, economic and cultural repercussions remain for years, and even decades … It’s extremely traumatic.

This is something that this government understood early on. That is why since 2014 we have been investing so heavily in renewables. We have been investing so heavily to ensure that we have a transition plan that will economically and environmentally support this state, and that is exactly what we are doing.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:19): I just want to say a few things on this Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023, not because I am particularly passionate about this piece of legislation but because I have been listening to parts of the contributions from the government members and I just want to place on record a couple of things when it comes to the energy transition. Many of those opposite are talking about it and wanting to highlight the wonderful things that apparently this government is doing. I have heard a number of them talk particularly about ‘We’re building’ – ‘we’ as in the government – ‘We’re building this particular project’ and ‘We’re building this particular battery’. I remind members opposite that most in cases it is not ‘we’. It is not the government and it is not taxpayers that are building this stuff; it is in fact the private sector. They are doing it, yes, in the context of government policy, both state and federal, but they are doing it because they see the opportunities from the commercial sphere.

The second thing that annoys me, and I know it annoys my constituents, is there is so much talk, particularly from the government and from their friends the Greens up the back, about this transition.

A member interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Yes, I thought that might get a mention. But everything that happens with this transition happens out there. It happens out there somewhere else, not in the electorates of Mordialloc, South Barwon, Eltham or any of those. It happens to people in my electorate in the Gippsland South area, in the area of Narracan or in the area of Polwarth. To take it to the nth degree and the actual specifics, when it comes to renewable energy, most particularly wind farms, this government has specifically precluded wind farms from being established in all the areas that the government represents – the Bass Coast, the metropolitan area, the Yarra Valley, the Mornington Peninsula, the Bellarine Peninsula.

Members interjecting.

Danny O’BRIEN: Along the coast there are one or two exceptions. I can see the member for Ripon and the member for Wendouree, but I have not heard those members speak on this issue today. Maybe they have. Constantly we are told that all of these wonderful things are happening, but no-one ever mentions the locals involved in those areas. They do not mention the people in the coal-fired power stations who are going to lose their jobs or who have lost their jobs. They do not mention the people that are having to deal with wind farms. Whether you like them or not, the fact is they divide rural communities because you end up with haves and the have-nots and people that have to put up with the visual intrusion and the noise and the like. They do not talk about the transmission lines. I do not think I have heard anyone mention the transmission lines, despite the fact that we literally had tractors on the front steps of Parliament this week.

Now, these are all things that happen. Whether you have got renewable energy, whether you have got nuclear energy or whether you have got coal, you need transmission lines, and it is not easy. But I would like the government to just sometimes acknowledge that there are people out there, and they are predominantly in the rural and regional areas of the state, that actually host this infrastructure, that actually run these power stations, that actually put up with the wind turbines and that actually have to deal with all these transitions and changes that the government likes to talk about but does not take any responsibility for.

I was at a meeting last Wednesday night at the Giffard West hall with VicGrid. To their credit VicGrid were there talking to the locals about their plans. There are a lot of people who are very stressed there. They have already got dry conditions coming on them. They had Basslink come through 20 years ago, and there was a campaign that they ultimately lost when trying to stop the pylons there. Now they have got another one. They have got uncertainty about what is happening with the offshore wind industry and where the transmission lines might go to connect that up. It would just be nice if the government members acknowledged that all of this wonderful renewable energy and this transition that is all so great – ‘We’re great. We’re doing this, and we’re doing that’ – have an impact on people. Not everyone gets caught up in the emotion and the joy of what is coming.

I missed the opportunity last sitting week, but, member for South Barwon, it is Star of the South, not star of the sea, and it is off Gippsland, not off the Bass Coast. It is off the Gippsland South coast. This is exactly the sort of thing I am talking about. We hear government members talking about all these wonderful things that their policies are driving, but they do not understand the locations, for a start, and they certainly do not understand the impacts on people.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (12:24): It is a pleasure to rise to speak in support of the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. Our electricity system is undergoing a fundamental technological transformation as ageing and increasingly unreliable coal-fired generators exit the market. As those dated fossil fuel dependent generators are increasingly being replaced by cheaper renewable energy, we must ensure that as a state government we enable a smooth transition from the old technology to the new. We must also support the introduction of measures as part of this transition that ensure that the lights stay on through this whole process, and these are measures that support new renewable capacity to come online in time for the closure of those coal-fired power generators.

In Victoria these measures include strong renewable energy targets and programs such as the Victorian renewable energy target auctions, our $1.3 billion Solar Homes program and the $540 million Renewable Energy Zone Fund. These, along with other landmark renewable energy investments across wind and solar generation, will play leading roles in helping us as a state to combat climate change and decarbonise our economy as we strive to reach net zero emissions, including a 45 per cent to 50 per cent carbon reduction target on 2005 levels by 2030 and a 75 per cent to 80 per cent carbon reduction target by 2035. These ambitious targets build on the Andrews Labor government’s record to date, having already cut the state’s carbon emissions by 32.3 per cent below 2005 levels, with Victoria decarbonising at the fastest rate in the country, cutting its emissions by more than any other state since 2014.

This is in very stark contrast to what the member for Gippsland South mentioned earlier, and it is in very stark contrast indeed to the former federal Liberal government, who had a Prime Minister bring a lump of coal into federal Parliament, and to a state Liberal Party who took to the last election an energy policy built on expanding the role of fossil fuel – coal and gas-fired power generation – a policy that was overwhelmingly rejected by the Victorian people.

A member interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Done. They rejected it. Irrelevant.

However, building on Labor’s record, this government continues to take real action that people voted for to deliver new renewable energy and zero emissions technology across the state, including by bringing back the State Electricity Commission, the SEC – the member for Narracan, there he is – which will be the key driver in reducing emissions and bringing down power bills through a $1 billion initial investment into renewable and government-owned energy.

The Victorian Labor government has committed to ensuring that all Victorian government operations will be powered with 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, and we are also working towards reaching Victoria’s new renewable energy targets, which include powering the state’s energy grid with 65 per cent renewables by 2030 and 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035. These are ambitious yet realistic targets that are built on this government’s real and credible record when it comes to delivering clean energy across this state – you will never hear this from those opposite – because our 25 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 has now well and truly been achieved. We are on track to achieving it. We are on track – 25 per cent renewables already. This again is in very stark contrast to the federal Liberal opposition, who under Peter Dutton now have committed to going down the path of nuclear power, and to a state Liberal opposition who at the last election also committed to expanding onshore gas exploration and development – fracking. Unbelievable! However, along with Labor’s landmark policy measures that are moving us towards this renewable energy and sustainable future, it is also the smaller policy measures that play just as important a role and ensure that the right rules are in place to improve our energy reliability as we strive to decarbonise our economy and our energy sector. In this context, that is why this bill, which has three components, is so important.

Firstly, this bill adds decision-making criteria to the Victorian legislation in the event that the minister for energy triggers the retailer reliability obligation. Secondly, the bill enables alignment of penalties applied to Victorian gas market participants with those in other jurisdictions. And thirdly, the bill changes outdated references to the gas distribution system code, which is now known as the Gas Distribution System Code of Practice. These amendments are largely technical in nature but provide confidence to Victorians that energy markets are working in their favour, particularly as the energy market continues to transition towards 95 per cent renewables by 2035.

There is so much more I can say on this bill. One last thing I just want to wrap on, actually, is around the fact that all of our investments are playing a leading role in encouraging more young people and students to want to take up studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Fifty-nine thousand jobs are going to be created through the SEC, and I was so proud that earlier this week, on Monday, I was here to welcome girls from Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College as part of Science Week celebrations in state Parliament. These are young women and girls studying the STEM subjects who came here in the context of Science Week being about space exploration, of all things, and their project was on exploring Mars and debating a bill in this house which was about the industries the government should take to Mars should we establish a colony there.

But my message to them was that the more we explore space, the more we understand the nature of our solar system, the reality is the more we realise how precious life on Earth is. We are the only intelligent life form in the universe, as far as we know, and that is why combating climate change is so important. That is why delivering clean and renewable energy is so important, because we have got to protect our environment, we have got to protect our planet and we have got to create the jobs of the future for the students coming through in STEM subjects. In that regard, I commend the bill and I look forward to further debate.

Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Suburban Development) (12:30): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.